In Defense of Disney: The Final Chapter

[leia131]

As the title indicates, this is the last installment in my In Defense of Disney Series. All the other essays can be read by clicking on the 'in defense of disney' tag, and I hope everyone has enjoyed reading them!


Character: Jasmine, from Aladdin

Criticism: “This princess must get married to satisfy the requirements of the law. Her reluctance to do so causes her powerful father no end of trouble. She is enslaved by a powerful man and is only saved by the wit of a street rat.”

All right, at least all of the statements here are true, which is more than I can say for some of these criticisms, but it’s rather like saying that Harry Potter is about a boy going to wizard school, or that Jesus walked on water. Yeah, it happened, but it leaves out a lot of crucial details and rather misses the point.

So Jasmine has to get married because of a law. Well, her father wants her to be taken care of, which is his own fault, because he’s surely the one who kept her in the palace, thereby ensuring that she’s mostly incapable of taking care of herself (as evidenced by what happens when she runs away). It is also his law, so let’s blame him for all of that. But despite all that, Jasmine wants to marry when and why she wants to marry, and quite strongly resists any attempts to force her to do otherwise. She rejects all suitors, runs away, and even sees the good in being forced to marry (power to get rid of Jafar). Yes, this causes her father trouble; it’s called conflict, and stories would be awfully boring without it. I fail to see the problem here.

While it is true that she is enslaved by Jafar, it’s for like, three hours. This statement makes it seem like it went on for years, and I’m pretty sure it didn’t. And damn if she doesn’t fight that too, resisting Jafar’s creepy-ass objectification of her as much as she can, and then sacrificing both her lips and common decency in order to help Aladdin defeat him. I also don’t like the implication here that those who are enslaved by the powerful are somehow weak or at fault for that.

I also, as mentioned, don’t approve of condemning other princesses for not resisting their ‘captors’, but you sure as hell can’t say that Jasmine doesn’t fight back. Does everyone forget that Jasmine made a desperate bid for the lamp before Jafar zapped her? Just because Aladdin succeeds where she failed doesn’t make her weak or lesser in any way; it’s merely circumstance. No one complains about Abu or Rajah failing. (Also, the move is called Aladdin, so he kind of has to be the hero). Jasmine also tries to get out of the Giant Hourglass of Doom, but there’s only so much that her arms (product of her sheltered life) can do against magical glass. Furthermore, I don’t really see how being saved by Aladdin’s wit is bad. He’s witty, it’s his thing, it’s probably part of why Jasmine likes him. Not everyone can be witty, but if you’re a good and interesting person, you can have friends who are. Is the problem that she doesn’t get to save herself or something? She tried, several times, but the cards just weren’t right.

The moral of this story is not to stay inside the palace walls and wait for someone to rescue you, but rather that you shouldn’t have to let anyone, not even your father, lead your life for you. And if you keep trying to fight back, eventually the sultan will change the law and you can marry your one true love, even if he is a street rat. Because neither money nor position nor giant snakes nor laws nor fathers can stop true love.

So there.

Next up: I'm considering a passionate treatise on how much I fucking love The Princess and the Frog, but I'm not really sure I will. Tiana is a beautiful example of a more modern Disney princess/heroine, but I don't have the experience necessary to discuss the race issue in any detail, and it might be doing everyone a disservice to leave it out. On the other hand, I love Tiana, and as the movie makes her race a non-issue, perhaps I could too. I'm torn.

Comments

[jurisfiction16.livejournal.com]

I think you should do all the movies. Please note that the critic left out Pocahontas and Mulan. Just because it was too hard for them to come up with insults doesn't mean we shouldn't applaud Disney for doing it RIGHT, YO.

Okay, the Jasmine issue--this is a great pro-feminist work because you have the, frankly, mildly retarded sultan who has no real common sense or leadership skills relying on tradition (the law, that I assume he didn't make up) to keep propagating an outdated way of thinking that reaffirms the patriarchy. Namely, he's too dumb to realize that the whole, "Shelter your daughters and keep them weak but safe at all costs!" thing doesn't really work. Especially not with someone strong like Jasmine. Perhaps it COULD work if she were not his heir. Which she is. And she's not going to be much of a good ruler if she has zero practical knowledge of her country, which her father has forcibly kept her from. Look, he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, and we get that as an audience, and therefore we realize that the whole system is flawed and needs to change.

She gets up the gumption to make her life how she wants it, and has remarkable authority. Her father can't force her into anything, and then there's that whole revealing of her powerful, powerful headband to the palace guards when they capture Aladdin. She also is smart. When she almost gets her hand cut off, she picks up on Aladdin's cues immediately and acts with him to save herself. She pole-vaults perfectly on her first try, and she rejects Aladdin later because she is not a motherfuckin' prize to be won! YEAH!

And how does Aladdin truly win her over? By helping her see things. THAT'S what she finds attractive: someone who helps her have mobility and knowledge and who WANTS her to be free to do what she wants.

It's Jafar who tries to reduce her to a mere sex symbol with her sultry, sultry red bra. She brings him food and looks sexaaaay, because that's all that women are good for, AMIRITE? That's how he tries to weaken her. But she DOESN'T get weaker. And she fakes his dumb ass out (yes, using her sexuality with a kiss, but he's a fucking sorcerer who has her in manacles. What else is she going to do? Also, he started it with her sex-muffin outfit and wishing the genie would make her "desperately in love" with him. HE set the tone for that one).

And there's the other part of it that you mentioned: the movie is about Aladdin--Disney needed some good male heroes like Aladdin and Simba to balance out Ariel and Belle. He, of course, has to save the day, but he couldn't have done it without Jasmine's help. Of all the prince/princess combos, they were the most 'team-like'. It even translated well on the show. He and Jasmine always adventured together and she rarely needed to be rescued.

[jurisfiction16.livejournal.com]

To be fair, I watched the show a ton as a kid and don't remember specifically how many times Jasmine had to be rescued. I can only remember two for sure--once when she was being forced to marry some dead-garden nature bad guy, and another when she was trapped in the totally lesbian Greek prison something or other. But I can't remember how much she helped with her own rescue in those. I could be totally off on my claim that she didn't have to be rescued, but I don't remember it happening much.

Oh, and they totally went EVERYWHERE together. He rarely went adventuring without her. THAT much I know.

[leia131.livejournal.com]

I wish I had watched that show more often; all I really remember about it is thinking that the genie supposedly had phenominal cosmic powers, but he never seemed to be much help when they were in trouble.

[leia131.livejournal.com]

Jasmine is awesome, and, if you'll notice, the criticism doesn't even say anything bad about her. This is because there's nothing bad to say. And of course, you bring up many fine point,especially regarding the Sultan's knowledge (or lack thereof).