Let me start off by saying, I love Disney. I’m a Disney baby, I’m a Disney fan, I could listen to Disney soundtracks for days on end. If I had to pick a princess to be, I’d want to be Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, for her goals, dedication, love of family and work ethic.

     All that said, with the recent Beauty and the Beast adaptation, it has come back to me all the issues that Disney movies have had over the years.

     Can you claim that Beauty and the Beast is a feminist tale when the primary relationship is a dressed up version of Stockholm Syndrome? Yes, Emma Watson’s Belle is a bit more independent and industrious, fighting for young girls’ rights to read, etc. – all wonderful things! – but she still falls in love with her kidnapper. Is that really feminist? Is that really a relationship we want being emulated by children? I certainly hope not.

     Is Disney at fault for Beauty and the Beast? I don’t think so. Disney didn’t come up with the story, just like it didn’t come up with Rapunzel or Snow White or the Princess and the Frog. These stories have existed for ages in fairy tales and that is where the problem may have begun.

     I’m sorry if I’m about to ruin someone’s childhood, but fairy tales in their original tellings are far from perfect. In fact, many are downright creepy. Why is a prince kissing a dead body (Snow White)? Why is a young woman falling in love with her kidnapper (Beauty and the Beast)? Why is a young woman kissing an animal (The Princess and the Frog)? In versions of Little Red Riding Hood, the young girl does a striptease for the wolf. In versions of Sleeping Beauty, the prince rapes the unconscious princess. In Han Christian Anderson’s Little Mermaid, the young woman has to choose between murder or suicide. The list of fairy tales and their issues goes on.

     When looked at through the eyes of an adult, there are a lot of things wrong with the fairy tales we grew up loving. Even the sanitized versions made by Disney.

     So is it Disney’s fault that Belle isn’t a feminist? Not if they’re trying to do justice to the original. Should Disney (or any artist, for that matter) scrap the fairy tales as sources of inspiration? No.

     Fairy tales were meant to give children the space to engage with their fears. If we start policing what children can or cannot be exposed to, then we hurt them just the same.

     So let’s watch Disney movies. We just need to be honest about what we see on screen. Call it like you see it. Belle is not a feminist. But she does send messages that are good, like learning to see beyond a person’s appearance. Let’s talk to children about what makes a character someone to be emulated or not, instead of passing a yes or no judgement on whether these tales should be told or not in the first place. Stories are never that simple.

     No character or story is ever perfect. How could it be? How can we ask characters to be perfect when we ourselves are not?

[For a look at the original fairy tales, The Classic Fairy Tales, edited by Maria Tatar, is a great place to start.]