Living in a romance, fairy tale life is what many females
want. Being weak or strong is what they are descried as. While reading the two
articles: Twilight vs. Hunger Games by Noah Berlasky and Escape from
Wonderland: Disney and the female imagination by Deborah Ross, I noticed that
both articles shared few similarities and differences. One similarity between
the articles is that both of the authors analyze the true characteristics of
the fictional characters they talk about and also how society views them. In
Noah Berlatsky’s article Twilight vs. Hunger Games: Why do so many grown ups
hate Bella, he states how Bella would get her butt whopped by Katniss because
Bella is more feminine and clumsy. I honestly did not like how Noah was
comparing Bella to Katniss. The only thing they have in common is that they are
both females and they both fall in love. But one is more masculine and the
other is more feminine. He also mentions that Katniss has more of an advantage
because she is an extremely competent hunter who was born a survivor. Also in
the article, Laura Miller makes a great point by saying that at of the twilight
movie; Bella gets less weak and more stronger by providing evidence on how she
turns into a vampire to save her family from death. One difference that I
noticed between the two articles is that Berlatsky focuses only on two
characters and how they have different personalities while Ross analyzes three
Disney movies and how they are teaching young girls the wrong imagination. In
Escape from Wonderland: Disney and the female imagination by Deborah Ross, she
discusses the true meaning of what the female characters really portray how
young girls should not be idolizing what they do. She compares Alice
I would have to agree with your post deborah, but disagree in only a few things. When it was fictional charcters we are talking about i agree by Deborah Ross that women arent the most interesting thing to watch on television. They think that they can drag in young women by setting them up with this twisted fantasy. Making them believe that everything comes right up to you, right at your doorstep. Which in life it doesnt, it sets these young ladies running out for mommy and daddy. Young women shouldnt be idolizing these movies, if anything look how cinderella rose from rags to riches, am i right? she put in the work to get there, i mean the ending isnt exactly true. Now in the other article by Noah Berlatsky i totally disagree with that. Everyone has their own opinions at this but mine is completely opposiite. Bella may be more girly but she can totally hold her own. In the last movie of the twilight saga she helped the Cullen family fight the order or whatever it was. She isnt above par like Catniss though. Because Catniss fights for a living, but she can always love like a girl. Really the girls are the same to me at different times. think about it...bella didnt want to fight till the end of the movies. While Catniss didnt want to fight until she was forced. At the end of the time everything is fictional.
ReplyDeleteI think that the reason most critics like to bash the Disney movies as much as they do is because people like to look for hidden meanings in everything. Like in an English class when you annotate poetry the author can say the sky was a dark blue, most people would say this conveys sadness or some deep thought, but in reality the author was just saying the sky was blue with no message intended. I believe it is the same way with Disney movies they are all quite formulaic they follow the same worn out formula. Girl in some situation and unhappy about it, then comes some perfect man who she goes on some adventure for to get with. Yes that pattern in their movies may offend feminists who preach independence but really i think the movies are just made around a formula that sells their product. The same thing with the hunger games but instead the formula has been updated with a more masculine independent heroine leading the story with a modern post-apocalyptic twist to it. There is way to much thought to these movies and the hidden ideas people think are in them i think the Disney movies were just made for kids enjoyment and the same for hunger games.
ReplyDeleteI believe Noah Berlasky infers the wrong characteristics of Bella and mis judges her. Yes, she has the appearance of a helpless, weak girl, but she does end up fighting at the end of one of the movies. And i disagree with the post above on the fairytale stand point saying how watching these fictional disney movies gives little girls a false reality of the world. They're just little girls, they should be able to watch these care free princess movies. Yes, while these movies aren't realistic and don't portray the real world, they're fictional. The girls will grow up and realize the world isn't a fairytale. One shouldn't rob a little girl of their childhood innocence. Every little kid has a false perception of reality even without these fictional movies. These movies are in no way harmful and just provide pure entertainment for the young audiences.
ReplyDeleteDeborah,
ReplyDeleteThe reading Escape from wonderland: Disney and the female imagination do target young women because that is the correct audience they are going for in obvious reasons. One is because they have not been introduced to the societal choices they will eventually have to face when they grow up and it is also entertaining while being taught at the same time. The fact that these girls actually believe the world is going to be like a big castle in the distance is falls. The mind matures, especially fast for women, and it will be able to determine entertainment fiction from real world non-fiction. Do all the movies have an underlying message? Of course they do, but these girls will not understand the message until they are in secondary education.
As for the Noah Berlasky excerpt, the charcteristics of bella pre-transformation would indeed get her face changed by katniss. The author is stating that the way bella is portrayed in the book pre-transformation is a weak and undecided girl who is in spiriling depression from the start. The fact the she is being labled as un feminin is upsetting because not all girly girls are like that. Most depressed people, male or female, jump off cliffs so to say.