Saturday, November 12, 2011

oh, norms, lest we forget you

So, yes, Disney movies aren't exactly the location of social norm defiance or questioning. I know this. People should be paired off: man-woman. And, they live happily ever after. All is right in the world. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I watched Tangled with Pic today. I've seen it before and I'll probably watch it again.

At the very end -- if you don't want to hear about the very end, don't read -- the male lead says something like, "And after years and years of asking, I finally said yes." Female lead admonishes him and he admits that he asked her.

Why? Why do we need to reinforce that no only must everyone pair off into heterosexual couples, but that the man has to do the asking?

That part just bugs me. The movie could just have ended with him saying, "I finally said yes."

2 comments:

Kat said...

I also get tired of the idea that you have to be paired up to be happy.

v said...

Yep, I know. And, yes, I'm paired up and happy, but that doesn't mean that I think everyone else has to travel the same path. I think this is another part of why I'm having such a hard time picking movies to watch lately. I want something light (lite), but that leaves me with romantic comedies and I know how they all end.

On a related note: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/01/140118094/what-can-we-learn-from-romantic-comedies

I listened to the above podcast recently. It's called "Romantic Comedies: Don't Try This at Home." Quoted from the NPR page I linked above: "Writer Chloe Angyal says the no-strings sexual relationships often depicted in rom-coms will inevitably end in true love, no matter how incompatible the partners."