A different perpective

After watching this weeks Game of Thrones (don’t worry there is no spoilers in this) and The new Avengers movie (again no spoilers) it was quite apparent that the women now in these programs are portrayed as strong woman to be feared and admired. Which is a stark contrast from what we were brought up on in the Disney films….

Now don’t get me wrong I love a good Disney film, I was devastated with the passing of Mufasa (honestly I’m going to be a wreck when the new film comes out…) and over the moon when the genie was released from the lamp (again can’t wait to see Will Smith in that role) but there’s just something about the damsel in distress waiting for her knight in shining armour that really pisses me off. Maybe its because all the men I’ve thought of as my knights in shining armour have turned out to be just twats in tin foil or maybe its something about how women need men to rescue them out of their situation.

Lets take a few fairy tails and explore…..

Snow White: An order for her to be killed by her wicked step mother (who I believe to be misunderstood) because she was the fairest if them all. She ended up living with 7 men who weren’t family and cooked and cleaned for them, one day was fooled by a dodgy old woman to eat an apple and ‘died’ only for the prince to show up to late (typical bloke showing up after the fact once its all over) to kiss the dead girl to bring her back. I mean who asked Snow White if she even wanted to be woken up, maybe she was knackered after keeping tabs on 7 little guys who could hold tune and feeding all the woodland creatures that helped her!!

Beauty and the Beast: a tale of how an ‘odd’ woman (odd because she read books and wanted to get out of a shitty little village I might add) sacrificed herself for her father to save him and in turn fell in love with a beast of a man. (oh how we can all relate to this….) Now this one I can live with because it showed that looks wasn’t everything and Ive been guilty of falling for someone we really shouldn’t have and seen the good in them despite the HUGE red flags flapping around their heads. And in this one the arse Gaston gets his comeuppance too. which is satisfying as that never happens in real life. I think we all know a Gaston if we think about it hard enough…. However if I was Belle I’d of been fuming because when the Beast turned back he wasn’t as attractive as he was as the Beast! I’d of rather that than the prince that appeared. The beast was fit! (however I fancy wolverine and also I now fancy the Hulk after watching avengers so maybe its just me….)

Sleeping beauty: now who want’s to be woken from their sleep by some stranger climbing in through the window and kissing you??? I know I don’t, he’d of probably got a slap from me! Maybe she was in the middle of an awesome dream, maybe she liked being asleep, maybe she didn’t want to be rescued, did the prince ever think of that. Nope. He wanted to be valiant and save her…. blegh

Peter Pan: Tinkerbell was always there for Peter Pan but he was distracted by Wendy and even though Tinderbell always put Peter first he still chose Wendy.

While we’re on it I guess its not just Disney that has give us a scuwed view on things, romantic films in general are part of this. The idea of the geeky odd girl who is over looked by all the pretty girls because she is clever or smart and isn’t fancied because she wears glasses and her hair is different to everyone else. (I’m not the only one that thinks like this too there was a film recently I watched with Rebel Wilson in it (Love her) called Isn’t it Romantic very funny, you should watch it!!) Half way through the film soon decides that if she changes her appearance this will magically solve everything and all will be fixed. And low and behold, take off her glasses, GHD’s on the hair and BAM!! Uber pretty girl who has perfect life, gets the boy who she love (but ignored her as she was) gets new friends and all is good. It’s like the superman thing: you wander around all day in glasses with your hair on a side part in a suit and then bam put some lycra on, take your glasses off and slick it all back and you can save the world and know one knows your the guy from the newspaper!….thinking about it maybe my issue is that I was the geek that wore the glasses. Come to think about it who am I kidding I am still the geek that wears the glasses or maybe I’m superman!!

The point I think Im getting at is I use to think I wanted a fairytale and a prince to save me which is why I probably bought into when people have rode into my life promising me the world and then Ive been left a little shell shocked when they’ve taken their suit of amour off and Ive seen the real version of them even. However I’ve come to realise I’m not after a fairytale and I’m happy being the geeky girl that’s overlooked, I’ve managed to save myself over and over again from these twats in tin foil, I’ve learnt how to weld my own sword, I have my own two trusty steeds in the form of labradors and I have my own castle with impressive grounds that just need a bit more of a landscaping.