She’s Beautiful and She Will be My Wife
By Bridget Sullivan
We all know the idea of Love at First Sight. It’s one of those things we questioned as a little kid wondering if it was real or if it was something we just saw in movies and read in books. Love at first sight is a love that is mysterious and based primarily on superficial qualities. Similar to love at first sight is the idea that looks ARE everything. Fairy tales often make it seem that looks are the only quality that will drive a man to marry you. It doesn’t matter if you are dumb or smart or rich or poor if you are beautiful you will get married to a prince. Leading with the impression that the women in these stories are objects, not people.
The Six Swans
A German fairy tale by The Brother Grimm, originally published in 1812 is a classic story where love at first sight is merely something that seems normal. The protagonist of this story is a young girl, one of seven but she is the only girl, whose brothers have been turned into swans by their wicked step-mother. Now, just a lonely girl in the woods, only concerned with making her brothers human again gets married to a King that she has never spoken a word to.
To make her brothers human again, she must not speak or laugh for six years and make little shirts out of aster flowers during that time to place onto her brothers when the time comes. So, she climbed into a tree and began her sewing. The King from that country was going hunting through the woods and found the girl in the tree. He spoke to her in every language he knew but “she remained dumb.” After many attempts to get her down, he ordered his huntsmen to climb the tree and bring her down. Her modesty and gentle mien pleased him and he said “This maiden I choose for wife, and no other in the world.” And after a few days, they got married. They had children together all while still never hearing a word out of her mouth. But finally, after 6 years she changes her brothers back to swans and speaks to the king for the first time.
https://medium.com/@chrislemay/the-six-swans-multimodal-essay-5ad6f24293a1
Sleeping Beauty: The Movie
Produced by Walt Dinsey in 1959 is a more contemporary version of this trope. Aurora is cursed by Maleficient as a child so that she will die before the sun sets on her 16th birthday from pricking her finger on the spinning wheel. Her fairy godmothers change the curse so that she will only fall asleep and for her safety, she lives in the woods with them in order to be protected. Fast forward 16 years, it is her birthday and her fairy godmothers want to do something special for her. they send her into the woods to pick berries and she meets the man from her dreams. They don’t know each other but they dance and sing until he asks who she is and she runs off. The prince refuses to marry anyone else because he has fallen in love with the peasant girl from the woods. Aurora falls asleep from touching the spindle and the only way to wake her up is by first loves kiss. The Prince has quite a battle getting to the castle but he finds the princess asleep and cannot help but kiss her because of how beautiful she is. She wakes up from the kiss and they get married and live happily ever after.
https://metro.co.uk/2017/11/23/like-it-or-not-sleeping-beauty-has-origins-in-rape-culture-7102584/,
365 Days
While vacationing in Italy Laura is kidnapped by a stranger that became obsessed with her when he saw her walking on the beach five years before. The man that kidnaps her is a Sicilian gangster that is handsome and wealthy. He gives her 365 days to fall in love with him and if she doesn’t he will let her go. She does fall in love with him long before the year is up because he is possessive and passionate and she finds him irresistible. It is an incredibly abusive relationship but she cannot help that she is falling in love with him because of how powerful he is.
In this example both characters are at fault, the man that kidnaps her becomes obsessive after seeing her once because of her beauty. The girl ultimately falls in love with him because he is irresistible.
While I have never seen this movie I have read many things about it and the problems that the movie portrays. It is a fictional movie but with real people and it is very graphic and not appropriate for young viewers.
https://www.tvguide.com/news/365-days-number-one-movie-netflix/, https://www.hellomagazine.com/film/2020061691666/netflix-365-days-does-character-die-at-end/, https://www.popsugar.com/love/what-is-365-days-on-netflix-about-47557681
