My project is about feminism in film, and I made a syllabus for it, the following is my syllabus.
Author: Mireily Feng Wu
Post 13
The activity allows me to look at my peers’ great work, I already did the google form, and some of my peers did a syllabus as I did, and they make it really clear and formal. Some of them write a poem, a song, a word cross-game, they are so creative and they did great, totally amazed by their great work!
Post 12
My project is about Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” (2017), the live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1991 animated classic of the same name. It is a mirror reflecting the current social life, and the characters’ ideology is often the true embodiment of the social conditions. The development of culture and society, as well as the development of the feminist movement, new women struggled to get rid of the passive status of women, and the image of a female also changed. They want to deliver a message to the world women are no longer the passive ones, they could stand up and defend themselves.
My presentation is some major take aways from my research and I think Belle’s action in the film is very important, she is a character that is brave and independent, so that, I include those in my presentation.
Link to my Presentation
Post 10
I agree with Audre Lorde’s “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”. She emphasizes that we have to accept the diversity/ differences in society. The past generations were fought to make changes in racism and sexism, but still, there are few changes to racism and sexism. This is because racism is rooted in their culture, changes are not enough to solve this problem, we have to accept it. People all know that racism is wrong, but, they do not want to doubt themselves or go against their wills. I feel like people have to fight for equality because of equality, In addition, I feel like Lorde’s words are still very suitable for this society, no need to modify them.
Post 11
My project is about Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” (2017), the live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1991 animated classic of the same name. It is a mirror reflecting the current social life, and the characters’ ideology is often the true embodiment of the social conditions In the film, Belle is the daughter of an inventor, she is brave and she is different from the other princesses of Disney, such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. their female image, recognized by the public opinion, is pure, beautiful, innocent and weak, when they encounter difficulties, they can only wait to be saved. But Belle is different, She knows how to invent something, she knows how to ride a horse, she can also teach a little girl to read. All these show that she is the figure of a feminist, when she knew her father is in danger, she is desperate to save him. which is symbolizing that a new generation of women has begun to hold the responsibility of helping their fathers in a patriarchal society, and women have the power to save their loved one, no longer the weak one. this is because of the development of culture and society, as well as the development of the feminist movement, new women struggled to get rid of the passive status of women, and the image of a female also changed. They want to deliver a message to the world women are no longer the passive ones, they could stand up and defend themselves.
Post 9
Mitsuye Yamada in her writing talk about how she realized that she was considered an Asian American in society and in her family. She feels invisible as an Asian American woman in society and as well as in her family. In society people think that Asian people were not oppressed, and this is the stereotype that many people have, maybe it is because we were the left off-ethic, a quote from Yamada’s writing is “it made me angry. Their anger made me angry because I didn’t even know the Asian Americans felt oppressed. I didn’t expect their anger” (page 35). This is a true reaction when comes to this problem, as Yamada said we were the invisible race, she continues to writes ”The seemingly apolitical middle-class woman and the apolitical Asian woman constituted double invisibility“ (page 37). I feel like this sentence remains me of black feminists, they are also facing double invisibility, where they were excluded out of the advantage that their race and gender have.
In addition, she writes that in her family, when her parents know that she has a boyfriend, her parents were afraid that she would marry a pacifist, and they were not worried that she could be a pacifist because even she is, she could not many any different to anybody, “but my father reassured me that it was “all right” for me to be a pacifist because as a Japanese national and a “girl” it didn’t make any difference to anyone” (page 38). Asian women were always considered as submissive, subservient, ready-to-please, easy-to-get-along-with, and this is why her parents were not worried about her being a pacifist. In other words, Asian women were not only invisible in the society, but also in their own household.
Post 7
Audre Lorde is a poet, she express her own feeling through poem, and in her poem, she fight for the equality of LGBTQ, and her poem is power of its call for social and racial justice, in the reading, I find this quote is representative “She was central to many liberation movements and activist circles, including second-wave feminism, civil rights and Black cultural movements, and struggles for LGBTQ equality”.
The movie Black feminism explored the problem of gender and race that black females faced. In the movie, they interviews people who would shares their experience, and tell us what black female have to go through on a daily bases.
Feminism and Black feminism are two different concepts. Black females are not only facing the problem of gender inequality but also facing race inequality. They are facing two major inequality in society, in the Ted talk people remember the names of black male victims, but only fewer people who remember the names of Black female victims. It is because there is fewer news that reports problems that black female face? or it is just they have less advantage than others? I think we all know what it is.
Annotated Bibliography
–Koushik, Kailash, and Abigail Reed. “Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast,
and Disney’s Commodification of Feminism: A Political Economic Analysis.” MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 15 Nov. 2018, www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/11/237/htm.
This article reveals that Disney saw the trend of females coming forward to reveal that harassment is everywhere, and Disney utilizes the name of feminism to attract audiences and make money out of it. The movie “Beauty and the Beast” is the technique that Disney shapes itself as a producer that values females. This article gives some background information and it is related to the feminist movement. “The movie portrays Belle working with her father in his workshop, displaying her knowledge in technology, by providing the tools her father needs even before her father realizes he needs them” (page 11).
–Korneeva, Tatiana Korneeva. “Desire and Desirability in Villeneuve and Leprince De Beaumont’s ‘Beauty and the Beast.’” EBSCOhost, 2014, web.a.ebscohost.com.ez-proxy.brooklyn.cuny.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=aff6a150-d968-4026-a1dc-9c91289fc3c3%40sdc-v-sessmgr01.
This article is talking about the first version of Beauty and the Beast, it was written by Marie-Jeanne Leprince de Beaumont, and she wrote moral tales, the purpose of this is to let young girls learn from the book, which is also her target readers. “Writing almost exclusively for a young female audience, Beaumont was especially concerned with guiding them through the conduct of courtship, marriage, and family relationships”( page 2).
–Gray, Emma. “How Disney Subtly Made ‘Beauty And The Beast’ More Feminist.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 20 Mar. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/how-disney-subtly-made-beauty-and-the-beast-more-feminist_n_58cfd97ce4b0ec9d29dd676f.
This reading is analyzing the movie beauty and the beast, Gray said that this movie is different than the other princess series of Disney, and she said, “The new film goes to great lengths to demonstrate Belle’s agency in every part of the story, amplifying things that are only subtly touched on in the animated version, and in some cases, creating totally new pieces of plot”. Which is saying that the new version is more detailed and the power of feminism is shown in the movie.
–Ross, Ashley. “Beauty and the Beast’s Feminist Side Goes Beyond Emma Watson.” Time, Time, 16 Mar. 2017, time.com/4696792/beauty-beast-history-feminism/.
Ross addressed that when people who only ever see the animated Disney version, he or she might think that the moral of this movie is not to judge people by how they look, but there is a deeper meaning of this movie, which is feminism. And she also gives a touch of the background history of this movie. A quote from this reading is the last paragraph “Feminism is about giving women choice,” she said. “It’s about liberation, it’s about equality.”
–abbybled, Posted. Feminist Empowerment in “Beauty and the Beast:” An Analysis of Beauty’s Feminist Qualities from 1740 to 2017, 6 Oct. 2017, fttv.byu.edu/2017/08/15/feminist-empowerment-in-beauty-and-the-beast-an-analysis-of-beautys-feminist-qualities-from-1740-to-2017/.
This reading is another analysis of Beauty’s Feminist Qualities, she talks about the origin of Beauty and the beast in the 18th century, and this literature primarily shows a narrative with increasing female passivity and domestic encirclement. she also talks about the author of the 18th century’s version, when Beaumont was young, she was subject to an arranged marriage, when she wrote this book, she was alluding to social changes in the 18th century, and “this book became the representative of a female quest for the self in a repressive world” (abby bled).
Post 6
1.The following source is an article that I found is from the Brooklyn college library site, it is a published article, so I know that this source is reliable.
–Koushik, Kailash, and Abigail Reed. “Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast, and Disney’s Commodification of Feminism: A Political Economic Analysis.” MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 15 Nov. 2018, www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/11/237/htm.
2.This is also a published article, and it is reliable.
–Korneeva, Tatiana Korneeva. “Desire and Desirability in Villeneuve and Leprince De Beaumont’s ‘Beauty and the Beast.’” EBSCOhost, 2014, web.a.ebscohost.com.ez-proxy.brooklyn.cuny.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=aff6a150-d968-4026-a1dc-9c91289fc3c3%40sdc-v-sessmgr01.
3.For the website HuffPost, I searched online for the reliability of this website, it scored 44.57, Reliability scores for articles and shows are on a scale of 0-64. Scores above 24 are generally acceptable; scores above 32 are generally good, so I believe that this source is reliable.
–Gray, Emma. “How Disney Subtly Made ‘Beauty And The Beast’ More Feminist.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 20 Mar. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/how-disney-subtly-made-beauty-and-the-beast-more-feminist_n_58cfd97ce4b0ec9d29dd676f.
4.Time is a weekly news magazine and website. Ad Fontes Media rates Time Magazine as neutral in terms of bias and as most reliable in terms of reliability. Its reliability score is 42.70
–Ross, Ashley. “Beauty and the Beast’s Feminist Side Goes Beyond Emma Watson.” Time, Time, 16 Mar. 2017, time.com/4696792/beauty-beast-history-feminism/.
5.FTTV is a edu website, so it is Intended for educational use, therefore, it is a reliable source
–Abby bled, Posted. Feminist Empowerment in “Beauty and the Beast:” An Analysis of Beauty’s Feminist Qualities from 1740 to 2017, 6 Oct. 2017, fttv.byu.edu/2017/08/15/feminist-empowerment-in-beauty-and-the-beast-an-analysis-of-beautys-feminist-qualities-from-1740-to-2017/.
Independent project
For my independent project, I want to focus on feminism in the film “Beauty and the Beast” (2017).
Before I go deep into my project, I need to know the background information of this film, and why Disney decided to make this film. In addition, some of the questions that I have are under which period of time was Beauty and the beast created? How is “Beauty and the Beast” related to culture? What are the aspects that show she is a feminist. How does the character of Belle affect the reader? Is there a moral in it? What it is? It is related to the society we live in?
The topic of my project is related to history, culture, and the feminist movement. In order for me to gain success in this project, I have to watch the film “beauty and the beast”, and read articles that related to my topics, such as the difference between this version and the first version. And the reason why Disney release this film in 2017, and the feminist movements in 2017.
