Reflection on "When Beauty Wakes" by Sarah Ashton Baker
Whenever I’m completely overwhelmed and need a temporary escape from the constant swirling of our world, I pull a Holly Golightly. I block out the world with sleep. I am perfectly passive. Holly always reminded me of Sleeping Beauty during the scene I incorporated into the first paragraph. There is an excess of beauty when both women sleep, from Holly’s tasseled ear plugs and fabulous eye mask to Sleeping Beauty’s golden embellished bed. However, there is a key difference in the two beauties. Holly’s moment of passiveness is just that, a moment. Sleeping Beauty’s resistance of action lasts long after she wakes.
I chose the story of enchanted sleep because it always seemed so appealing to me, but I had always wondered about the details in the shadows of the tale. After research from multiple cultures, I learned that the details are dark. In every different story I read I noticed that there was a huge focus on the princess’s beauty. This could have been okay if the emphasis was balanced with tellings of her actions or thoughts. There were next to none. Beauty was treated as just that, beauty. A tangible but hollow beautiful object. I certainly never thought of this when I first heard a form of the tale (Disney of course).
And if I didn’t notice the objectification in the Disney film I definitely never thought anything wary about the prince’s kiss. After taking this class and being introduced to the concept of the “male gaze,” I was very aware. The princess’s beauty was so powerful that men risked their lives to gaze upon her. However, as one story from Ireland portrayed, that’s not all her beauty drove a man to do.
One of the darkest details of the story is the rape of Beauty. A man having sex with an unconscious woman is all too relevant to today’s reality. I found the dialogued snapshot from the Disney film on page seven and thought it correlated well with the issue of body violation. Before I always thought of the iconic kiss as sweet, magical. I liked this image so much because of the contrast between the seriousness of the dialogue and the innocence of the Disney characters. This image and the Irish tale made me reconsider my views on the kiss. No one should have his or her body objectified. Beauty is not a stamp on an invitation to touch.
The objectification of women and favor to the beautiful are themes highlighted in many fairytales. This class, and researching this paper has pushed past my simply romantic notions of fairytales and made me aware of the more sinister skeletons of the “Disneyified” versions. I believe I have developed a better insight because of this class and this story.
I enjoyed writing this paper, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t challenged. There are so many different ideas to focus on in Sleeping Beauty, beauty, feminism, rape, passivity. I tried to develop a thesis that incorporated all four topics without tackling too much for the length requirement of the paper. With the added transitions in my revision as suggested by Dr. Lechler, I hope I accomplished this. Every paragraph written is meant to further the idea of valuing women for more than the contours of their face. As wonderful as beauty and sleep are, passivity and objectification are things women should fight against not yearn for.
I liked working with this assignment so much that for my third visual image I wanted to make something myself. It was the only way the sometimes provoked perfectionist inside of me would be completely happy with my work. I wanted to create a representation of Beauty from objects. I used a loose sketch of the Disney princess and filled her with magazine scraps: make up ads, bright lipsticks, gold, legs. Anything that could be a sign of surface beauty and desire. I made her sleeping, true to form, to represent the passivity yes, but also to make people wonder. What are her irises like? Is she dreaming? Of what? When will she wake?
When will we wake? When will the world be more concerned with a person’s deeds and essence than the decaying surface holding people together? After completing this project I feel like I am left with more questions than answers, but I think that is the point. This class has taught me to never take things at face value, to always push past the apparent beauty and wonder.
I chose the story of enchanted sleep because it always seemed so appealing to me, but I had always wondered about the details in the shadows of the tale. After research from multiple cultures, I learned that the details are dark. In every different story I read I noticed that there was a huge focus on the princess’s beauty. This could have been okay if the emphasis was balanced with tellings of her actions or thoughts. There were next to none. Beauty was treated as just that, beauty. A tangible but hollow beautiful object. I certainly never thought of this when I first heard a form of the tale (Disney of course).
And if I didn’t notice the objectification in the Disney film I definitely never thought anything wary about the prince’s kiss. After taking this class and being introduced to the concept of the “male gaze,” I was very aware. The princess’s beauty was so powerful that men risked their lives to gaze upon her. However, as one story from Ireland portrayed, that’s not all her beauty drove a man to do.
One of the darkest details of the story is the rape of Beauty. A man having sex with an unconscious woman is all too relevant to today’s reality. I found the dialogued snapshot from the Disney film on page seven and thought it correlated well with the issue of body violation. Before I always thought of the iconic kiss as sweet, magical. I liked this image so much because of the contrast between the seriousness of the dialogue and the innocence of the Disney characters. This image and the Irish tale made me reconsider my views on the kiss. No one should have his or her body objectified. Beauty is not a stamp on an invitation to touch.
The objectification of women and favor to the beautiful are themes highlighted in many fairytales. This class, and researching this paper has pushed past my simply romantic notions of fairytales and made me aware of the more sinister skeletons of the “Disneyified” versions. I believe I have developed a better insight because of this class and this story.
I enjoyed writing this paper, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t challenged. There are so many different ideas to focus on in Sleeping Beauty, beauty, feminism, rape, passivity. I tried to develop a thesis that incorporated all four topics without tackling too much for the length requirement of the paper. With the added transitions in my revision as suggested by Dr. Lechler, I hope I accomplished this. Every paragraph written is meant to further the idea of valuing women for more than the contours of their face. As wonderful as beauty and sleep are, passivity and objectification are things women should fight against not yearn for.
I liked working with this assignment so much that for my third visual image I wanted to make something myself. It was the only way the sometimes provoked perfectionist inside of me would be completely happy with my work. I wanted to create a representation of Beauty from objects. I used a loose sketch of the Disney princess and filled her with magazine scraps: make up ads, bright lipsticks, gold, legs. Anything that could be a sign of surface beauty and desire. I made her sleeping, true to form, to represent the passivity yes, but also to make people wonder. What are her irises like? Is she dreaming? Of what? When will she wake?
When will we wake? When will the world be more concerned with a person’s deeds and essence than the decaying surface holding people together? After completing this project I feel like I am left with more questions than answers, but I think that is the point. This class has taught me to never take things at face value, to always push past the apparent beauty and wonder.