Beauty and the Beast: Our Obsession with Physical Appearance

Belle with the Beast

In 1991, Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Disney studios restructured the old French fairytale into a story for the screen. An enchantress, disguised as a beggar, asks a young prince for a place to stay for one night in exchange for a rose. When the spoiled and haughty prince sends the woman away, the enchantress reveals herself and turns the prince into a beast. The enchantress warns the prince that he must find true love before his twenty-first birthday, or stay a beast forever.

In the film, a young woman named Belle becomes entangled with the beast, and ends up offering herself up as a prisoner to the beast in order to save her father. Needless to say, Belle is first frightened of the beast and longs to return home to her father. But, as time goes on and she begins to acquaint herself with the beast, she comes to love him. The film ends with Belle’s declaration of love that launches the Beast up into the air and transforms him back into a young man. The Beast is once again a handsome young man, and he lives happily ever after with the beautiful, young Belle.

The Disney film manages to highlight American society’s unhealthy fixation with beauty and physical appearance. The Prince’s good looks allowed him to be rude and selfish. Subsequently, once the Prince became a beast, the townspeople were afraid of the best and assumed that he was evil on the inside because of his gruesome outward appearance. People are judged on their looks as opposed to their personality.

Kyle pre-transformation

On July 8, 2010, CBS Films will release a modern update of The Beauty and the Beast. The film, entitled Beastly, will be set in a New York City high school. Based after the 2007 novel of the same name, the movie tells the tale of a popular, good looking high school boy named Kyle who was raised to believe that looks are the most important things.

Kyle after has been made "ugly"

After a witch makes Kyle ugly, he holes himself up in an apartment, unable to show the world his new face. Kyle must find someone to love him in one year if he wants to regain his old appearance. While I have not read the book, I have seen the newly released trailer. In the trailer, Kyle does finally find a young girl his age that isn’t interested in looks. Kyle must learn that someone’s physical appearance does not determine who he or she is on the inside.

Nineteen years after the animated Beauty and the Beast, America continues to have a vested interest in beauty. Every year, People magazine releases a special issue with the headline: “World’s Most Beautiful People.” The magazine gave the 2010 World’s Most Beautiful title to Julia Roberts. Other celebrities included in the 2010 issue include Diane Kruger, Amanda Seyfried, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Garner, Taylor Swift, Robert Pattinson, Zoe Saldana, Adam Lambert, and several more celebrities. There are disproportionately more women than men featured. One wanders what gives People magazine the authority to rank celebrities in terms of their physical attributes. More suspiciously, Julia’s title suspiciously coincides with the release of her summer movie Eat, Pray, Love based off of the bestselling non-fiction book by Elizabeth Gilbert. Despite People’s questionable lack of authority, millions of people will read the issue.

The trailer for Beastly below: