Disney Princes In ‘Snow White’ And ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Are ‘Sexual Predators,’ Claims Professor
Every woman who wished their prince would come along and awaken her with a kiss, as seen in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, might want to think again. According to a professor, you’d be wishing for a “sexual predator” if you want the scene recreated from the Disney movie.
Not one, but two of Disney’s favorite princes are considered “sexual predators” by a Japanese professor, Kazue Muta, who teaches gender studies and sociology at Osaka University. According to Fox News, “Prince Charming may not be so charming after all,” if you take Muta’s explanation to heart.
This professor wrote the book, Sir, That Love is Sexual Harassment!, which is a book that deals with sexual harassment in the workplace. Muta started the argument back in December that both the princes featured in the Disney stories of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White commit “quasi-compulsive obscene sexual acts on an unconscious partner.”
It was early in December when Muta came out with her thoughts publicly on the two Disney princes by linking them to a real-life story that was unfolding at the time. The story in today’s world that caught this professor’s attention occurred when a man kissed a woman who was sleeping while on a train.
Muta shared her thoughts on the subject.
“When you think rationally about Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, that tell of a ‘princess being woken up by the kiss of a prince,’ they are describing the sexual assault on an unconscious person. You might think I’m ruining the fantasy of it all, but these stories are promoting sexual violence and I would like everyone to be aware of it.”
Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are the stories that most kids see in a movie, book, or play sometime during their childhood. Both sleeping princesses are awakened by a prince with a kiss after a cursed pinprick or a cursed apple put them to sleep. It takes the kiss of a prince to awaken the princesses in the separate stories.
In the Disney book and movie, the prince kisses an unconscious Snow White, who was put to sleep by an enchanted apple left by her wicked stepmother, the Queen. The stepmother is famous for her line, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who’s the fairest of them all?”
Since the mirror reminds her that it is Snow White who gets that honor, it sends the jealous stepmother into a tizzy, which leads her to want Snow White dead. The stepmother first sent a huntsman to kill her, but Snow White opts to hang out with the seven dwarfs for protection after learning about her wicked stepmother’s plans to kill her.
When the Huntsman fails, the stepmother leaves an apple for Snow White. When Snow White bites the apple, she falls into a long sleep, and no one can wake her. She goes through a long slumber until a prince plants a kiss on the sleeping Snow White.
When it comes to Sleeping Beauty, she is a beautiful princess who is cursed to prick her finger on a spinning wheel on her 16th birthday. It is an evil witch or sorceress who curses her, and as she turns 16, she does prick her finger. Beauty then falls into a deep slumber, and much like Snow White, she is awakened by the kiss of a prince.
These are age-old stories that change from time to time, but the main players are always the same, and the princesses are awakened by a kiss when in an unconscious state that is brought on by something evil. In the story, the princes are the heroes but not from where this college professor sits.
Muta states that many violent sexual crimes seem as if they “mimicked the actions of male protagonists in fairytales and connected her argument to the #MeToo hashtag highlighting sexual harassment, which has been found to be especially rampant in Hollywood.”
According to Japan Today, Muta’s theory that suggests the prince in Snow White and the prince from Sleeping Beauty are sexual predators has “triggered a wave of response” on social media.
“No matter how you interpret those stories, what the princes did is not sexual assault!”
“You can’t apply modern law or ethics to fairy tales.”
“This kind of dismantling of our culture and traditions does more harm than good.”
“In these cases, it’s more like artificial respiration than sexual assault.”
“Under such circumstances, changing society’s recognition of sexual violence is not an easy thing to do, however, we must say these things loudly and boldly,” Muta said.
If you are sitting scratching your head over this, you are not alone. The comments following the article that was published by Fox News are a polarized mix.
One commenter wrote: “Just when I thought things couldn’t get more stupid….. comes this nonsense.”
Another person commented, “Disney movies are about the most antisocial horrors out there. Name one that is not a sick, twisted perversion of the family unit. I never let my kids watch even one of these abominations. Sick stuff.”
And another person asks, “Well then, with this type of reasoning, does a parent/grandparent who kisses their child/grandchild while sleeping makes them a sex predator? This world is stupid!”