Who is your favorite Princess? :)

Beauty and the Beast! :)

It is strange how even such a choice of favorite could tell much about how a person was taught or was reared to think like. The discussion we had on subordination and post-colonial mentalities has been a few weeks back, but I would like to state in this entry how much I have thought about that particular example on fairy tales. It struck me so much because I did not think back then that a child could easily be subordinated through such stories.


I then remembered my favorite Disney Princess in the discussion. I was actually surprised to hear my professor praise the movie. What I was not surprised about was his criticism on the Little Mermaid, which so happened to be my third favorite of the classics since it did somehow lead to a thinking of "If you want something go get it even if it means undermining yourself". i appreciated that lecture very much because it actually lead me to understand more of myself.


Unknowingly so, it also lead me to think of why Filipinos act in certain ways in the contemporary setting and in the past. From what I see, it is through the values that we are taught to put forth that we create a mentality for ourselves of what should be or what should not be. Such coloring of perception then blocks us from further allowing other ideas to enter.


I guess I never knew this as a child, but I was attracted to the film Beauty and the Beats more than the others because I liked that it had complexity in its plot. I liked that it taught me to see beyond what could be given by the eye. But after that lecture, I realized why i liked it then and why i liked it even more as I grew up. I appreciated the film because it was not like the other princesses who acted out as damsels in distress or who were trying to make a breakthrough in the realm of feminism. I liked it because the protagonist, cleverly named Belle--meaning beauty-- had a strong sense of what she wanted, what she desired, and what she knew she had to do.




Tell me then, who was your favorite princess/ prince growing up?