Sleeping Beauty : Selflessness, not blindly obeying

Selflessness, not blindly obeying

I personally believe that Aurora wasn't just a meek, blindly obedient person. Some people are giving her a lot of flack, saying that she isn't a good role model like the more modern princesses. But in my opinion, giving up her dream guy in order to marry for the good of her kingdom is something that required a lot of bravery. Not every girl has to be boisterous and tomboyish in order to be brave and kind, and the first 3 princesses are some examples of this. Aurora especially was very mature, and can actually teach people about the value of selflessness.

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

I thought I was reading my own post at first. You're saying exactly what I've always said (you don't post a lot on tumblr or fanpop do you? I've posted about this there,)

The double standards are funny. Belle is praised for taking her dad's place. Jasmine is praised for being willing to give up her privilege (which she never appreciated anyway) to be with Aladdin. Ariel is praised for fighting to be with Eric. Pocahontas is praised for choosing her people over John. Mulan is praised for putting herself in her father's place. I could go on. But Aurora, who does the equally selfless thing, is a spineless wimp.

I think many Disney fans, at least of the Renaissance heroines, tend to be very biased and hypocritical (although we are all a bit about our faves). The classics get condemned for reasons the 90s ones get praised for.

I admire Aurora enormously for what you said. She's sadly very underrated and misunderstood despite what an unselfish thing she did, to put her dreams aside for a people she didn't know. You don't need to swing a sword or sell your voice to be brave. I think this kind of bravery is similar to the kind Atticus meant in To Kill A Mockingbird. I agree the other two were brave too. It takes A LOT of strength and courage to not act bitter from abuse and abandonment as Cinderella and Snow White were put through (I know this personally). They stayed loving and kind. What's with the selective victim-blaming?

Why are people so outraged by obedience anyway? Because it clashes with the rebellious/me-first attitude we have today?

Though you're dressed in rags, you wear an air of queenly grace

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

Thank you for your reply :)
(No, I don't really post stuff like this on tumblr, and I don't post on fanpop)

I just think that because she sadly does not have a lot of screentime, and does not fight or behave like a tomboy, she is immediately branded as weak.

Because people view royalty as something that gives you everything you want, they tend to forget that Aurora was thrusted into a role that she learned about a mere few hours before. Royalty back then meant a lot of responsibility. She is giving up everything she ever wanted in order to be of service to her people, and that is something that I doubt many people would do.

Personally I think that obedience has become undervalued these days, being seen as weak rather than a sacrifice for a team.

I have become convinced that nobody reads these.

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Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

I agree with you

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

SO GLAD you posted this! I agree with all that was said.

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

Selfless or not, Aurora still had no backbone. She didn't stand up for herself when she was obviously trying to get away from Phillip (a stranger.. who she was forbidden to talk to), she didn't stand up for her dreams and desires to the fairies when they told her she had to be a princess and never see Phillip again, she didn't fight to be with him or anything she wanted at all just sat and cried in the castle. Why is doing what everyone tells you and letting others rule your life a good thing? Shouldn't we be promoting strong, intelligent, capable women who follow their own hearts?

You want selflessness I suggest you check out Pocahontas. That girl was incredibly unselfish. She loved John but knew her people needed her more than he did and she never let people walk over her, she stood up for herself, her culture and what was right. I'd like to see more heroines like that.

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

Oh come on. She didn't want to get away from Phillip because he was a stranger! She wanted to meet someone. Did you not pay attention to everything leading up to that scene? And then she agrees to meet him - not alone - but with her aunts present - a very smart thing that DOES make her a good role model to fifteen year olds/sixteen year olds (it's her birthday, remember?)

THEN she finds out she's a betrothed princess and she's going back to the castel to meet her parents that she hasn't seen since she was an infant and essentially never met!

And you think the fact that she willingly left to meet her parents and live the life she was born to lead instead of running away and fighting to be with a guy she's known for TWENTY MINUTES makes her a better role model for modern females?

Think again, sista. Did we watch the same movie?

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

I think I used the wrong word in their somewhere. Obviously I think running away from something as monumental as meeting your family for the first time to be with a guy you JuST met is selfish and stupid. Not the opposite.

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

'she didn't stand up for her dreams and desires to the fairies when they told her she had to be a princess and never see Phillip again'

Well that was what the thing was that made her so selfless and where her maturity shone through. She actually recognised her responsibility and went ahead to take her future, and what would of been really weak IMO, was if she demanded that she could stay in the forest and the cottage and carried on about it, instead of looking from a more mature viewpoint. The fact that she knew what she had to do, and did, despite what she really wanted (and got in the end, but still) showed more backbone, IMO.

She may not have been strong like modern-day Disney Princesses, but she was strong in the fact that, like some Princesses in modern day, she didn't throw all responsibility to the wind because she wanted to be with someone she only just met. She was just as strong, she just took the responsibility path instead of the 'rushing down into true love' path.

I will say Pocahontas was also selfless, as well, but considering the different circumstances of their respective films, I don't think it makes Pocahontas any more stronger than Aurora. Just because you realize your responsibility doesn't mean that your weak, it just means you know when to accept what you have to do and other things sometimes need to come second.

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying


Selfless or not, Aurora still had no backbone.


Yeh, it requires a lot of backbone to be selfish...

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

She's among my least favorite princesses. Not because she was a bad role model, but because she wasn't as developed as she could've been. She was only in 18 minutes of the film, and I always felt as if I knew almost nothing about her character..

Otherwise, I do think she's very beautiful and I've always loved her voice. I agree with what you say about her being selfless. And I dislike when people victim blame her, or complain about her being saved by a prince or whatever. She was put under a spell... what are people expecting her to do? :|

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Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

Well that's a perspective, but I don't think she married for the good of her kingdom, she did it because she loved her prince, as he was supposed to be her dream guy. She fell in love after dancing with him, and after he wakes her up from her cursed sleep she just marries him for the sake of it...

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

She didn't love her prince- she didn't even know him. That's why she was crying: she had to leave the only life she knew after finding out it was a lie, had to leave the first man she'd ever met and come to like to marry a stranger.

And for the sake of it? Or... because he saved her, they love each other, they're engaged?

I am under the strong suspicious that you guys never actually watch Disney movies..

The entire world is falling to ruins and poor Cheshire's off his tea.

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

I think most of the hate on Aurora comes from the scene where she cries after just meeting Phillip. You have to admit that nowadays it does seem a little ridiculous, but it is the old Disney cliche of girl/boy meet and fall in love in 1 day. However, that same weakness could be attributed to Phillip because he also is immediately smitten with Aurora and tells his dad he won't marry the princess. When I honestly think about it, I don't feel we get to know Aurora well enough to deem her weak or not. I mean Phillip acts smitten but then also slays a dragon, escapes Maleficent, etc. Aurora basically sings in the woods, meets a guy, goes home and gets upset because she finds out she is betrothed, hits her finger on the spindle, falls asleep, etc. And really, it is a valid reason to cry when you are being forced into a marriage. Yes part of her tears are because of Phillip, but I would also be upset at 16 if my guardians told me they had arranged a marriage for me as a child. Plus, what was Aurora supposed to do in that situation? Isn't it just as weak if she refused to do what the fairies said because she had met someone for 20 minutes in the woods? Wouldn't Aurora seem rather bratty to refuse for that reasoning? In my opinion, the development for Aurora is just not there so it is actually unfair to call her weak. A better critique would be to say she isn't as fleshed out as other Disney heroines. I mean Phillip is more fleshed out than her!

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

I never thought about that part of Aurora before. The fact that she went along with the fairies did show that they raised her well. And as someone else mentioned, take how she reacts when she meets Philip. She's smitten at first and caught up in the moment. But she doesn't swoon in his arms and run off with him. She makes arrangements to get to know him properly later on. Not in the forest but in her home - intending for her 'aunts' to be there as well.

But let's face it, there's not much you can do with this princess. The character in the source material pricks her finger, falls asleep and has to be rescued.

I'm gonna die of long hair!

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

Exactly. I think Aurora's a good role model.. She dreams about love and can be naive but at the end of the day, she did what was right for the kingdom even though it broke her heart. That seems to be forgotten by a lot of people who watch this film.

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

Gosh my answer comes 3 years after most of the other posts. Well, that's nothing compared to the 100 years the kingdom slept.
Here's the thing. Yes, I realize each generation/century alters the story a bit. but the core should stay the same or else, give it a new name and stop calling it sleeping Beauty or La Belle au Bois Dormant or whatever.
Changing the very early version from a rape to a kiss was a charming adjustment. The story is still basically another version of Persephone or a girl maturing archetype At 16 she gets to close her finger (bleeds-)on a prick.
She sleeps or goes under like Properine/Persephone. REawakens and marries. Okay very messy. but it was the model for a girl's adolescence for millennia until Title IX in the West at least. the correspondence in lit/folklore is never a one-to-one correspondence to actual human experience so it's pointless to try to interpret every detail. Anyway, altering the story to make her a Joan of Arc/Don't-rain-on-my-parade heroine just changes the story. it's not Sleeping Beauty anymore. ANd Lastly. I thought we were supposed to like diversity. Must all girls be like Pocahontas or they're just inferior? Sorry, Mary, you're second class citizen because you're not a dynamic person.

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Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

It's a marvelous movie apparently not for everyone. Let them watch Human Centipede (proof not all Nazis died) and I just don't want to pick favorites anymore. So many are so good. Favorite child? favorite book? favorite flower or dessert?

Re: Selflessness, not blindly obeying

Words can't describe how much I love this post. I love Aurora and wish she got more appreciation.
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