Beauty and the Beast and Stockholm Syndrome

This video actually made me laugh so hard I saw literal spots.

Bailey Spencer

One of my favourite of videos by you - I mean they're all great, but the level of info etc. in this one and the one about Payoff etc in Fury Road is just amazing.

Sara von Salis

Please do a video on the new version!

God, I love your work! I only wish I could donate the max.

Wow, consider me converted.

Ugino

Really interesting take and I found the points you made very compelling about how self actualized Belle is and about how the movie has a lot about perceptions and how people behave towards looks. I hadn't considered some of this before.

Piper Malone

Please just do every Disney movie. Your analyses are always the best.

Gotta share this with little sis.

Will Park

I've already watched this like 3 times and shared it with other people, this is some good shit. Thanks for making this. You said in your vid description on YouTube that people are going to say "Screen Junkies did it first", well, Screen Junkies do Honest Trailers, and in their BatB vid they called the love story in this Stockholm Syndrome, so that kinda invalidates any point they may have made previously imo.

Mel Vitta

I really enjoyed this video; Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney animated film and your interpretation is a breath of fresh air.

Paul Grodt

i enjoyed your telling of this scene very much

Don Bright

Fun fact: The "beastzone" is real. It's called unrequited love. It's a major literary trope and the source of countless poetry. /s

Jasmijn Wellner

There was this guy from Canada in a Paris dorm room once talking to these other guys (his being from Canada isn't significant, that's just how I remember them, they used to watch Hockey) and anyway I was lying in bed with the curtain in front of me and he was explaining Munchhausen by proxy, but he kept calling it Stockholm Syndrome. And I wanted to get up and say something, like, that's not what that is, you're wrong, but I don't know I was seeking solitude and not confrontation I guess and cold weather and rain and I used to keep a small bottle of Poliakov (cheap) vodka in my jacket pocket and just drink it during the day as I'd wander aimlessly around. In conclusion, I think about that guy and how he got the thing wrong too often, but I was right, I was right, and thank you for such an excellent video.

Well done, as always. Such is the simple praise given to those who always meet high expectations, thus raising their own bar. This video got me thinking. No doubt there's a massive amount of media that judges a woman's self-actualization based on the lover she ends up with. But here's an interesting question that drifted into my head. Is that true of most storytelling, even apart from gender issues? It does seem like the final barometer for protagonist success is who they copulate with. Now here's a troubling question. Are the stories "wrong" to use that barometer? My knee jerk reaction would be to say yes. However, I can't think of any single facet of a person's existence that impacts them quite like romantic\sexual relationships. It might not be the defining aspect, but so many ripple effects derive from this exact point, that one might be forgiven for believing it was.

very well articulated how Stockholm Syndrome is not what is going on here. BUT that doesn't mean the points brought up by the 'Stockhom' discussion aren't getting at something. The metaphor is not Stockholm Syndrome but Heteronormative Marriage. When read this way the movie is so incisive! The man is a literal monster and the woman is not that into him. It is taken for granted that the woman will be more likeable and the man is in need of the charter ark. And all the excellent points Lindsay brought up . Its is a great movie and can be really enjoyed when seen as a allegory to Strait Relationships.

Kate Fisher

YAY! A new Lindsay video brightens my whole day. *runs people out of my office so I can watch in peace*

Thanks for another insightful take on the movies we love, and the messages we take away from them. I appreciate you challenging us to look at what we can (should?) take away from the media we consume, and not settle for the superficial take. Like others, I'd love to hear your take on the 2017 update, and both what it tries to fix (and whether it does), and what it either leaves broken, or makes worse (I haven't seen the 2017 yet, so I'm just making a stab in the dark). As always, looking forward to your next video!

Haldon Lindstrom

you're so right about Belle not having an arc. Even when I was a kid watching this on VHS, her song about wanting adventure made me a bit sad every time because we never do see her explore or travel or anything. I'm pretty sure it's meant to make her agreeing to a lifelong confinement even more of a heroic sacrifice. I always found the ending flat for that reason, like a lot of people I think.

Both insightful and fun, as usual :)

Top two and a half? What are the other one and a half?

TalysAlankil

I know that Helsinki Syndrome is not a thing, but my problem here is that the beast is not just "ugly". He screams at her, he breaks stuff, everybody in the castle is afraid of him AND Beast and the whole bunch of servants are perfectly aware that keeping Belle in the castle is useful to them, as a tool. Which is creepy. Yes, I know Beast grows out of this and that Belle doesn't want to change him. But Belle's character doesn't make that much sense either, she goes from loosing everything in her life to just wanting to explore and enjoy the castle. And I also know Belle doesn't try to change Beast. But people who watch fairy tale romances have that stupid tendency of wanting to project the fairy tale story into their lives. So I think this movie doesn't help the whole "he screams at me sometimes but maybe there is a nice guy behind that". So essentially, I know the Internet loves to create conflict more than Peter Jackson. But people shouldn't be as defensive with a movie that does show a problematic relationship.

Mel Miniatures

Yes! I was hopping you were going to make a video like this.