Society Insists That There MUST Be A Fundamentally Hungry Or Even Predatory Nature To Single Men, And

Zootopia is probably the best Disney movie to come out in the last 23 years. Or ever. It certainly marks an unprecedented depth and subtlety to the Disney repertoire.

It digs into class, race, and gender issues in a manner that Disney usually shies away from, and acknowledges that life– and the social constructs and systems of oppression we live with– are complicated, nuanced, often intersectional, and fundamentally flawed. There will be no perfect answer that fixes everything overnight. Yet, it still hopefully declares that progress is worth fighting for, even if it is just one piece at a time.

More subtle was the simple fact that the Fox and Rabbit did not overtly become a couple in the end. They formed a very close friendship. They became partners. Their entire relationship can be read platonically and that seems to be canon.

Media has always insisted that if a man and a woman have a conversation, it must inevitably lead to a romantic or sexual relationship. It teaches young people that men and women can’t be friends if they’re still single. That friendship is inadequate or implausible. This toxic notion plagues our society today, and erases the potential of very many beautiful friendships!

Society insists that there MUST be a fundamentally hungry or even predatory nature to single men, and that such an awful “default” should be celebrated. Disney rips both of those notions to shreds by having a literal predator animal befriend a female prey animal on equal terms.

Now I get why people want to ship them, besides the obvious subconscious cultural narrative of compulsory heternormativity. They actually do have a *great* dynamic and my favorite ships are always friendship-first ships. Both my wife and I ship them. But I’m also delighted that it’s just shipping. It’s not a canon romance. It would have lost the impact of that equality and friendship message if the predator animal swept the prey animal off her feet. It is a fantastic friendship between two people whom society insisted could never be friends. I think that’s just excellent, don’t you?

ok ok ok ok ok ok can I just have a quick lil moment of your time?

This shit.

So Hunchback is far and away my favorite movie from Disney’s Renaissance, and it always makes me so happy that yes, people seem to appreciate it, people seem to love it, but I’mma go into exactly WHY it’s my favorite, and WHY I think it’s so crucial, and WHY I think it should be required viewing for young boys specifically.

We all know that a huge bulk of the media we’ve grown up with consistently has that one frustrating message: Being the hero means you’ll get the girl. Many boys let this mentality bleed into reality. We have “nice guys,” who feel that their niceness entitles them to romance, when obviously that discredits a female’s personal choice. We all get this, we all know this, and a lot of us get that it’s a toxic message.

So check out our hero.

He’s an incredibly good person who isn’t conventionally attractive.

Check out our lady.

Super good person, conventionally attractive.

The movie so deliberately builds up Quasi’s hopes. There’s a whole fucking song about it.

But Esmeralda, who is her own person with her own motivations and preferences, chooses another man, who is also good and also attractive.

A lot of people criticize this aspect of the movie, the fact that Quasi doesn’t get the girl BECAUSE of his appearance. But my argument? This is the best damn message a movie could ever send.

Because when things get dicey, when Esmeralda’s life in in danger, when Quasi would be putting his own life on the line, he knows that romance is no longer within the realm of possibility. He knows he won’t be “getting the girl.” He knows this, and he allows himself a moment of bitterness, he risks falling prey to the “nice guy” trope, and he almost succumbs.

“She already has her knight in shining armor, and it’s not me.”

BUT THEN HE DOES THE RIGHT THING.

He has NO ulterior motive for saving her life. NO ulterior motive for opposing the man who raised him. And he doesn’t know that he’ll get any reward, he knows he could straight up get killed for his actions, and yet he still acts.

And there’s no bitterness. There’s still so, so much love between him and Esmeralda, pure awesome platonic love, and love between him and Phoebus, and just fucking love all around, it’s amazing.

I’ve heard so many people express distaste at Quasi not ending up with Esmerelda. Like he was cheated out of some kind of reward. But have they watched the ending?

Does that look like a man cheated of his reward? Does he look like he “lost” to Phoebus? No dude, that’s a man who has everything he ever wanted, and that’s also a man who didn’t “get the girl.”

If that’s not an essential message for young boys to hear, I don’t know what is.

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like-luke-likes

9 years ago