In the news—Beauty & The Beast: January 2017

Today, #metoo is in the news prompting the discussion of rape culture and how it has been built. Sadly, the adored childhood movie, Disney’s® Beauty and the Beast is one of the culprits in the culture’s structure. The TeenVogue article inspiring the project can be found here.

Belle’s voice is shown through handwritten text and watercolor stemming from a dandelion. She wants to learn and explore the world but the negativity of the world telling her who she is and what she can do begins to bleed into her psyche (represented with grey watercolor bleeding through from the back).

On the back of the story three voices change her self perception. The townspeople—who tell her she’s beautiful but because she reads she’s strange and unworthy of love, Gaston—the controlling “love-interest” wants her to be arm candy and baby factory, and lastly, the Beast—the verbally and emotionally abusive character she, through Stockholm Syndrome, falls in love with. It’s no wonder when these are the relationship #goals set in the minds of young girls that many don’t even recognize the harassment/abuse until it’s too late.

Instruction: Allison Beaton, Experimental Book Design
Designer:  Mikaela Buck