alternativeproject · 4 years ago
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Maybe I’m thinking too hard about cruella de ville but like there’s something to be said about her character as misogynist propaganda.
Like she kills puppies because she’s cartoonishly evil but that evilness is also tied to her guadiness and vanity. She’s the opposite of Anita who is demure, classically and simply beautiful, sweet and accommodating.
Evilness and anti social behavior in Disney villains is so tied to performing gender wrong. Gay coded dainty men and gaudy overbearing women. Cruella cares so much about fashion and her appearance that she’s willing to abuse animals for it. There is an “appropriate” amount of care that should go into ones wardrobe (Anita and roger are well dressed fairly fashionable people) but cruella goes beyond that to vanity. Caring too much about her own appearance is a crime unto itself.
For Disney to turn around in 2021 and try and girlbossify her is comical because they’re the ones who tied being a woman wrong to animal murder! They made a 2 dimensional evil character and now they’re trying to bring depth to her??!??And now they’re going to what? Rewrite cruella as a woman convinced she’s a feminist as she kidnaps dogs? Honestly the premise fascinates me. Is she embittered from social isolation and discrimination to the point of animal cruelty? Is that where this is going? Is this a person turned power seeking and cruel because it’s the only way she knows to protect herself from the pain of rejection?
I doubt it. More likely than not Disney’s going to Hamfist a terrible half baked feminist message into a story about cartoon lady mcDog killer but like maybe there’s room here for an interesting character study. Maybe 2 dimensional cruel devil lady can have a little complexity in my mind only.
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