#i NEED 2 rewatch tb immediately

[pyshcic]

⤳   @subdivines​​​,    𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘮𝘢𝘯,   asked:     ‹ how come i’ve never met anyone in your family? ›

           “ oh,  come on   –––    you’re not going to drag in any sentimentality to this,  are you? ”     her grin is wide and teasing,  a lilt to her speech which softens the sincerity behind her words.  an honest request.   the truth was she had found herself playing the role of nomad as of late;  it was only her who had come south to discover the truth behind her own origins,  to locate her family and,  like a white rabbit,  chase down her selfhood.   her name.   admittedly,  all this,  she wasn’t ready to admit to  ––   certainly not under the dim fluorescent lights of fangtasia,  a place she’d simply never have let her family catch her dead in.   there was already a sense of dread over edward’s reaction when he inevitably caught wind.  the plan was,  of course,  nothing sinister.   only a little bit of like company.   “ can’t i maintain even a shred of secrecy?  mystique makes up half the charm of this outfit. ”  

[vanity-neverdies]

Tale as old as time

So the other day I went on somewhat of a twitter rant regarding the remake of Beauty and The Beast and Disney’s choice to incorporate a gay character into the movie. I was surprised at how many responses (particularly DM’s) I got regarding my post(s) and so I’ve decided to write a tad more about it on a platform that gave me more than 140 characters. It’s Friday night, I’m drinking tequila in pajamas and writing about a Disney movie. Living the dream, am I right? So, to help put into context where I was coming from when I wrote my tweets: 

The original story of Beauty and The Beast came out in 1701 (HOLY CRAP, RIGHT?) and Disney turned that story into an original film in 1991. I was born in 1993, so as a child I grew up watching the “OG” Disney princess movies. B&TB, The Little mermaid, Snow White, Pocahontas, etc. etc. That being said, even as A young child, I was never obsessed with the Disney princesses or their stories.  They were all well and good but I didn’t LOVE the music or the stories, so usually seeing them once was enough for me. 

Except for B&TB. Beauty and The Beast was TOTALLY different for me. I remember being 6 or 7 and having a babysitter come over to watch my twin brother and I, and she brought B&TB for us to watch. We made popcorn and turned off the lights and popped in the VHS (lol) and immediately I was hooked. The opening scene, which plays out like it’s being read from a story book, stayed with me well into adulthood.

“Who could ever love a beast?” 

 The opening monologue sets up The Beast’s storyline. The Beast is a handsome, wealthy prince who, in his selfishness and narcissism, refuses to help a homeless woman seeking shelter from a storm. Unfortunately for the handsome young prince, the homeless woman ends up being a witch (like, go figure, right?), who curses the beast with ugliness. Until the Beast can learn kindness and let love into his heart, he’ll remain a physical representation of the monster he is. AKA, The Beast. 

I remember sitting down on the couch next to my (straight) twin brother, whose initial thoughts on the beast were: 

1) OMG HE’S SO SCARY 

and 

2) What a jerk! 

After the opening monologue, six year old me thought the exact same thing. As the movie progresses we meet Belle, A smart, assertive, beautiful young woman in a small french town who loves her dad, reading, and creating inventions. Belle is great, I love Belle. She wasn’t selfish like Arial and she wasn’t willing to risk the lives of her family and friends for love like Pocahontas. Belle had a love for books, which, even that young, I identified with. I love reading to this day, and I can trace that love back to Belle. 

But this post, as well as my post earlier this week on twitter, is not about Belle. 

This post is about The Beast and Gaston. Six year old me was introduced to Gaston, the handsome, masculine, arrogant suitor whose story is entirely centered around his pursuit of Belle. Six year old me watched B&TB and could NOT understand what Belle DIDN’T like about him. He was so handsome and charming and willing to do just about ANYTHING to impress Belle. Why didn’t she like him? I liked him. I liked him A LOT. 

I remember innocently thinking these things to myself, and then hearing my twin brother say stuff about Gaston which was NOTHING like what I was thinking. 

“He’s evil!” 

“He doesn’t love her!” 

“What a jerk!” 

Six year old me at the time didn’t realize that I was having my first gay crush. As I grew up, I’d feel the same thing for a myriad of fictional characters. Literally all the male Power Rangers, Batman AND Robin, Ice Man...the list goes on and on. But thats one of the first times I really remember having a “gay” thought. I thought Gaston was handsome. 

 Belle’s dad eventually gets captured by the enigmatic and terrifying Beast. 

As the story continues, Belle ends up sacrificing her freedom in exchange for her father’s (WHAT A BRAVE BITCH THOUGH, FOR REAL), who in turn rushes back to town to try and convince people to go and save Belle. While this is happening, Belle is held as prisoner by The Beast, who, as my brother put at the time was “really scary.” The Beast is a total dick. He demands Belle only venture to certain parts of the castle, is constantly storming around and shouting at Belle and the enchanted pieces of anthropomorphic furniture that inhabit the castle, and is honestly more dramatic than a Real House Wife. However, as time progresses, the Beast and Belle begin to form a relationship. That catalyst to this relationship being when The Beast saves Belle from a pack of wolves who were DEF going to eat her and her horse. It’s the first time we see that The Beast is NOT as harsh as his exterior may insinuate, and it’s the first real moment where Belle sees The Beast as more than just a monster. The rest of the story I know most of you are familiar with, so I won’t spend the rest of this post giving a synopsis. At the end of the movie, The Beast realizes his love for Belle, who has spent majority of the movie showing The Beast that he’s capable of loving someone other than himself. They finally kiss, and The Beast transforms back into his human form, and they all live happily ever after. 

Six year old me was shook. 

I remember asking our babysitter if I could borrow the movie, and after she had left and everyone in our house had gone to bed, watching it again. It was so epic, the whole thing. Gaston getting a WHOLE town to venture into the woods to kill a monster so he could marry Belle. The Beast fighting Gaston on a rooftop in the middle of fucking rainstorm so HE could be with Belle. I remember thinking how jealous of Belle I was. TWO GUYS fighting over her, hello? 

But in all seriousness, six year old me liked the movie a lot. It stuck with me. 

So when 12 year old me rewatched the movie in the middle of a ton of puberty, suddenly the movie was A LOT more important. Six years later and I felt like The Beast. At this point I knew I was gay. I knew what gay was, and I knew that was what I was. Like so many guys in the closet, I hid it to the best of my ability, and my best act was by being a fucking jerk. I was nasty to my brother, my friends, parents, girls, guys, dogs, bugs, whatever. If it had a pulse, I had to put up some level of crassness because that would divert form the fact that I really wanted a boyfriend. 

Suddenly, The Beast was not so scary. 

“...Although he had everything his heart desired, the prince was spoiled, selfish, and unkind...”

“WHO COULD EVER LOVE A BEAST?” 

There was Gaston again, his bulging muscles, his slicked back hair. “God,” I remember muttering to myself, “what is wrong with me?” 

At this point, I knew Gaston was a piece of shit...But he was still hot. 

As a teenager I remember watching the movie alone and really relating to The Beast. His castle, all by himself...cold, angry, upset. The Beast tears mirrors in his house down because he can hardly stand the sight of himself. The Beast does everything but injure the other inhabitants of the castle, who live not only in fear of him, but in confusion as to why he is the way he is. I can only imagine my family and friends thought similar things about me. Then Belle comes in, and she’s brave, and she’s kind, and she’s patient. 

They slowly learn about each other, they bond over books and animals. 

16 and 17 year old me wished desperately for a boy like Belle. Someone who was going to look past my harsh exterior, past the parts of myself I could hardly stand to look at. Belle shows The Beast that we all have parts of ourselves that we don’t like. Belle shows The Beast that we deserve love not in despite of our beasts, but because of them. Our “beasts” are just a part of us, not who we are as a whole. 

Beauty and The Beast taught me from a very young age that we all deserved love, that monsters live inside of all of us--and that love sees through them. Beauty and the Beast helped show me my gayness, and time and time again showed me that even though I didn’t like who I was, someone would love me for it. 

SO when Disney announced earlier this week that they were writing in a gay character into the live action remake of B&TB, it struck a real nerve. When I found out that Lefou, Gaston’s sidekick, would have a “gay moment” directed at Gaston, I had mixed emotions. The six year old me totally would have understood Lefou’s infatuation with Gaston. Even 23 year old me gets it. However, what bothered me was the obvious stereotypical storyline of the gay man falling in love with a straight guy. 

I’m thrilled Disney is trying to incorporate queerness into its content. I want to make that clear. I think the more LGBTQ characters we can incorporate into mainstream media, the better. That was NOT what I was getting at in my tweets the other day. Really I was expressing my frustration for how Disney had decided to incorporate gayness into Beauty and the Beast, a story that had helped me understand and realize my own sexuality. I’m frustrated because I KNOW countless young boys (some of whom ARE gay) are going to end up seeing this movie, and rather than see a gay character who recognizes his love and infatuation as something good and worthy and something not to be ashamed of...Is going to see it in a way I remember feeling it SO many times while watching the original Beauty and The Beast. Disney has a real opportunity to show that gay love is something just as true and good as the love between Belle and the prince, love that deserves a happy ending. MY HOPE is that they take that opportunity with Lefou and make it something that helps little kids the way I NEEDED it when I was young. 

Gay love is real love, gay love is pure love, and gay love is powerful. It is JUST as scary and unexpected and magical as love between a man and a woman. Beauty and The Beast helped me realize that, and I hope that the remake can help evoke those same emotions for a generation of gay youth that are going to see it.