More on how writer Linda Woolverton had Beauty and the Beast's Belle scripted as a feminist metaphor
3 Comments Published by Avi Green on Saturday, September 13, 2025 at 1:11 PM.
Over a decade ago, the book writer Linda Woolverton, who'd been part of the production for 1991's Beauty and the Beast cartoon from Disney, was interviewed by Cartoon Research, and she told them at the time how Belle was supposed to have been characterized as a feminist metaphor/allegory. I'd first written about this a few years ago, and here's at least one more item about the film that, some time after the catastrophous live action Snow White remake, could give more to think about:
After the Snow Woke fiasco, it could be said that even BATB may not age well, though one must also wonder what Woolverton thinks of the live action remake, where the Beast asks Belle if she wants to take her dad's place after the Beast holds him hostage, and this makes whatever "feminist" slant it's got into far more of a terrible joke. Woolverton doesn't seem to have ever commented on that alteration, and if not, one must wonder if she really cares about her original cartoon contribution from 1991 at all.
Jim Korkis: Everyone seems to love the character of Belle.But very few embraced Snow Woke, as played by Rachel Zegler, which is easily worse than BATB, based on all the divisive politics involved, but all the same, the feminist angle the 1991 cartoon built upon obviously had some responsibility for getting us to this point years later.
Linda Woolverton: I’m just so happy that the world has embraced Belle. In the past we’ve seen that other animated heroines were reacting to outside forces. Belle isn’t like that. She initiates action. She sets things in motion. What is great about her, I think, is that she shows us all that women don’t have to sit around and wait.
JK: She certainly seems different than the classic Disney princesses.Interesting she hints she may believe Snow White and Cinderella were negative examples, but then, if we look at this through the lens created by the live action remake of the former, how can it be a good role model if Snow Woke makes the 7 dwarves do far more of the housework than she does? Why, how can it even be helpful if the dwarves are CGI-produced, to the point they look creepy? There's also moral questions one can ask as to whether women should "conquer the world", because if it's not okay for Doctor Doom to do anything like that, as recently seen in One World Under Doom, then why must it be implied women should be world conquerors, rather than world civilizers? If Russia's Catherine the Great had waged wars for bad purposes, is that acceptable? One war she worked on that had justification was that against Turkey, long itself conquered by Islam at the expense of the Greeks, Assyrians, Byzantines, Constantinople and even the Hagia Sophia cathedral. But in the long run, it's clear even she didn't do justice on that issue. Now, back to Woolverton:
LW: Now, I don’t want to stand here in 1992 and say I think Snow White and Cinderella were negative role models for girls, because that’s not fair. They were signs of their time. I have a daughter and when she’s old enough, I’m going to let her see those movies. I think what that will do is launch a discussion about how women have changed. Because in those movies, women didn’t go out and conquer the world. They dreamed about someone to save them from their life. Belle is different. She goes out as a woman and does it herself.
Aside from the fact that the film has made a lot of money, I feel really good about creating a character who is a positive role model for young girls, and boys, too. Because that’s the audience that’s important. They’re going to run the world one day soon. To Gaston, Belle wasn’t a person; she was a possession. And I think it’s great for little boys to see that Beauty doesn’t choose him. Not only can they look at Gaston as an example of how not to treat women, but they can hopefully be taught by the Beast, a macho guy who is comfortable with his feelings and gentleness. He could teach a lot of men, in fact, about sensitivity.
JK: Do you have a feminist background?Unfortunately, she possibly doesn't consider that even feminism isn't perfect, and if it becomes more about male bashing, to the point where the idea of a man defending a woman's dignity is considered taboo, that's why it's so dismaying as it's hurtful. It's also damaging when it's made to look like a man shouldn't even fall in love with a woman, let alone save her from dire predicaments, which is why Zegler's statements about the prince in Snow White were so repellent.
LW: They (Disney) knew I had a feminist sensibility and they were at ease that the same accusations leveled against ‘Mermaid’ (like Ariel forsaking her family and heritage for a man) wouldn’t happen with ‘Beauty and the Beast’. I never took part in marches. I just knew I wanted to go out, very much like Belle, and do things myself. I thought I was smart enough to be able to do that.
The only thing I wrote (to describe Belle physically) was ‘she has a little wisp of hair that keeps falling in her face’. Because I wanted her not to be perfect. It was important that not every hair be in place.
After the Snow Woke fiasco, it could be said that even BATB may not age well, though one must also wonder what Woolverton thinks of the live action remake, where the Beast asks Belle if she wants to take her dad's place after the Beast holds him hostage, and this makes whatever "feminist" slant it's got into far more of a terrible joke. Woolverton doesn't seem to have ever commented on that alteration, and if not, one must wonder if she really cares about her original cartoon contribution from 1991 at all.
Labels: animation, history, msm propaganda, politics
"Unfortunately, she possibly doesn't consider that even feminism isn't perfect, and if it becomes more about male bashing, to the point where the idea of a man defending a woman's dignity is considered taboo, that's why it's so dismaying as it's hurtful. It's also damaging when it's made to look like a man shouldn't even fall in love with a woman, let alone save her from dire predicaments, which is why Zegler's statements about the prince in Snow White were so repellent."
To say VERY little about Woolverton's direct role in the writing of Maleficent that led to such a HUGE amount of male bashing it arguably made Thelma and Louise seem genuinely respectful of men by comparison. Oh, and managing to trash even females that didn't match HER specific criteria as well (aside from her rather disgusting treatment of the three good fairies in that film, she also subjected Leah to basically a heartbroken woman who died of an illness purely because Stefan was depicted as such a monster of a man that he ignored her solely to go all Captain Ahab on Maleficent for something that was ultimately his fault).
Come to think of it, even BATB itself had some hints at misandry in the narrative as well, considering that most of the men, even the ones technically deemed sympathetic by the narrative, were badly treated (Maurice basically had to be rescued by Belle twice, one of which ironically enough was during the time HE tried to rescue her and mandated she leave the castle; Beast after he "learned to love" ended up ruining his and especially his servants chances at becoming human again by letting Belle go, and worse, during the final battle, made ZERO attempt at defending the other servants from the murderous lynch mob at his gates, or for that matter even HIMSELF, even though the whole POINT behind the curse was for him to learn not to be selfish). Oh, and also the triplets (who oddly enough look like they could fit in for Dead or Alive with their looks) being demeaned as being nothing more than bimbos (even outright being called the Bimbettes in the staff credits) for their love of Gaston, despite only loving ONE guy and not being known to have slept around (and in fact are probably the only characters to show any positive views of marriage. Belle certainly didn't, and Lumiere, being a womanizer wouldn't have much respect for marriage as well, even less so in the special edition-exclusive song Human Again where he was shameless enough in his womanizing that he even was willing to sleep with married women. I believe the precise lyric from Mrs. Potts was, and I quote, "Which should cause several husbands alarm", in reference to his courting, chic and sporting again once he becomes human), while a lady who like Lumiere was depicted as sexually loose is treated positively by comparison. And unlike Gaston, they weren't even depicted as being evil, either, nor do they have any actual inner ugliness (aka, the whole foundational point of the moral of the tale).
"Aside from the fact that the film has made a lot of money, I feel really good about creating a character who is a positive role model for young girls, and boys, too. Because that’s the audience that’s important. They’re going to run the world one day soon. To Gaston, Belle wasn’t a person; she was a possession. And I think it’s great for little boys to see that Beauty doesn’t choose him. Not only can they look at Gaston as an example of how not to treat women, but they can hopefully be taught by the Beast, a macho guy who is comfortable with his feelings and gentleness. He could teach a lot of men, in fact, about sensitivity."
Ironically, I'd argue especially speaking as a Beast fan right now that I WOULDN'T emulate Beast either, mostly thanks to how he nearly got the servants KILLED and made zero effort to actually defend the castle from the mob because he was too "sensitive" from letting Belle go to make ANY attempt at defending himself or the others. Tarzan if you ask me did a FAR better job at communicating that bit than Beast did. And let's face it, after 9/11 and what Bill Clinton did by standing down in trying to stop Osama bin Laden MULTIPLE times despite the various terrorist attacks (with 9/11 ironically enough the rest of al Qaeda's leadership DIDN'T want to have happen), I don't see how "sensitivity" would be a good role model for boys, any more than Gaston's disgusting behavior would be. No, if you're going to give a good role model, have Beast make an actual effort to defend the castle, especially his servants, even imply his knowing he stands no chance at ending the curse if anything is a motivating factor in WHY he's willing to go down with a fight, just to make sure his servants at least don't get destroyed by them even if the curse will doom them regardless).
"After the Snow Woke fiasco, it could be said that even BATB may not age well, though one must also wonder what Woolverton thinks of the live action remake, where the Beast asks Belle if she wants to take her dad's place after the Beast holds him hostage, and this makes whatever "feminist" slant it's got into far more of a terrible joke. Woolverton doesn't seem to have ever commented on that alteration, and if not, one must wonder if she really cares about her original cartoon contribution from 1991 at all."
The only complaint about the remake that she might have had for Belle in there was her usage of that portal book, which was less Belle herself and more because she felt the portal book ignored the whole POINT behind Beast being trapped in the castle.
"Linda Woolverton: I’m just so happy that the world has embraced Belle. In the past we’ve seen that other animated heroines were reacting to outside forces. Belle isn’t like that. She initiates action. She sets things in motion. What is great about her, I think, is that she shows us all that women don’t have to sit around and wait."
She might have had a point, if barely, with Snow White and Aurora (and to be fair to them, they were in comas, so "sit and wait" was literally their only option by that point. Heck, even Snow White at least HAD some agency regarding fleeing from the Evil Queen when the Huntsman barely averted assassinating her out of a change of heart.), but she's dead wrong if she actually thinks Cinderella or Ariel merely sat and waited for a prince (last I checked, Cinderella didn't even intend to dance with the prince at all, that being more of a happy accident. All she wanted was a day off to go to the ball after being overworked by her abusive stepfamily. And are you seriously going to claim that Ariel didn't initiate action? The same Ariel who's debut scene had her plundering a sunken ship, use reverse psychology on Flounder, actually go toe to toe with a SHARK in the beginning, and actually went to investigate a human vessel just by seeing fireworks? Not to mention the whole second day in the kingdom had HER initiating action? And when learning Vanessa was Ursula in disguise wasted NO time trying to save Eric? Heck, even her actual MOTIVE had surprisingly little to do with Eric himself (even if he was significant, it was more like a shove in the right direction), and more to do with her dreaming of experiencing the human world for herself, learning directly from them. Ironically, Belle if anything arguably had the LEAST amount of agency among the previous Princesses outside of MAYBE Aurora.
Oh yeah, and that take on Cinderella and Snow White is also disrespectful considering that one of the people who looked UP to Cinderella in her youth and, based on later interviews, still does, is in fact Jodi Benson, aka Ariel's voice actress. She even compared Cinderella to Ariel regarding huge amount of regard among girls of their respective eras.
I was thinking you would do something similar to the Gerard Jones and Neil Gaiman situations and making it an extensive article since, while Woolverton's actions weren't nearly as severe as those guys, it does nevertheless need to be given full detail regarding just HOW much her and Katzenberg screwed the pooch to Disney in the long run with how she mishandled Beauty and the Beast to specifically be feminist agitprop, and not even the Susan B. Anthony brand either, more like the Simone de Beauvoir or Betty Friedan brand.