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Showing posts from November, 2024

Jasmine and Monroe

One of my all-time favorite Disney movies is the story of Aladdin – I was always left awestruck at the idea of a character like Princess Jasmine. She represented, to me, the ideal woman. One who was beautiful, smart, and cunning enough to trick Jafar. Looking back at it now, I can’t help but feel like Jasmine was a character with so much wasted potential simply because she was a woman. I’m pretty sure everyone knows which scene I’m referring to when I say that the portrayal of Jasmine near the end was oddly sensual for a kid’s movie – the red outfit paired with the overly exaggerated dance moves were all enough to have me bristling and on edge. I couldn’t help but compare her to another, very much so real, figure: Marilyn Monroe. A true diamond in the rough, she filmed 29 movies in a 16-year time span and yet there are only two things that people remember her for. The first is her iconic skirt image – I don’t think I need to elaborate on the sexualized nature of that image, but I wil...