Reply To: 406: Critical Analysis

I love that we’ve got such a MIX of strong female characters, which doesn’t just mean they’re BA in a fight.

We’ve got girls who dress/behave all along the feminine-masculine spectrum, and even the strongest girls (like Emma & Mulan, who arguably behave in the most masculine ways) sometimes embrace their softer sides (Emma’s date dress?). And you’ve got women who don’t fit the traditional “strong female character” mold at all, like Belle, but still save the day in their own ways. (Last night was not Belle’s save the day night. But we’ve seen her do it. It is not a failing for her to sometimes need her husband or her father or her mother or heck, even Archie, to help her out.)

Because if it diminishes a woman to need a man’s help for -anything-, then does it not also diminish a man to need a woman’s help?

I love that Belle is allowed to save the day in a dress sometimes. I love that Rumple is allowed to save her sometimes. I love that I can believe, in the end, they will save each other every time–just like Snowing.