Princess Week got me to thinking, which Disney Princess is the geekiest? All the princesses have their little quirks. Cinderella is a clean freak who has trouble keeping track of time. Sleeping Beauty wants to marry a guy she met in the woods and seems upset to find out she is a princess. Pocahontas can talk to the trees and magically understand English. Mulan exhibits courage by taking her father’s place in battle, cross dressing, and using her wit and intelligence to defeat the Huns. But which one exudes geekiness? Which one thinks outside of the proverbial princess box? The answer: Beauty and the Beast‘s Belle.
Belle is an independent thinker, was raised in a geeky household, and loves to read. Her dad loves to tinker and make inventions and growing up in a house like that she was bound to be geeky. In a time when it was unheard of for women to think for themselves, Belle does exactly that. She is not afraid to speak her mind, even when her thoughts are unpopular. She is curious and often indulges her curiosity to learn things. For instance, the Beast forbids her to go to the West Wing, but curiosity gets the better of her and she goes anyway. Sure, she ends up with the Beast angry with her, out in the snow, about to be eaten by wolves, but if she hadn’t gone up there she would never have known about the magic rose.
Belle cares nothing for convention and the customs of the day. The entire town sings a song about how different she is, for Pete’s sake. She reads when it is unpopular for women to do so. Gaston even comments on how “It’s not right for a woman to read. Soon she starts getting ideas and…thinking.” That line irritates me every time. She rides a horse on her own without a male chaperone. She is independent and takes care of herself. She is smart enough to know that Gaston is a loser. Despite being all muscle-y he is missing it where it counts, in his brain. While the blonde bimbettes moan and groan about how gorgeous he is, Belle rejects his advances and even calls him a monster at one point.
When she finds herself in an enchanted castle with talking tea cups and clocks, she is shocked at first but then takes it in stride. She does her best to adapt to her situation and even attempts to make it better. She seems to enjoy spending time alone and doesn’t seem to seek out the company of others much.
I see some of my geekiness in Belle. My love of reading, strong opinions, flaunting of conventions, and intelligence helped me achieve my geeky happily ever after just like they helped Belle achieve hers.
Yes! Beauty and the Beast is most likely my favorite cartoon movie ever, in no small part because when I first saw it, when I was 12 or 13, I SO COMPLETELY identified with Belle. The whole “Belle” number, with the whole town whispering behind her back with varying levels of sympathy for how odd she was? And how she ran into the bookstore every day and asked if they had anything new, which was exactly what I did with my tiny neighborhood library ALL THE TIME? And seeing absolutely nothing worth swooning over in that swine Gaston? And can we even get girly and discuss her DRESSES here… not that overdone gold ballgown, I mean that flowy sea green thing she’s wearing when the Beast gives her the library (and OH that library!) and the pink one with those gorgeous sleeves she wore in the snow, and heck, I loved the blue everyday dress with the apron.
Whenever people are like, “all the Disney Princesses were flaky helpless and completely meaningless to real girls” or whatever, I always want to yell “BUT WHAT ABOUT BELLE?! Have you never actually WATCHED that movie?!”
I used to be/still am a huge fan of Belle. I definitely agree with Rockin on the Belle song, especially. There was never a Disney song I identified with more.
Hubby promised me that when we move into our dream home, he will build me *ahem* US a library like the one in Beauty and the Beast. Not quite as big, of course, we aren’t millionaires. 😛
We don’t have kids yet, but I’m so looking forward to introducing my hopefully-someday daughter to Beauty and the Beast.
Belle has always been one of my favorite princesses, too! Not just for her love of books, but even back in the original tales Disney adapted from, she was humble and tried to be low maintenance–something I totally identified with…
I love Gaston’s line because I always love it when something that’s frequently thought in society but unsaid gets highlighted by an obviously stupid or bad character.
It’s why I love so much of the hideous wrongness in Dr. Horrible, even though I’m sure there are people offended by lots of it. Having an asinine super-hero say ugly things about the homeless and use the short form of the dreaded r-word underscores those as BAD things.
And yes, Belle is delightfully geeky. That’s why I allowed my child to see that movie well before any of the other princess films. I don’t even really think of Belle as a princess like the other ones, since she isn’t for most of the movie (as opposed to most of them being born princesses one way or another).
I’m glad to finally see a pro-princess post … you can be geeky and still like princesses!
That said Belle has always been my favorite, pretty much for the reasons you lay out, especially for her love of books. Plus, she goes to try and rescue the Beast!
Gaston’s line would be annoying if I heard it in real life, but I just laugh at it, especially given Belle’s quick-witted reply (“Gaston, you are positively primeval.”) I wish I could be that fast with a response when someone insults my intelligence or hobbies!
Belle was always my favorite Disney “princess” however I feel like I should give a shoutout to my lady Ariel. She’s a total pack-rat/adventurer/imaginative/resourceful/awesome princess. Plus she’s ginger. Enough said.
Oh well, Belle still rules.