Maleficent – Rape
Well hello again Disney, what happened? Did you run out of races to stereotype? Exhausted all historical stories that you can ‘adjust’ for your own shiny-happy purposes? Well, no matter, we’re in the 21st century now, there must be plenty of other ethical issues for you to draw on here. Have you considered something in the way of sexism perhaps? Or better still, date-rape? Oh, you have?….How did that go?
Yes, there’s no point holding back here, Disney’s recent interpretation of the backstory to Sleeping Beauty’s infamous villain Maleficent includes a direct reference to rape, which appears in the form of the young Stefan drugging Maleficent and cutting off her wings while she was unconscious, in order to gain favour with the King and secure his future right to the throne.
The moment is, admittedly, surprisingly brutal – especially considering that Stefan had previously been hopelessly in love with Maleficent (other messages to be had here, to do with men and their thirst for power outweighing any other values in their lives etc. etc.). But when it was first suggested by some parties that the scene was a metaphor for actual rape, the idea was widely dismissed; this was Disney, for goodness sake! Disney wouldn’t include something like rape!
But I think we all know that Disney would – and Disney did. Angelina Jolie herself confirmed during the film’s release period that Maleficent being robbed of her wings is indeed meant to represent rape, turning what had until then been a moment of simple ambition-driven cruelty into something altogether more sinister.
But – unlike some of Disney’s questionable content – there is actually quite a concrete reason for this severity. As both Jolie and the film’s writer Linda Woolverton have pointed out, Maleficent purposefully sets out to lay a life-long curse on a baby (wow – the list just goes on Disney, doesn’t it) and only something as extreme and as traumatic as rape could possibly provide a reason for how a previously benevolent woman could do such a thing. This is a good point. For better or worse, some serious thought went into the inclusion of rape imagery in Maleficent.
Which just leaves us with the problem of what Disney might do next if they decide to carry on this trend of exploring the villains’ backstories. Are we really sure we want to see the details of how Scar got his namesake? Or whatever horrible event it was that caused Cruella de Vil to have such little regard for animals? God only knows what had happened to Sid Phillips by the time we meet him in Toy Story. Disney are going to be in their absolute element.