Disney's Sex Goddess Revealed!
Here are the complete results without Pocahontas:
Jasmine from Aladin - 36%
Belle from Beauty and the Beast - 14%
I'd Do Them All! - 14%
Eeewww, None! - 14%
Snow White - 10%
Cinderella - 4%
Ariel from The Little Mermaid - 4%
Sleeping Beauty - 4%
So now that the big reveal is over, here are my real thoughts on why Jasmine was picked as the sexiest of them all...Hold on to your chairs because I'm about to get psycho-political on your @ss!
Disempowering the Enemy
Now in general, as humans, we don't like to be scared or act cowardly. This means that in order to fight and be brave, we have to devise various means to get over our fears, and in the case of war, this means getting over our fears of the enemy.
One very classic way to get over a fear is to make the object of our fear seem much less threatening in our perceptions of them. Traditionally when the object of our fear is a human enemy, for men there are two ways to do this effectively.
The first is through humor - if you represent your enemy as something to laugh at, then the real threat to you seems diminished. How can something that is so pathetically funny be dangerous? Humor is generally used to disempower male enemies. (During WWI the U.S. spewed tons of propaganda around that portrayed male Japanese soldiers as caricatures who could do nothing right, let alone shoot and kill you! The result for U.S. soldiers was a feeling of superiority over the enemy - not fear - and the Japanese now seemed much less threatening.)
The second is through sexuality - if you represent your enemy as an overly sexual, overly animalistic race in their behaviors/desires, then you as a rational, mentally-advanced human have a much better chance of conquering them. Sexuality is generally used to disempower female enemies.
By reducing the women of your enemy to sexually promiscuous, non-thinking animals just waiting to be overtaken by you, your fear that the women may also be just as real of a threat as the men is greatly reduced. After all, these enemy women are just there to be your sexual entertainment while you are taking over their country...they won't hide knives up their skirts and kill you while you undo your zipper...No! They aren't that clever!
Aside from simply reducing fear, there are other psychological benefits associated with reducing enemy women to sexual objects. It helps to relieve guilt. After all, if you envision your enemy's women as being the same as your own pious and virginal sisters and mothers, how could you just walk into their country, their homes, and kill the men they love. It just wouldn't sit right with you.
Are You Seeing The Connection to Jasmine Yet?!
So, after understanding all of this, isn't it interesting that in this particular day and age, when much of the world considers the Middle East to be the enemy, the terrorists, the Evil Ones...that people would vote Jasmine, the only Middle Eastern Disney Character, to be the sexiest one of all?!
Why is she sexy to you?
Since all of the Disney characters have the same perfect cartoon bodies, why Jasmine?
Is Jasmine the most do-able because she might be the easiest? Would she do anything to please you? Would she have less morals and inhibitions than the White European characters? Do you respect her less so wouldn't feel as badly behaving in not-so-nice ways with her? Is she less intelligent than the others? Would having sex with her make you feel better about the world? Go Ahead, ask yourself...what makes her sexy? Your answer might surprise you.
But hey, I might be wrong. Maybe Jasmine is just "hot" because she's "hot." Maybe it doesn't matter who the enemy is right now, or that we have a global desire to disempower the Middle East...
But then again, Maybe I'm Right.
Let's start at a very basic level, shall we? Whenever two groups of people fight, both sides are usually scared of the group they are fighting; if for no other reason than the other group might actually win, kill tem, and take over!
Now in general, as humans, we don't like to be scared or act cowardly. This means that in order to fight and be brave, we have to devise various means to get over our fears, and in the case of war, this means getting over our fears of the enemy.
One very classic way to get over a fear is to make the object of our fear seem much less threatening in our perceptions of them. Traditionally when the object of our fear is a human enemy, for men there are two ways to do this effectively.
The first is through humor - if you represent your enemy as something to laugh at, then the real threat to you seems diminished. How can something that is so pathetically funny be dangerous? Humor is generally used to disempower male enemies. (During WWI the U.S. spewed tons of propaganda around that portrayed male Japanese soldiers as caricatures who could do nothing right, let alone shoot and kill you! The result for U.S. soldiers was a feeling of superiority over the enemy - not fear - and the Japanese now seemed much less threatening.)
The second is through sexuality - if you represent your enemy as an overly sexual, overly animalistic race in their behaviors/desires, then you as a rational, mentally-advanced human have a much better chance of conquering them. Sexuality is generally used to disempower female enemies.
By reducing the women of your enemy to sexually promiscuous, non-thinking animals just waiting to be overtaken by you, your fear that the women may also be just as real of a threat as the men is greatly reduced. After all, these enemy women are just there to be your sexual entertainment while you are taking over their country...they won't hide knives up their skirts and kill you while you undo your zipper...No! They aren't that clever!
Aside from simply reducing fear, there are other psychological benefits associated with reducing enemy women to sexual objects. It helps to relieve guilt. After all, if you envision your enemy's women as being the same as your own pious and virginal sisters and mothers, how could you just walk into their country, their homes, and kill the men they love. It just wouldn't sit right with you.
Are You Seeing The Connection to Jasmine Yet?!
So, after understanding all of this, isn't it interesting that in this particular day and age, when much of the world considers the Middle East to be the enemy, the terrorists, the Evil Ones...that people would vote Jasmine, the only Middle Eastern Disney Character, to be the sexiest one of all?!
Why is she sexy to you?
Since all of the Disney characters have the same perfect cartoon bodies, why Jasmine?
Is Jasmine the most do-able because she might be the easiest? Would she do anything to please you? Would she have less morals and inhibitions than the White European characters? Do you respect her less so wouldn't feel as badly behaving in not-so-nice ways with her? Is she less intelligent than the others? Would having sex with her make you feel better about the world? Go Ahead, ask yourself...what makes her sexy? Your answer might surprise you.
But hey, I might be wrong. Maybe Jasmine is just "hot" because she's "hot." Maybe it doesn't matter who the enemy is right now, or that we have a global desire to disempower the Middle East...
But then again, Maybe I'm Right.
4 comments:
While I agree with the points you made about conquering the enemy, I think that there is more to Jasmine's sex appeal than the fact that she is Middle Eastern:
1)She reveals the most human flesh (Ariel is an exception), with attention firmly on her breasts and lithe stomach 2)Ariel reveals as much flesh but is presented as a mermaid for the majority of the film. When she is human she is about as covered up as Snowwhite and Cinderella. 3) Admitting an attraction to a cartoon character who is also part animal might be a bit too "beastiality" for some people. 4) Why fantasize about someone who is mostly clothed when Jasmine was designed to show off her assests? I think there was a deliberate costume choice there. 5) She is portrayed as the most adventurous female character, ready to leave her world of riches on a moments notice to soar on a magic carpet, following her penniless man anywhere. Why lust after the woman who will clean your house when Jasmine might fellate you in exotic locations?
I think her "exotic looks," skimpy clothing and zest for adventure have just as much to do with her sex appeal as our desire to subjugate the enemy.
Thank you for that well thought out comment! I do agree that Jasmine is the most sexually provocative of the characters...I just thought the connection to world affairs was interesting. :) And why are all the white characters so covered up and the non-white characters skimpy? Just a thought.
Sorry I had to laugh at the middle east reference, guys are way simpler than that.
Jasmine wins hands down because she has big tits, shows her nice flat belly off with a nice waist to hip ratio, has a pornstar/stripper name.
lol Athol. Are men really that shallow? Come on, I like to give them the benefit of the doubt. ;)
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