Subconsciously "Beauty and the Beast" motivates women in romance

I've been like Belle from "Beauty and the Beast" - the good girl who has a taste for the bad boy. That's really what "Beauty and the Beast" is all about. It's not just some musical animated by Disney to make little kids happy. It's a deep story about love overcoming darkness. It's actually a very Christian theme, but it's written to be a romance. Deep, deep in the subconscious of many Christian women is this longing to be the "Belle" that can transform the heart of a beast. Realistically and maturely, we know, men don't change and they don't want to change for a woman. Yet if you see a good girl going crazy about a bad boy, just know, she's "Belling" it. She's got her heart set on a Christian romantic project or experiment to see if she's got what it takes to change the man. It's a "tale as old as time" as the song goes.

There have been four movies that come to my mind that depict this "Beauty and the Beast" theme throughout the years of cinema. I'm sure there are more but the ones that I recall well are "Grease" (1978), "The Breakfast Club" (1985), "Heathers" (1989), and "10 Things I Hate About You" (1999). In all four of these movies, the main characters depict the good girl falling for the bad boy.

In "Grease" (which was Randal Kleiser's directorial debut) we meet Sandy (played by Olivia Newton-John) and Danny (played by John Travolta). Sandy is the prudent good girl who falls for Danny, the greaser thug. At first we can not see how these two will ever meet in the middle. Danny does toward the end decide to change his style and ways for his love of Sandy, but like an O Henry plot twist, Sandy also changes to become more like Danny donning her best slutty outfit and taking up smoking cigarettes. I suppose it was a case of Belle saying "if you can't beat em, join em."

In John Hughes classic film "The Breakfast Club" we are cheering for the union of the bad boy John (played by Judd Nelson) and the good girl Clare (played by Molly Ringwald). We wanted them together and no one was denying it. It was super romantic how she could see his sensitive side. It was super romantic that he could and would defend the rich spoiled goodie goodie, and even hotter that he had the hots for her. She was the "Belle" and he was the "Beast" and when they kissed we all cheered.

Another time we fell for the good girl/bad boy routine was in the film "Heathers" directed by Michael Lehmann and written by Daniel Waters. Starring Christian Slater (as the bad boy Jason) and Winona Ryder (as the good girl Veronica) we loved every minute of it because subconsciously we love the "Beauty and the Beast" theme. How many women have gone for the bad boy against better advice or even their own judgement? Even Veronica goes weak for bad boy Jason's charms because he completes her. He is the Yin to her Yang. He is her other half, the half that she can not be alone as the "good girl".

Finally, I want to mention one of the best depictions of the romance done in a realistic film: 10 Things I Hate About You directed by Gil Junger starring Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles. Bad boy Patrick and good girl Kat seem to have nothing in common. But as they get to know each other and care about each other, they learn how they both have both the "Beauty and the Beast" inside of themselves. It's a touching film utilizing the classic theme.

Like I said, I'm sure there are tons of other movies with this theme central to the plot. I think it's funny and ironic that the narrative of Wokism and a Rennaissance of Feminism is completely against any classic romance story that Disney brought to the forefront, yet those same people will watch movies like the four I've mentioned over and over again cheering for the bad boy and good girl to hook up. The hypocrisy is hilarious.