Over the weekend there was an article in the Wall Street Journal headlined, “Beauty and the Backlash: Disney’s Modern Princess Problem.” In it, we learn that Disney is in a quandary over whether or not to continue making fairy tales that highlight the natural male-female dynamic—in which a woman’s desire to be “the one” who’s pursued by a strong man and who ultimately channels that strength into a force for good rather than evil, while at the same time becoming the sole object of his affection—or to continue with the new remakes they’ve begun which tell little girls that strong and independent women don’t need a man.
As if that weren’t sad enough, the jewelry conglomerate Jared has now come out with a new ad that flips traditional gender roles and encourages women to ask men to marry them. “Dare to ask him,” it says. In the 15-second ad, a woman drops to one knee and presents a ring to her boyfriend, which he happily accepts.
There’s a reason most people recoil at these attempts to sell a bogus notion of equality. It’s not because people are backward or out of touch and need feminists to show them the way — it’s because most people understand how love works. Conversely, feminists live in a fantasy world where there’s no distinction made between women and men.
Make no mistake: feminists are behind this madness. Companies feel enormous pressure to cave to feminist demands. Yet here’s the irony: Feminists are the last people on earth anyone should be taking advice from about love and relationships. Disney and Jared, both of which sell the concept of love, certainly have the right to sell whatever messages they want to consumers — and consumers have a right to reject them.
Jared and Disney are wasting good money. They’re fighting human nature, and that’s a losing battle. Why do you think fairy tales and rom-coms are so successful? Who do you think eats those stories up? Women and girls, because it speaks to their natural desire. This desire is far bigger than a small segment of the female population who insist that it be dismantled.
As if it even could be. “No matter how hard you try, a 4-year-old girl is going to want to be a Little Mermaid,” said one former Disney executive. “But if they try to make Ariel into a lawyer, there’s going to be a huge backlash.”
Indeed. And as for Jared: “With all due respect to the ad copy guys at Jared’s agency,” writes David Marcus at The Federalist, “I’m not sure they understand what cultural forces they are playing with in attempting to upend that to sell a few rings.”
Not just cultural forces, but biological forces. Men are natural born hunters—they want to pursue the woman they love, and women want to be found. You cannot switch this dynamic around and end up with the same result. All you end up with is chaos.
For God’s sake, let men be men and let women be women. Let sleeping dogs lie.
Suzanne Venker (@SuzanneVenker) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is an author, speaker and cultural critic known as “The Feminist Fixer.” She has authored several books to help women win with men in life and in love. Her most recent, The Alpha Female’s Guide to Men & Marriage, was published in February 2017. Suzanne’s website is www.suzannevenker.com.
