Not one, but two of Disney’s favorite princes are considered “sexual predators” by a Japanese professor, Kazue Muta, who teaches gender studies and sociology at Osaka University. According to Fox News, “Prince Charming may not be so charming after all,” if you take Muta’s explanation to heart.
This professor wrote the book, Sir, That Love is Sexual Harassment!, which is a book that deals with sexual harassment in the workplace. Muta started the argument back in December that both the princes featured in the Disney stories of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White commit “quasi-compulsive obscene sexual acts on an unconscious partner.”
It was early in December when Muta came out with her thoughts publicly on the two Disney princes by linking them to a real-life story that was unfolding at the time. The story in today’s world that caught this professor’s attention occurred when a man kissed a woman who was sleeping while on a train.
Muta shared her thoughts on the subject.
“When you think rationally about Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, that tell of a ‘princess being woken up by the kiss of a prince,’ they are describing the sexual assault on an unconscious person. You might think I’m ruining the fantasy of it all, but these stories are promoting sexual violence and I would like everyone to be aware of it.”
Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are the stories that most kids see in a movie, book, or play sometime during their childhood. Both sleeping princesses are awakened by a prince with a kiss after a cursed pinprick or a cursed apple put them to sleep. It takes the kiss of a prince to awaken the princesses in the separate stories.