Tangled The Movie - Tumblr Posts
Why Mother Gothel Should've Been Dark Blonde - an essay, a rant, an obsessive think piece (Part 1)
Part 1 - a solution to the Antisemitism in her design, and a quick point on the believability of gothel as rap's biological mother. -------------------------- So, first, whenever we talk about Mrs.Gaslight gatekeep girlboss, we have to address the strong antsemetic overtones of her design. Most of us are already aware of this however I'll go over it briefly in case you weren't aware. Although gothel does not have any canonical ties to being jewish, or any kind of other minority, she does set off some red flags with her design, examples being the thick curly black hair and hooked nose. These traits are of course beautiful, but having these traits ONLY appear on the baby-stealing greedy youth obsessed witch of the film... is not a great look. And if you weren't aware of this already, you might be thinking "But op, that's just what witches look like!" LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER The original stock design of a "witch" is antisemetic in nature, because it specifically draws upon antisemetic caricatures of jewish women. These drawings (along with the connotations of the witch) were used to villainize physical characteristics of traditionally Jewish looking women. Other them. And make the public perception of them so low that when atrocities were directed at them, the non jewish population would look away. This also goes for the witch imagery of a pointed hat but we don't need to get into that for the purposes of this conversation. So! with the established understanding that her current design (although beautiful to us) is an issue, I have a design change proposal! Mother Gothel Should've been Blonde. Hold your shock because I have actually so many reasons and I need you to lock in so we don't get lost. First! It would alleviate the issue of antisemitism. Dark Blonde is not one of the hair colors typically associated with antiemetic imagery (just black and red are). Even if we keep the hair curly, and even if we keep her nose, the blonde may throw off the pattern just enough to make it work. Second, although the canon reason rapunzel doesn't question that her and gothel are related is because she's isolated, and has no reason to *not* beleive her. Possibly because she may or may not understand how biology works. It is still in the back of OUR heads that, hey, they don't look anything alike! how is she getting away with this? Dark blonde would fix that issue too, because then the two would have at least one similar physical characteristic (besides being white but everybody in the damn movie is white so that basically doesn't count if we need a storytelling tool) The other reasons are the more complicated and plot-important ones so their gonna get their own posts.
Why Mother Gothel Should've Been Dark Blonde - an essay, a rant, an obsessive think piece (Part 2)
Part 2 - White people hair colorism and how they could fit in with gothel's self esteem issues, and how she would project that onto her daughter. -------------- This is where we get into how gothel being a dark blonde would add an entire new layer to an already emotionally thrilling movie. To get into it I have to explain what I mean by white people hair colorism. SO! Like with the antisemitism thing i'm sure you're already very familiar with what colorism is. And possibly what white people hair colorism is, but I'll go over it anyways for the people in the back. Colorism is originally a term for comparing poc with each other, either by white people or by poc about their own race. It works differently with every group, however generally it references a preference for lighter skin. White people hair colorism is specifically the phenomenon within white groups that the color of your natural hair is indicative to your desirability. It's not as serious of an issue as true colorism, so the term is imperfect, but the phenomenon exists nonetheless. Generally it is known that blonde is on top, and as we get darker in shades the "worse" we get. This has to due with proximity to whiteness but we could've guessed that. Red is below Black in desirability, while also being fetishized, but that's not what we need to keep in mind for this post. What the heck does this have to do with Mother Gothel? well, everything. or at least it could've been. Gothel is deeply insecure, and obsessed with youth and beauty. Both things that are associated with blonde-ness. When some girls are born bright blonde, and they grow up to have darker hair over time, it can be a huge hit on their self esteem. Their blonde hair was praised their whole life, so it makes sense. Gothel could go through a similar thing and react way over the top about her darker roots growing in. Gothel being specifically a *dark* blonde as an adult could also plant the seeds of jealousy for rapunzel, a magically glowy permanent bright blonde. The jealousy mixed with her basically worshipping her hair would make so much sense in the new context of gothel's relationship with the color. In this au where they did give her dark blonde, I could also imagine that gothel's repeated prolonged use of the healing incantation could give her almost unnatural looking highlights in her hair. This would be an interesting commentary too, on those same insecure girls who get platinum highlights to try and hold onto their platinum blonde youth. very in character for gothel imo. I'll finish this part with the issue of rapunzel's brunette strand in the back of her head. And how gothel would project and force her hair color insecurities on rapunzel. the way some emotionally abusive mothers do with whatever insecurities they may have. When rapunzel is telling the story about her brunette strand to Eugene, people effected by hair colorism felt that it subtly implied that brunette is broken, is worse, uglier somehow.
And I say yes! that is what it felt like! that's probably how she saw her brunette hair. instead of running from that, I think making gothel blonde would make it clearer that this idea was specifically implanted into rapunzel's head. To make her hate her natural hair color. to keep her from ever wanting to cut her own hair to free herself. to not bat an eye when gothel would praise her hair WAY more often than she would ever praise rapunzel herself. But clearly, that doesn't make it right. It makes it sad. Nobody deserves to carry that much shame over their natural hair for the sake of a beauty standard. Gothel is a villain, and using her own insecurities to bring down Rapunzel is just another way to control her. There will be a third (and final?) part to this because my brain swollen
Why Mother Gothel Should've Been Dark Blonde - an essay, a rant, an obsessive think piece (Part 3)
Part 3 - Deprogramming your biases, de-centering traditional beauty, symbolism and the message behind Rapunzel's happy ending. -------------------------- Keeping in mind the possibility of gothel using her dark blonde hair to reinforce her related-ness to rapunzel, while also putting emphasis on the brightness of it being beautiful and worthy of preservation just as much as it's magic. Both youth and blonde-ness rubbing off on gothel when she uses the healing incantation. Suddenly, her hair becomes a symbol of her connection to mother gothel and her time in the tower. And it makes it that much more obvious that cutting it is the only way to free her. Once she's freed, and her hair turns brown, and it's short, I could see how she may still have the remnants of conditioning in the back of her mind. She may have even felt ugly secretly. But then imagine how it all changes as she sees queen arianna come into view. and she's brunette.
Suddenly every insecurity over her own dark hair, every snide comment from gothel about brunette being unfavorable and ugly. It becomes not just about rapunzel, but about her beautiful mother. her father. Her boyfriend. Beauty stops becoming something to strive for and protect, and starts becoming the symbols of her loved ones.
Then the lock of brown hair in the back of her head retroactively becomes a piece of her true loving parents that stayed with her through everything. not something to hide and be ashamed of.
And now gothel can't villainize what rapunzel looks like naturally. or make her feel embarrassed for it. Traditional gothel-ideas of beauty don't matter anymore. Brunette is beautiful because her real parents are brunette. Short is beautiful because her boyfriend used his dying breath to cut it so that she can be free if nothing else.
Although myself and a lot of others already see this in the original movie, no blonde gothel required, I still think it would've made the point more obvious (Among other reasons the blonde could've been better). And I think that it's important that it is as obvious as humanly possible.
The long blonde hair-worship is riddled throughout society so heavily, that even fans of tangled feel brave enough to prioritize her hair over what is best for her. Reflect for just a moment, if you reacted to the hair cut scene the same way gothel did, you may have some unpacking to do.
And maybe instead of that message flying over some people's heads, blonde gothel would've been an extra nudge in that direction. With the bonus of not being antsemetic. Literally what more could you ask for!
Thank you for reading what I've carved into the walls of my enclosure btw, I know this was a lot and it got a lil less formal by the end. I got passionate ! I love this movie more than anything and I couldn't stop thinking about how perfect blonde gothel would've been
Cassandra short au
In this au instead of stumbling on the black rocks, Raps is learning other ways to harness her healing powers. Epically since these new black rocks started appearing in Old Corona. If your wondering why this is in Cassandra post, I'm a dumbass who just learn I can add more info & crap. Also this au is very underdeveloped. More later on. Sorry
I'mI had extra room in my sketchbook so might well show Cass and Rapz in my new artsyle, since they drew them before I just drew everyone with elf ears. Also show you what Quirin will look like in this au. More on his and the brotherhood. Thank you
A better view of the Eugene phone stand from Tokyo Disney sea Fantasy Springs gifts