Reply #93: The guy kidnaps her [View All]

[noamnety]

Tears her away from her father, tries to force her to obey him by screaming at her, locking her in a room, keeping her as a prisoner, and withholding food when she doesn't do what she is told. He is a classic abuser. And she falls in love with him.

In Mickey Mouse Monopoly, they video tape a group of young girls watching it. You can see the fear on their faces. At the end, they ask them what they think the moral was. It's gut wrenching to watch one girl slowly say if a guy is mean to you, you just have to be patient and love him, and eventually, he will change.

You, as an adult, are able to process things differently than a 3 or 4 year old. What you intellectualize as the moral (because you know that other thing - men who terrorize women will eventually change if you just love them enough - couldn't possibly be the moral) is different than what a 3 or 4 year old sees, which is more direct. And the thing that makes the biggest impression is not that he's ugly - but that he is terrifyingly mean and abusive. There's nothing that's about "surface appearance" in his behavior.