Honors College Art & Science of Emotions Fall 2017 (1:20 p.m.) Love Journal | Page 32

The physical touch was not a reciprocated act in this case. She saw a guy come out from the bushes, (who was stalking her in the woods)
and wanted nothing to do with him. He continued to persist the physical touch and eventually she stopped pulling away. This scene illustrates
not only a form of stalking but also assault, which she tries to stop and run away from. The prince persuades her to stay and dance with him,
due to the fact that he kept pushing the physical touch multiple times. Is it in this moment that she felt she couldn’t say no? Or was it the
desire to be loved by someone and he was the one that was expressing his desire for her? The article, “Existentialism” by Douglas Burnham
and George Papandreopoulus explores the existentialist philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir. Beauvoir claims that woman have always been seen as
the other of man. This may be due to the culture in the early 1900’s and the roles that woman played. Beauvoir says, “she determines and
differentiates herself in relation to man, and he does not in relation to her; she is the inessential in front of the essential [man]
…” (Beauvoir 2009:6). Was this the cultural norm in the time the movie was made, that women are seen as the inessential one, therefore
they change their values and beliefs to better fit to the males? Beauvoir’s insights argue that this is why Aurora had given in to the
prince’s pushiness. In looking at it through Beauvoir’s ideology on women it had everything to do with the role they play in society. Aurora
simply understood that she was the inessential one.
How can our society better emphasize the importance of both cognitive and physiological attraction? What would it look like? For
instance it could be discussing what physiological attraction and cognitive attraction look like and the important role they play. Making it
aware to kids that if any kind of attraction is not reciprocated that it should not be a forced act upon another person. Lastly, considering
stranger danger, making it clear that relationships don’t start with a stranger watching you in the woods. Physiological and cognitive attrac-
tion together is a sobering discussion to have with kids in our society.
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