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#1: Sleeping Beauty Being Kissed Without Her Consent Is “Rape Culture.”

This Is What Feminists Actually Believe

Sleeping Beauty was taking a thousand year nap, minding her own business, when some random prince decides to rudely wake her by planting his two lips against her own without her permission, thus making him guilty of “sexual assault.”

Many feminists believe that a story about a princess bring kissed without her consent helps contribute to “rape culture”, the notion that a society where rape is considered a heinous crime on the same level as murder, and thus is punishable to the fullest extent of the law, also “promotes” such heinous crime.

As such, some feminists consider this story inappropriate for children, with some going so far as to demand that it be pulled from public schools.

Well, Actually…

If you think a story about a sleeping princess being kissed without her “consent” is bad, then try reading the original fairy tale.

In the original Italian story, the princess falls into her magical slumber after getting a splinter from the wooden spinning wheel spindle.

You know how the princess is awakened? By having the splinter sucked out of her finger by her nursing newborn child.

How does a sleeping princess give birth to such a child? Well, let’s just say it all happened nine months after the prince in that story did more to her than simply give her a kiss.

When the prince discovers the sleeping princess, he’s so taken by her beauty that, according to the story, “He lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love.”

If you think that’s bad, you should hear the moral of that story: “Those whom fortune favors, find good luck even in their sleep.” (Now that’s your “rape culture” right there!)

But even if the prince in the Disney version doesn’t outright rape the princess, he still allegedly engages in “rape culture” by kissing her without her consent. After all, what man in his right mind kisses some random sleeping stranger?

Thing is, in the movie, unlike the story, Prince Phillip isn’t some random prince, and Princess Aurora isn’t some random chick that he’s only stumbled upon — or at least when he arrives to kiss her.

The two met long before Aurora falls into her magical slumber, with the two falling in love upon their first meeting and with the two agreeing to marry each other.

Now proposing to someone you just met isn’t the wisest choice, as Frozen taught us, but at least it’s not kissing a random stranger.

And once Aurora does fall asleep, Phillip learns that the only way to wake her is to kiss her, which is something she would have wanted him to do anyway, especially given her situation.

As Princess Weekes from The Mary Sue explains: “Phillip doesn’t just kiss Aurora because he’s horny…This is not a drunken accidental hook up, or an older male authority figure taking advantage of a younger co-worker. He is literally saving her from an eternity of sleep.”

And once Aurora is awakened, she shows through her awaking smile that his kiss was something that she wanted from him.

Weekes further explains: “Non-verbal consent is a thing, and Aurora gives Phillip plenty of it in her body language….She is not upset about being kissed, she got kissed by someone she liked, [and] she would have kissed him if she was awake.”

But even if the two didn’t know each other beforehand, weren’t in love with each other, and didn’t want to kiss each other, Phillip would still be in the right for the sheer fact that it’s his kiss of true love that was required to wake her.

After all, if reviving a drowning victim through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation isn’t considered “sexual assault”, then why not reviving a sleeping princess through true love’s kiss?