2010 - Sold

Stockholm Syndrome is a human defense mechanism in response to life-threatening situations.

Medical dictionaries define Stockholm Syndrome as an extraordinary phenomenon in which a hostage begins to identify with and grow sympathetic to their captor, essentially mistaking a lack of abuse as an act of kindness.

In my opinion, the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast is a romanticized hostage situation, where the Beast is a narcissistic sociopath, while Beauty is his vulnerable hostage. In captivity, she looses touch with reality, only to fall in love with her captor in order to survive a deeply traumatizing ordeal.

Moreover, the very act of romanticizing the fundamentally disturbing theme of female abduction, subjugation, and unlawful imprisonment to teach little girls compassion towards monsters seems to be a manifestation of a Stockholm Syndrome in and of itself. Perhaps tales such as this help women survive a world of systematic abuse and violence against their gender.