“Mother Knows Best” vs “Stay With Me” Fan Soundscape Comparison
For this section I wanted to take one of my greatest resources (an awesome GSU English major named Cammy) and find out what the general audience thinks about Rapunzel’s relationship with her mother. I took two different Disney films- “Tangled”, as well as “Into the Woods”. I personally find the second relationship more endearing, but I was curious to see how one could tell the difference in relationships from the sonic literature alone.
So here is the first clip, “Mother Knows Best” from Disney’s “Tangled”:
And then this is her response to the song:
Then I had her watch the lyrics version of this song, “Stay With Me” from “Into the Woods”:
And she responded to it with this:
What do you think of the difference between these two? Comment below with your thoughts!
The Disney Truth 
May 09, 2015 @ 06:14:58
The thing about this song is that it’s so manipulating! Mother Gothel is constantly making her daughter uncomfortable-pushing her around to make her dizzy, make her feel insecure about not wearing shoes when she’s not even allowed to leave, calling her chubby, (which she doesn’t care about, not having any negative influences, but the AUDIENCE certainly might get uncomfortable at that, but the thing for Rapunzel is that being chubby would make her appealing to men with pointy teeth implying cannibalism) and then offers her comfort fleetingly before destroying it again. She offers hope and then quickly rips it away. She says “soon” but then asks that she never ask about leaving again. Every time she says “mother’s here” she scares her again. She calls her pet and flower, which are possessions she uses Rapunzel for. She fakes being a good mother and makes herself out to be, raising and caring for her, and Rapunzel is so sheltered she literally doesn’t know any better. She constantly guilt trips her for nothing actually wrong. She tells Rapunzel that she followed the sound of betrayal to find her and I’m nearly positive Rapunzel takes that literally. Mother Gothel works so hard to set things up so Rapunzel will come back on her own, with minimal threat of trying to leave again. Unlike the second song, where I do not know the context, Gothel never genunely loved Rapunel- only her hair’s ability. It’s been noted that whenever Gothel acts lovingly to her, it’s to her hair, as opposed to Flynn who usually pushes her hair back away to see her better. Gothel only wants to ensure her hair for her use, without any regard for her herself.
She is passive aggressive, displaying abuse and manipulation in verbal ways instead of violently physical ways. Abuse can be emotional and mental, not just physical, so it’s good exposure to inappropriate treatment. If people notice that their ‘friends’ are treating them like Mother Gothel would, they can better recognize an unhealthy relationship.
The song is really catchy and funny, which makes it both hard to recognize the danger in int, but Mother Gothel is so overly dramatic, that it also points it out. The woman’s singing is amazingly good, making funny voices to scare Rapunzel and make things either scary or sweet and endearing. But for the audience, it’s funny and laughable. For me it’s both that and disturbing that I can be amused by such blatant abuse.
LikeLike
Oct 14, 2015 @ 18:54:11
So, apart from abusive parenting, and these all tie together, there are ‘narcissistic’ and ‘toxic’ parents, all of which are hard to identify for their kids because their kids don’t know any better. These parents are the type to have ideas of what their kids should be like, or what their relationship should be, and punish the child whenever the child does not fit into that picture in their head, even if it’s sight or harmless. Yes, children sort of do owe their parents for taking care of them, raising them, and teaching them. However, it is not ok to treat them as possessions, slaves, or like they owe it to be their servant for the rest of their lives. Children are not miniatures of their parents, ever, and should not be expected to behave like carbon copies. Children are also their own people, who will make choices differently than their parents and do NOT owe it to the parents to fit into their ideals or stay at home all their lives. They do not have to submit to their parents’ choices and opinions all the time. Asian cultures are geared toward the child owing the parents, whereas western cultures go that the child didn’t ask to be born or to have them as parents. While I lean more to the western culture, I do allow that children owe respect to their parents, but not if they are not also respected in the same quantity. Love is not a reason to abuse and love with abuse is not love. Micromanaging, micro aggression, subtle critique or stress or manipulation, no matter how small and negligible, builds over time and becomes unbearable. If you hold a bird too tight it will either break or break free. Further, people aren’t meant to be caged. These parents do not care for the free wills of their beloved offspring and make it hard for them to be without them, by throwing obstacles in their way or guilt tripping them home. That manipulation is abuse.
LikeLike