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her gorgeous bone structure. She is smart and intuitive.
We admire her stubborn sweetness that shifts her hero’s
universe around. (In Disney’s version, she is also a book
lover—immediately boosting her appeal as we bookworms
adore one of our own kind!)
We like her.
We love him.
Romance novels are the warmest and kindest
of fantasies and an extension of fairy tale promises
about becoming a princess in our own right. In ‘Beauty
and the Beast’, it is our shaggy, gruff hero who offers
another path to empowerment.
He wins our hearts because we identify with
someone who is imperfect and flawed, scarred and
rejected—someone who is ‘other’ and longs to be loved
becomes a nearly magical power that removes prejudice
and simultaneously simplifies and complicates the
dilemma of our Beast and Beauty.
A long time ago, a friend once told me that for
women, love is ultimately about character. They said that
men fall in love with women they are attracted to but
that women are attracted to the men they love. I argued
at the time and thought it was a bit sexist but sometimes
it’s a difficult generalization to ignore. I didn’t want to see
men as shallow though I liked the idea of women being
savvy enough to see beyond someone’s appearance.
There might be some truth on both sides of my
friend’s assertion. If women are hardwired from caveman
days to seek a protector and provider, then handsome
never wins if it comes with a villainous or weak
character. We have to look beyond a brawny exterior
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"Love is found when the Beast is seen for who he
really is and not his terrifying mask."
for who they are on the inside and not judged by an
outer shell. Who hasn’t ached to be accepted or truly
adored for their best qualities and not for the size and
shape of their bodies? There’s more than a bit of unfairness
in a world that measures a person by things that
they can’t control, and here is the ultimate remedy.
Love is found when the Beast is seen for who he
really is and not his terrifying mask.
Sigh.
not seen at all…
Love can also be found for the Beast when he is
A common shortcut or variation in romances
with this theme is blindness. When one of the fated
couple cannot physically see the other’s shortcomings,
doors are thrown open and whatever restrictions might
be in place get altered quickly. (I should confess that I’m
guilty of this device myself in one of my earliest forays
into historical romance, ‘Blind Aphrodite’.) The disability
to make sure our cave is safe and those we care for are
protected. If personal confessions are allowed here, it is
inherently moments when my own dear man is being
an amazing father or unknowingly sweet and thoughtful
that make my heart beat faster and not how big his
muscles are when he’s working in the yard with his shirt
off.
We love the Beast because he deserves to be
loved. (Don’t we all deserve to be loved?)
So in our fairy tale, the Beast is loved warts and
all—because isn’t that what love is all about? He lets us
see ourselves from his vantage point—and we become
Beauty.
What else can I say? I love a great romance story.
by Renee Bernard
Editor-in-Chief
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