Here's What Happens When a 26 Year Old Re-Watches Sleeping Beauty

Last week, the Disney classic "Sleeping Beauty" was on TV. There was literally nothing else on, so I started watching it. I know, I probably should have picked up a book or cleaned the kitchen, but I didn't. Sorry, not sorry.

I've always loved Disney movies. Who doesn't, right? Every girl has their favorite characters, their favorite princess (mine is Cinderella), and their favorite fantasy about how she will meet her Prince Charming. It had been literally decades since I'd seen Sleeping Beauty, so I was kind of keen on seeing how the story would hold up after all these years. Here are some questions and observations I had after re-watching Sleeping Beauty in 2014:

1. Disney -- Was he kind of a misogynist? I will grant you this: It was 1959 and this movie probably reflected culture and society, as all movies do. But Come. On. When Aurora is a baby, the three good fairies give her three gifts: Beauty, Song, and Sleeping through the curse that Maleficent puts on her, which is that she will die when she's 16 by pricking her finger on a spinning wheel. Evidently these were the only desirable qualities for a woman in the fifties? That she is beautiful, could sing a song and would just get out of the way while her prince saves her. I know a few men who would look at me and just say "yep," hopefully in a facetious way... Le sigh.

I've definitely given this look to my brothers.

2. Maleficent -- Right, so what about Maleficent? She clearly hates King Stefan, but we have no idea why. I think she is either a lover scorned, or she is really his sister and jealous that he got the good kingdom while she was put in the black castle with no one but trolls and a nasty crow for company. How is a girl supposed to decorate a centuries-old drafty stinkhole without the help of Pinterest or Etsy? It is the 14th Century after all. I'd be irritable too.

3. The three fairies -- Flora, Fauna and Merryweather may be the only cool people in the whole joint, (looking past their male-fantasy-based gifts to Aurora). They literally save everyone in the kingdom, bring the two lovebirds together, can fly, cook cakes with magic, and change their outfits in 0.2 seconds. Sign me up for good-fairy school please.

4. Aurora -- Okay, what is the actual deal with Aurora? I know she's lived in a cabin her whole life, but couldn't she have learned to use a sword during all that alone time, or shoot a bow and arrow? Or ride a horse? Something besides brushing her hair and picking berries. And she totally disobeys her "aunts" by talking to a stranger in the forrest, who turns out to be Prince Phillip. So what's the lesson here, to not talk to strangers unless they're hot? I'll give her points for being cursed and everything, but next time, I want to see her become a little more independent before she marries a total stranger at the age of 16. It's a big world, Aurora, I hope you get to see some of it when you're queen.

I mean, you literally met him yesterday.

However, Comma -- For all its politically incorrect faults, Disney fairy tales seem to have one theme in common: that your animal friends will help you out when the going gets tough (ahem), and that true love conquers all. Believe it or not, underneath the exterior of this travel-obsessed, seemingly-cynical woman beats the heart of a relentless romantic that mourns the loss of true courtship. There is more than a small part of me that wishes planned dates and romance were still the norm, instead of Tinder hook ups and casual hang outs. Disney movies, even Sleeping Beauty, perpetuate not only my romanticism, but the continued hope that we modern-day princesses will quit settling for anything less.