Dreams and Hopes for what?

This week's discussion gave me a really new perspective about Disney movies. I was not a big fan of Disney movies nor did they mean a lot to me (due to my cultural backgrounds), so I have never condsidered them with critical eyes. However, I found that I also had a critical opinion about the movies, though I did not notice before the class.

Korean dramas are popular to not only Korean people, but also people in other Asian countries, such as Chinese or Japanese. Korean dramas are good, but the dramas are usaully criticized because of their limited plots; all the dramas have similar plot structures. There is a term 'Cinderella story'. This term refers to the Korean dramas, usaully used when criticizing them. The plots of drama are very similar to Cinderella; a tender-hearted but poor woman meets and falls in love with "the prince", who is not only good-looking, but has a lot of money. Although people around the woman harrass her, and intervene the love between the woman and "the prince", the drama ends up with a happy ending.

I don't really like this kind of drama. It is far from the reality nor do they give any fruitful lessons. They make people (usually women) "build a castle in the air", and make people hard to adjust to reality. Also, those dramas make women dependent considerably on men, which is a really retrogressive behavior that do not fit to women in 21st century. Disney movies are usually considered as 'movies which give dreams and hopes to childeren'. But Dreams and Hopes for what? One day, "the prince" will come up and fall in love with you? And your life will be happy ever after?

↑one of the most typical kinds of 'Cinderella story' drama in Korea