What Ella Enchanted Says About Consent

Comments · 2.5K

• GO

  @goose_1083 · 1 year ago

  You know, I never realized that in the mirror room scene, she’s giving HERSELF an order that in turn creates a paradox with the curse. She tells herself to no longer be obedient as an order so the curse actives but the very nature of the order counteracts the curse itself. I never read it as her telling herself a command before but now it makes a lot of sense.

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• MA

  @MacaldaReye · 1 year ago

  The way this could’ve all been solved if her mother just said “I command you to never obey anyone without your own personal consent towards that command”

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• AL

  @AlliJuarez · 1 year ago (edited)

  I find it interesting too that in the movie, the magic took over and Ella just did whatever she was commanded to do. In The book however, she had to choose to do it, or else she started to feel physically sick, like the magic was punishing her, threatening to destroy her. This seems even more sinister to me, because Ella is forced to make the choice to be obedient to the commands every time. She is in essence being punished into giving consent.

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• DA

  @Dani-Wammi · 1 year ago

  I watched this as a child and was so distressed by the premise that i screamed to stop the movie. The second hand embarrassment coupled with i think the subconscious feeling that i experienced how horrible coercion feels as a high masking autistic woman constantly pushing down my own needs to fit in and survive.<br>And survive I did. I survived until i found a partner who has gently built up my confidence to say no. To be me. To take care of myself. To safely unmask. I couldn&apos;t ask for better.

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• CA

  @catboybenvolio · 1 year ago

  &quot;no one can consent until everyone can&quot; reminds me so much of &quot;we are not free until everyone is free.&quot; <br><br>this video made me uncomfortable, but in a good way. being forced to confront your own ideas and behavior is a good thing. i think i need to advocate better for myself. you are your first and best advocate! it&apos;s so easy to tell other people, but so hard to act on.

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• AN

  @animeotaku307 · 1 year ago

  The book is so much more disturbing about this. Someone brought up Ella’s father drugging her to get her to marry a rich older man (which only doesn’t happen because the man lost most of his wealth in a recent fire), but the part that disturbed me the most is this section where Lucinda tells Ella to be happy with her “gift.” Afterwards, Ella talks about relishing any order that might be given to her and how much joy it brings her. It only stops when her godmother realizes what happened and orders her to think and feel however she wanted about it.

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• JU

  @JuliaH-c6f · 1 year ago (edited)

  In the book, Ella&apos;s father forces her to eat magic mushrooms (essentially drug herself) so that she would be compliant about getting married off to an older man. The father in the book was absolutely diabolical.<br><br>But also, there is actually a charm sound in the kiss scene. But it&apos;s quieter and not as powerful as it was previously. But I could still hear it.

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• DE

  @demureworm · 1 year ago

  i loved your point about how schools are literally unable to teach consent, because the entire project of compulsory education relies on overriding the consent of the children to force them into a situation where they have so little agency that they can even be denied permission to use the bathroom. not that i&apos;m against the education of children -- far from it, i work in education -- but we need to talk about how the environment we place children in from before the age of reason prepares them to have their consent violated repeatedly, without language to explain why they&apos;re unhappy.

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• SL

  @sleepyselkiesiren · 1 year ago

  It hurts to realise her mother could have changed her order to make it so Ella didn&apos;t have to be obedient

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  @DorchaEagla · 1 year ago

  As an autistic (f) individual who grew up loving this movie, and abused for not being obedient even w exes this remains my fav movie. My male fiance was the first person I felt right of consent and breaking curse obedience. He respects every boundary I ever held. He read my body language. He never forced me accept uncomfort. <br><br>Watching this video explains now why he calls me &nbsp;his Ella enchanted when I say thank you to him every time he respects my boundaries. It explains why it was my fav movie without having words to say so.

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• 1T

  @1The_Silliest_G00se1 · 1 year ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax7YPEFIO1U&amp;t=87">1:27</a> &quot;but Ella&apos;s mother does something much more extreme: she dies&quot;

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• SI

  @SilverW01f · 1 year ago

  The other heartbreaking yet brilliant revelation the mirror scene adds to the story is that anyone could have given Ella this order. Ellla&apos;s mother likely didn&apos;t because she had already been affected by one of Lucinda&apos;s curses, and didn&apos;t want to upset her again by circumventing what she saw as a gift. The rest of the world was either explicitly out to use the curse to their own benefit or totally ignorant. In the latter case, Ella being unable to tell anyone becomes as much a curse as the curse itself because it makes it impossible for her to ask for help in breaking it. Even if she told someone to tell her not to be obedient, they would likely ask why - a question she couldn&apos;t answer. And it likely didn&apos;t even occur to her until the person she loved was in mortal danger because that way of life was so internalized.<br><br>That one change adds so much to the film.

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