Role models in movies

The Opinion page article "Models for Kids in 'Beauty and the Beast, Jan. 30, is a factual and warm-spirited review of the movie "Beauty and the Beast," but it has a blind spot.

The author describes a refreshing movie in which the heroine represents a positive role model for young females because she is strong, intelligent, independent, stubborn, and unafraid. She also describes three male characters, one of whom is a vain "male bimbo." Another is a father unable to extricate himself from his own difficulties and who then allows his daughter to be sacrificed in his place. The third is a "horrible beast."

The author concludes the article with the question "What more can you ask from a movie?" In response to this question, I suggest that you could ask a movie to present two positive role models, one of each sex. It isn't necessary to portray men as bad in order to illustrate the goodness of women. Robert C. Hunt, Modjeska Canyon, Calif.

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