While male critics are busy panning Disney’s “Maleficent,” a vocal group of women are discussing what they describe as a rape scene in the movie. [SPOILER ALERT] Turns out that before she became a baddie, the pretty fairy Maleficent, portrayed by Angelina Jolie, was drugged and then stripped of her wings by a boor of

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While male critics are busy panning Disney’s “Maleficent,” a vocal group of women are discussing what they describe as a rape scene in the movie. [SPOILER ALERT] Turns out that before she became a baddie, the pretty fairy Maleficent, portrayed by Angelina Jolie, was drugged and then stripped of her wings by a boor of a human, Stefan. That boor of a human went on to become king, who went on to have that baby girl Aurora, who went on to become – you guessed it – Sleeping Beauty.

This Maleficent back story is interesting and on-trend with the recent pop culture emphasis on origins stories (see all “X-men: Origins” movies and recent Transformers cartoons, for example.) But, the fact that Maleficent was drugged by her boyfriend, assaulted by said boyfriend, had her wings cut off her body and was left writhing in pain and humiliation on the floor after coming to, is very serious imagery indeed. Enough so that Forbes, Huffington Post and all manner of websites are devoting lots of space to the assault that many women say is very much akin to rape. There are also all manner of people resisting the description and stating that the incident is an assault and not a rape.

The Huffington Post writes:

But he doesn’t kill her. He rapes her of her ability to fly. He drugs her and leaves her so that he can bring her wings back to the king of the humans like Dorothy was told to fetch the broom of the Wicked Witch. She wakes up moaning, wailing. Stumbling. Utter devastation.

My 5-year-old digested the scene as an act of betrayal. She flat-lined the reasoning for Maleficent’s rage: “He cut off her wings.” Maleficent was wounded. But she survived. More, she recovered — physically and psychologically.

Grown women know better. I know better. I’m too familiar with the headlines about the boys who feel entitled to take from women and girls. Boys like these. And these. And now, these three boys, who raped a drunk girl at a prom party. There is so much rape that when you write a story about a woman at her most vulnerable point (is drugged in the dirt enough for you?), rape becomes the symbol. Even if that’s not the writer’s intention.

One Forbes writer disagrees and quips:

The scene is not about rape. It is a social commentary arguing that any hierarchical rise to power inherently happens through the exploitation of others and is therefore tantamount to rape. This is why, without her wings, Maleficent also becomes an oppressive ruler of the Moors. She’s been robbed of her ability to fly. Tethered to the ground, she cannot soar. Everything she represents, believes, and stands for has been grounded. Like most victims of oppression, she responds in kind. She takes it out on those who are smaller and weaker than she.

Maleficent’s writer says (via The Hollywood Reporter):

I had done some research, and the biggest surprise is that she’s a fairy, not a witch. I’ve always wanted to do a dark fairy story. Then I watched that scene where she curses the baby, and I’m thinking “well if she’s a fairy, where are her wings?” Suddenly it was “boom. Lightbulb. Oh! It’s the wings!” Then I worked backward from there to create the Stefan relationship.

Richard Roeper’s review here.

Other women respond on social media in this Story I pulled together.

– Adrienne Samuels Gibbs