She was never meant to be ugly



I feel like a lot of people misunderstand Jane’s story in Descendants 1. (#currenttopics) This I bring up because I recently slid into a bit of a Descendants hyperfixation and while trying to find content on my favorite, Jane, I saw multiple posts just showing a picture of her actress and saying “I can’t believe Disney tried to make her ugly”. But that is the wrong approach because Jane’s story was never about being ugly.

Jane is clearly an outcast and is raised by a mother who focuses on working on one’s inside rather than outside. It’s clear that Jane's choices in her outward look (hair, clothing) do not match Auradon’s popular girl looks. It’s also abundantly clear that Auradon is shallow as Hell, just like in real life people often are, and they value looks over anything else. Just look at the amount of girls that wanted Mal to spell their hair different and Audrey’s reaction. As you might recall, Audrey immediately starts talking about other facial features being changed and how if everyone looks good, where will she be? Auradon’s shallow approach comes further into light when we turn back to Jane, as after a mere haircut change, the popular girls started interacting with her and stopped after Mal undid her spell. Jane was beautiful even before Mal spelled her, but she wasn’t beautiful in the way people wanted her to be. They only accepted her when she started looking like how they wanted her to. And the moment that was gone, they stopped interacting with her.

An important thing to note is that no one ever eludes to or outright calls Jane ugly except for Jane herself early in the movie when she says “I’d rather be pretty.” to Mal bringing up her personality. Mal in that very same scene talks about not being able to change “big features” but that’s not calling Jane ugly, it’s a comment on her own magical skill. The girls laugh at Jane’s hair being undone, but they are laughing at her misfortune and not her looks.

In the movie, Jane’s looks are only commented on twice besides the time Jane’s previously comment. Snow White makes a comment about her hair during the coronation, but that is specifically about the hair, she at no point makes a comment about Jane’s overall beauty or lack thereof. And Mal after the coronation when she looks Jane in the eyes and tells her with genuine honesty that she is beautiful.

Jane is at no point by anyone in the story eluded to as an ugly girl, because she isn’t. And the story didn’t try to make her be ugly. They were telling a story about external validation and how when we seek others’ approval, it leads us to dark, self-destructive places. Jane wasn’t supposed to be ugly, she merely wasn’t pretty in the way Auradon considered pretty to be.

Jane’s story was never about being ugly it was about her believing herself to be ugly because she wasn’t beautiful in the way others’ wanted her to be and she needed to find it in herself to recognize how beautiful and amazing she is.

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