Beauty and The Beast is a fairy tale that nearly everyone is familiar with. Most little girls, included me, looked up to Belle and often ran around in her dress, pretending to be her.
The tale was originally wrote by an 18th century French woman named Beaumont and it has a clear moral lesson. It was a lesson that taught the young girls of 18th century France that arranged marriages are not as scary as you might think. Despite the male appearing monster like, he has a good heart. However, in modern times we will happily let our children sit and watch a woman fall in love with her captor, with this highlighting the romanticism of Stockholm Syndrome.
Skip forward to 2020, a very different type of movie but is still causing similar controversy, is 365 DNI. If you haven’t watched this Polish version of of 50 Shades of Grey, the story line is pretty simple. A woman is kidnapped and assaulted by a Mafia boss, but SHOCK she falls in love with him.
Viewers comments range from “Kidnapping is a crime, it is not romantic” to complaints of the filmmakers “trivialising rape and kidnapping”. The attractive actors, money and locations do drag the attention away from what is really going on throughout the movie including sexual assault.
What actually is Stockholm Syndrome?
It is defined as a psychological response that occurs when hostages or abuse victims bond with their captors or abusers.
It wasn’t until 1973 that this response came to be named after two men held four people hostage for six days in a bank robbery in Stockholm. After the hostages were released they refused to testify against them and even began raising money for their defence.
Symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome include:
the victim develops positive feelings toward the person holding them captive or abusing them.
they may resent anyone who may be trying to help them escape. They may refuse to cooperate against their captor.
The victim begins to perceive their captors humanity and believe they have the same goals or values.
This response is seen as a coping mechanism rather than a mental-health issue.
Where do we see this in today’s society?
Stockholm Syndrome is not just seen in kidnappings. It can also be seen in abusive relationships (such as Battered Woman Syndrome), child abuse and sex trafficking.
Victims often rely on abusers/captors for basic necessities like food and water. When the abusers provide that, the victim may develop positive feelings towards the abuser and think that they are showing compassion. It can also be seen that victims begin to almost understand the reasons behind the actions of their captor/abuser and even sympathise.
But is Stockholm Syndrome real?
There has been a few famous cases in which the victim has be labelled to have suffered Stockholm Syndrome.
In 2002, Brian David Mitchell broke into the Smart family home and took Elizabeth from her bed. When she testified in 2009 she told of how she was drugged, tied to a tree and raped as often as four times a day. On the first day of her abduction, Mitchell’s wife made her change into a robe and preformed a strange marriage ceremony and she was raped for the first time.
Elizabeth was said to have Stockholm Syndrome as she had chances to escape, but never did. She was not kept locked away and she was often paraded around town in a heavy veil. In a public library, a police officer actually approached her, asked her identity and asked for her to lift her veil, yet she did not use this chance to tell the truth and escape from her abusers.
Elizabeth says she did not have Stockholm Syndrome and instead insists she acted obedient for self-preservation.
Perhaps the case that more of you will have of heard of is the case of Natascha Kampusch.
If you have not already watched the film 3096 Days which depicts the kidnapping and abuse which Kampusch went through, I really recommend watching it.
Kampusch was kidnapped in 1998 by Wolfgang when she was only ten years old. She was kept in a windowless, soundproof cellar under his garage (5ft square) which he had prepared especially to keep her in. He cut off her hair, made her help him do things partially naked and raped her. As the years passed Wolfgang began to take her upstairs into the house and often took her out with him, even to a ski trip. She had chances to get help, yet she never did.
Aged now 18, Kampusch saw an opportunity to escape and ran to her freedom through peoples gardens until she felt safe enough to stop. Wolfgang, on the day she escaped, threw himself in front of a train and Kampusch is said to have ‘cried and cried’ upon learning of his death.
When she escaped, she refused to answer any personal or intimate questions and when speaking about Wolfgang’s death she even said “I mourn for him”. She even lit a candle for him. Due to her not acting like the ‘ideal victim’ she was quickly judged and later labelled as suffered from Stockholm Syndrome. She stated “you can’t just simply banish someone that you have spent eight and a half years of your life with from your memory”. She also talked about how she was often grateful for the gifts he would bring her, and how they would discuss their future life together.
Kampusch stated what she had is “not a syndrome. It is a survival strategy”.
Survival Strategy?
I searched what to do in a kidnapping and came across ‘Bear Grylls on how to survive a kidnapping’. There is a few initial points, such as how the first seconds are the most important, and that you should kick and scream and fight as hard as you can. However, other points really stood out to me.
He says “you should do what you can do to appear dignified and to build up a relationship with your kidnapper. Don’t insult or disagree with them…Be empathetic”. It also states you should make yourself more “human” as the captor will be less likely to harm you.
Stockholm Syndrome should not be romanticised.
Films such as 365 DNI shockingly romanticise kidnapping, rape and assault and makes me wonder how victims such as Smart or Kampusch would react to watching these films. More needs to be done to realise what we are teaching people, even from a young age, such as Beauty and The Beast, and how we are making these traumatising crimes seem romantic. The use of attractive actors and lavish money is used to draw your attention away from the story lines, which are often just disturbing and insensitive.
The label of having suffered from Stockholm Syndrome needs to be destigmatized, as it is simply a coping mechanism of the trauma they are going through, a survival strategy, or the mental effects of relying very heavily on that person. It is also heavily romanticised in film and media, yet victims who this has actually happened to are made to feel shame for feeling empathy or any positive feelings towards their captures. Kampusch received several death threats.
We are all guilty for falling into the trap of romantics such as 365 DNI (I do not know a single girl who did not like the look of the handsome mafia boss) however, more needs to be done to educate and be more sensitive to victims of akin traumas.
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