Disney princesses beaten black and blue for advocacy

MANILA, Philippines—What happens when a fairy tale turns out to be a traumatic nightmare?

An advocacy of an artist Saint Hoax against domestic violence used famous Disney princesses, bloodied and beaten, to portray abused women.

The awareness campaign dubbed “Happy Never After” encourages women to not just sulk and tolerate battery, but to seek help from the authorities to put domestic violence to a stop.

The poster series showed Aladdin’s Princess Jasmine, Little Mermaid’s Ariel, Sleeping Beauty’s Princess Aurora and Cinderella, with a superimposed quote “When did he stop treating you like a princess? It’s never too late to put an end to it.”

When the US-based Huffington Post asked why he chose Disney princesses as representations of domestic violence victims, he said: “”By portraying Disney princesses as victims of domestic violence, I’m proposing the idea that no girl [or] woman is safe from being emotionally, physically, [or] sexually abused.”

“As a Middle Eastern artist, I always have the urge to voice out the injustice and inequality that takes place in my region,” he added.

Based on the artist’s website, Hoax is a “pseudonymous Middle Eastern artist.”

“Infatuated by the element of POP, Hoax works with both tangible and digital mediums to recreate a world based on visual lies. Combining pop art with tyrants and world leaders became Saint Hoax’s signature,” his description added.

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