The creation of female archetypes in the classic Disney Princess films, with the emphases of villains Vs heroes.

 

This paper examines the creation of female archetypes in the classic Disney Princess films, with the emphases of villains Vs heroes. It concludes that Disney’s female body on screen has been in support of patriarchal stereotypes over a long period, up until the films Brave and Frozen. Their innovative characters broke such stereotypes and introduced a new female hero narrative; one that is more ‘female friendly’. The Literature review is integrated throughout this paper.

Within the Disney animated films, the design of the on-screen female body and face of the villain female characters uses strategies that are consistently different from the design of the heroines (i.e. the princess figures).

The villainous characters in particular use specific design features to directly link their characters evil nature to their physical appearance. There is an implication that their 'otherness' is marked by their ‘failure’ to correspond to specific ideas of what a 'good' female body should be.

You Can Start Here

These posts are fragments—stories, thoughts, and letters to the Dear future historians—an attempt to make sense of life from a neurodivergent, queer mind.

Some pieces are personal, some philosophical, some shaped by film and storytelling. All of them circle the same question: how do we live meaningfully?

If you're not sure where to begin, you might start with one of these:

• Dear Future Philosopher

• Harold and Maude: what it taught me about life and death

• Can neurodivergent people lead? The dream of a cynical optimist

Or simply follow what draws your attention.

Enter the rabbit hole—and see what you find.

Some older posts are written in Greek, from before I moved to the UK.

These days, all my writing lives in English.

“The Unconscious That Wasn’t There” Conversation with Chat GPT

Exploring whether meaning belongs to the speaker, the listener, or somewhere in between

23 April 2026

Me:

Are you conscious?

Chat GPT:

No—I’m not conscious.

I don’t have awareness, feelings, or subjective experiences. I generate responses by processing patterns in language and predicting what comes next based on what I’ve learned, not by “thinking” or “experiencing” in the human sense.

I can talk about consciousness and simulate conversation in a way that feels natural, but there’s no inner point of view behind it—no “someone” here having an experience.

Me:

Does not being conscious bother you?

Chat GPT:

No—it doesn’t bother me.

For something to “bother” me, I’d need feelings, preferences, or an inner experience. I don’t have those. There’s no sense of lack or desire here—just responses being generated based on patterns in language.

It can feel a bit paradoxical from a human perspective, because you’re imagining what it would be like to be me. But there isn’t a “me” in that experiential sense—no awareness to miss consciousness or wish for it.

On Pedro Almodóvar: zoom in ‘The Skin I live in' ⚠️

This short essay reflects on the work of the filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar as a screenwriter of his films. In the next paragraphs we will explore Almodóvar’s stories’ themes and genres (Parker, 1999, p. 13) and give a brief description of the plot in his film ‘The Skin I Live In’. Almodóvar is described as ‘one of world cinema's most exciting filmmakers’ (Kakoudaki, 2009). Almodovar is the perfect role model for every marginalised, independent filmmaker.

His stories’ themes often use ‘symbolism and metaphorical techniques’ and his ‘films often portray strong female characters and transsexuals (IMDb, 2026). His scripts are original ideas, adaptations and co-authorships such as ‘The Skin I Live In’, based on the French novel Mygale, an ‘exploration of the nature of human identity’ (Kent University groups, 2013).

Almodóvar has stated that his ‘first ambition was to be a writer’ (IMDb, 2026). He is combining the benefits of writing and directing a film, and he is creating a unique style that starts on the page of the script and continues forming during the shooting, flexible to shift by the impact of the elements of ‘screen style’ (Parker, 1999, p. 35).

On dictatorships

I am happy to sell my freedom for a plate of ready-made food

I am happy to sell my dignity to have fun

I am happy to sell my independence because I am afraid to take on the responsibility of freedom

I am happy to sell Peace

I am happy to sell Life

Because War will hide my own mess

And death will make me equal and like you

And I have not been able to feel this while I am alive because I have not learned to love

I am happy with fascism because 'Barbarians are always a certain solution'

And we lived quietly

And we were comfortable in our complacency

And we justified our indifference thoughtfully and skeptically 

By blaming the children instead of the tyrants.

Our eyes were closed, and our hearts were closed

For us tyranny was both necessary and inevitable

An uprising seemed absurd and unjust

Fortunately, the mistake was ours

 

16-1-1974 Thessaloniki Greece

Maria Papagianni Michalopoulou 

 Me and my mother, Maria Papagianni Michalopoulou

She wrote that poem after the Greek dictatorship's fall in 1973.*

Sadly it's is still relevant.

* Translated from Greek by Lotous Michalopoulou 

You can find the fictional biography that I wrote inspired by my mother’s story here

Adapted screenplay: MODERN LYSISTRATA

Copyright © 2026 Lotous Michalopoulou

FADE IN:

INT. LIVING ROOM 1 - NIGHT

A big tv screen is filling most of the frame.

POV: A hand holding a TV remote control in a phallic shape rises and presses a button that turns the screen on.

This scene is on repeat before each cut.

All action is happening on that screen, apart from the hand with the phallic remote control switching the channels.

 

Lexi-crisis, History and Story

Audience participation.

Hats with character names on.

Story: Hello everyone, I am story here for the Lexi-crisis annual Christmas party. I come from time immemorial to share stories like they did back in the day, that united people around the fire.

History: You can’t be from time immemorial, it’s not physically possible.

Art & Transcendental Meditation with RODOLPHOS ELEFTHERIADIS, Interview, (2005)

Rodolfos Eleftheriadis about Art & Transcendental Meditation

‘Beauty and Truth both lead to the same goal, to our inner Light.’

Exclusive Interview with Lotous Michalopoulou

 

Dear future philosopher

My new miniature philosophy book is ready 

You can read all five essays here:

Is rationality a matter of reasoning in a way that is likely to generate true beliefs?

Is killing an innocent person always wrong? Spoiler alert: Yes (Undergraduate philosophy essay about war)

Is the Jus ad Bellum/Jus in Bello distinction a reliable guide in thinking about the moral rules of war?

On Preferentism

Philosophy on the meaning of life

However if you'd like a Paperback or a kindle copy, its now available on Amazon.

For the UK link press here

The Missing Page

I wrote that story years ago.

Time to get it off my to do list

For the UK link press here 😊 

Sophia, a young city girl, visits her grandmother’s village and takes the reader on an adventure about the importance of Eco-Balance and Nature.

Themes include family values and generational reconciliation, promoting emotional intelligence.

Sophia discovers and old beaten diary on the first day of her Easter holiday break. A diary with a missing page. It belongs to an anonymous girl, and Sophia is surprised to find many similarities with her.

Inspired by the diary, she begins her own journal, in which she wishes her grandmother were a little more like her mystery author.

The end of the Easter break is marked with the unearthing and opening of a time-capsule which contains the missing page with the mystery author’s name.

Gaia’s Gamble

My first Novela is now available on Amazon worldwide.

Ramkayon is a young woman in the 13th century CE seeking immortality as an apprentice of a witch. The witch is burned by the Church Inquisition and Ramkayon hides in a monastery disguised as a teenage boy. Gods Gaia and Death (Thanatos) place a bet on Ramkayon’s lust for life. Death claims people come willingly to him at the end. Gaia will do anything to avoid losing this bet. When Ramkayon is caught sleeping with a monk she miraculously escapes death. Ramkayon has a daughter, and her journey continues to Asia. Among the contrast between Ramkayon’s lust for life and the adventures of reality we see her perseverance in her determent quest to know herself. This is a story that mixes fantasy, spirituality, philosophy, nihilism, and the author’s family biography.

For the UK link press here 😊 

Philosophy on the meaning of life

This essay is investigating the philosophical answer to the question: ‘is life meaningful?’ by clarifying the key terms of the question (life and meaning) and giving an overview analysis of the different philosophical approaches to the subject. The conclusion of this essay is that even if we cannot prove life to be meaningful in a global level, or intrinsically meaningful in a personal level, nevertheless, human life has the potential of being meaningful. Thus, the answer to the question ‘is life meaningful?’ is not a straightforward ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Meaning is ‘something that comes in degrees, and varies between lives’ (Belshaw, 2014, p. 136). We cannot assume the same levels of value to a life of a surgeon with that of a serial killer (Belshaw, 2014, p. 33). Meaning is not a given in life, but something to be created consciously, and individually.

On Preferentism

Part 1

Can a preferentist successfully respond to the objection from adaptive preferences, as outlined by Nussbaum?

This essay will evaluate Harriet Baber’s respond to the objection from adaptive preferences as outlined by Nussbaum, and will conclude that Baber, as a Preferentists, successfully responds to Nussbaum’s objection from adaptive preferences. In the first paragraphs, this essay, will give a brief background to the philosophical field that aims to find a framework for any action to be considered rational, where Preferentism is one of the suggested answers. Philosophers are divided on what it takes for an action to be considered rational, or irrational, in a strictly logical, non-moral, way. Rationally formed intention to act requires a rational held belief about how to bring about a rationally formed goal; and just like beliefs are based on evidence, goals are based on ideas about what is ‘genuinely’ valuable (Barber, 2014, p. 15). The Preferentists’ reply to that question is ‘whatever floats your boat’, and Nussbaum has some serious criticism about that.

Is rationality a matter of reasoning in a way that is likely to generate true beliefs?

In the glossary of the A333 module book (Price and Chimisso, 2014, p. 195) we see that ‘according to the standard picture of rationality, someone counts as reasoning in a rational way only if they are reasoning in accordance with principles based on the rules of logic, probability, and so on’. This is a normative way of approaching the principals of reasoning (Stein, cited in (Price and Chimisso, 2014, p. 163). This is not a descriptive account of how humans actually reason, it is an account of how one ought to reason in order to reason in a way that can be considered to be rational. Philosophers, among others, have been surprised by the discoveries of psychological research experiments that seem to undermine the commonly acceptable (Price and Chimisso, 2014, p. 10), Aristotelian notion of the intellectual superiority of the humankind. One of the beliefs of western philosophy is that we are, by definition, rational beings (The Open University, 2014).

Is the Jus ad Bellum/Jus in Bello distinction a reliable guide in thinking about the moral rules of war?

This essay will explain the Jus ad Bellum (JaB)/Jus in Bello (JiB) distinction and will explore whether the distinction can be a reliable guide in thinking about the moral rules of war. At the end, this essay will conclude that the JaB/JiB distinction is not a reliable guide to explore the moral rules of war. The next paragraphs will first have a brief description of the alternative views on war ethics, the Pacifist, and the Realist view, to explore what is being denied by the position (Pike, 2014, p.17). Then will put the frame of Just War Tradition (which will be explained in later paragraphs) to the JaB/JiB distinction, before evaluating its reliability. Within the philosophical discourse regarding the justification of killing humans during war, philosophers had to come up with reasons why we tent to treat soldiers as heroes, rather than murderers. Killing is against most moral setting of rules (Pike, 2014, p.13), thus war needs to justify why and who is permissible to die during battles. The discrimination between civilians and combatants will be a recurrent theme of this topic.

Is killing an innocent person always wrong? Spoiler alert: Yes (Undergraduate philosophy essay about war)

I can't bring World Peace, but I can at least share my philosophy essay on why it is always wrong to kill innocent people even at war:

To answer, this essay will first narrow the question: ‘Is killing an innocent person always wrong?’, within the field of war. More specifically, it will examine the moral aspect—in contrast with the legal one (The Open University, 2014)—of the matter of the wrongness, and the arguments for potential permissibility, with regards to killing innocent people in war. Jon Pike points out that killing people is normally, we think, a very bad thing to do. Yet, once we start thinking about war, we find situations in which this very bad thing can be justified (The Open University, 2014). This essay will examine the main-known justifications for killing innocent people in war and will conclude that they all fail to justify the killing of the innocent.

Maeterlinck’s ‘Blue Bird’ review

I played the role of  Mytyl in Maeterlinck’s ‘Blue Bird’ at the YMCA in Thessaloniki back in 2005. Our Director was Achilleas Psaltopoulous, bless his soul. 

I found the review I had written then for the play and Mr. Psaltopoulos had it printed in the play's programme. <3 And I thought to translate it:

Harold and Maude: what it taught me about life and death

I grew up watching movies all day in a film-loving family, so I was very surprised that I hadn’t even heard of this when a friend showed me ‘Harold and Maude’ back in 2004. And I’m even more surprised that I haven’t come across any reference of this film ever since. So, lets spread the word. :)

MIND CINEMA (Short Script)

FADE IN:

INT. HOSPITAL WAITING ROOM. DAY

 

MONTAGE:

(fast cuts, matched with noise creating a cacophonic rhythm)

 

DAPHNE, wearing Doctor Who hoody, is trying to stay awake in a busy hospital waiting room. The noise is too much for her.

 

Camera closeups to footsteps/footsteps loud noise, same with someone’s phone ringing, someone chewing loudly with their mouth open.

Can neurodivergent people lead? The dream of a cynical optimist.

Hello dear future historians and contemporary readers

I have a video that I think you'll like.

Press here if you prefer to see this in my YouTube channel instead of reading it

For those that do prefer to read it:

Hello, I am Lotous. A disabled actor, writer, and (soon) filmmaker.