Snow White Gender Stereotypes

Walt Disney over the years has impacted the lives of millions of children with his animated films. His Disney movies have evolved in the last years and have moved from the traditional damsel in distress theme. Specifically, the classic movie Cinderella gives the wrong idea about what it is to be a woman for young girls. The movie portrays a young woman facing emotional, mental, and physical abuse by her evil stepmother and later falls in love with a charming prince. However, if viewers take a closer look, Disney’s anti feminist message is firmly emphasized. The story of Cinderella is sexist due to it’s lesson to girls that beauty and submission will award them a rich bachelor. This is seen through Cinderella’s submissive behavior, Prince

In both “Cinderella Is Traditional and Straightforward, but Plenty Charming,” by Richard Lawson, and Madonna Kolbenschlag’s “A Feminist’s View of Cinderella,” the popular fairytale of a girl becoming a princess is discussed. Lessons of identity, rivalry, and grief are displayed through both the tale of Cinderella herself and the film. Even though both Lawson and Kolbenschlag address the lessons taught by the story of Cinderella, the extent as to which each author elaborates on if the morals of the story are convoluted or simply modest differ drastically.     Both pieces agree that Cinderella conveys moral lessons to children. Lawson expresses the belief that Cinderella emits simple and straightforward messages to both young girls and boys.

Furthermore, Joan D. Vinge considers gender role stereotyping in the The Snow Queen by reacting to typical patriarchal roles through “change[ing] society by changing our stories” (Wulff 9). The author used the traditional fairy tale as a platform to break traditional boundaries often presented in literature and create a vision for an utopian society contrasted with an extreme dystopian society to critique the problems in our world that come from conforming to gender norms.

The portrayal of women, gender roles and stereotypes in Disney films has long been a controversial topic. Disney’s 1959 animated film, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, and Robert Stromberg’s 2014 live action remake, ‘Maleficent’, each provide a different take of Charles Perrault’s 1697 fairy tale, ‘La Belle au bois Dormant’ (‘The Sleeping Beauty’). The comparison of Aurora, one of the main characters from both films, brings into light the stark contrast in portrayals of gender roles as well as physical ideals and stereotypes in women. Emphasis or lack thereof on physical characteristics and gender representation from both texts challenge and reflect ideals and stereotypes that are impactful to the audience.

As they are forced into these low positions, Cinderella and Snow White, become complacent with their situations. “The paradox of this acceptance of a condition of worthlessness in the self, along with a conviction of the ultimate worthiness and heroism of one’s role, is part of the terrible appeal of the fairy tale” (Kolbenschlag 3). Neither do anything to become more than a simple domestic home maiden, which is all women are seen as. “Rather than being empowered through sisterhood and community, the heroines in traditional

Overall, the emphasis that fairy tales place on physical appearance can be very detrimental to a child (particularly a girl’s) development and ideas of reality. To add, fairy tales, although perhaps unintentionally, depict that attractiveness determines who is good and who is evil. The protagonist is often the princess, who is described as the prettiest in the land. The antagonist on the other hand is often less attractive and more than likely labeled ugly (Schussler). Because fairy tales often depict good conquering evil and evil succumbing to its immorality, this therefore shows the reader that ugly people are punished. This also can influence a girl’s self-esteem, considering that the created sense of beauty is impossible, thus they may feel inferior (Danish). Grauerholz hypothesizes that “[t]hese powerful messages that say women need to be beautiful may compel some women to seek beauty at the expense of other pursuits, such as careers or education” (Grauerholz). The exaggerated emphasis on beauty has potential to be a very limiting factor for young girls. However, the stereotypical beautiful princess is not the only gender stereotype that plagues women in the tales.

“Little Snow-White”, written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is about an old Queen, whose jealousy of beauty surpasses many morals when she discovers she is not the fairest of them all, which evidently leads the story into portraying many stereotypes and prejudices of feminism.

Few people can grow up within today's society without knowing the tale of Snow White. From the Grimm Brothers to Disney, it has been told and retold to children throughout the ages. However, what is often overlooked are the true meanings within the story. Fairytales typically have underlying messages that can be found written between the lines, generally in terms of the key themes. Snow White discusses the themes of envy and beauty, and shows how humans' obsessions can lead to their own downfall as well as the harm of others. When focusing on the relationship between Snow White and her step-mother the Queen, it is evident that the combination of these two themes results in a power struggle in which beauty

A routine pattern in Disney movies is the inclusion of a prince to save their princess from danger. This repeated relationship between the two love interests is a major reason why Snow White is not only illustrated with mother-esque traits but is constantly seen child-like; a scared and passive girl who never acts to save herself. Disney deems it obligatory to the plot to depict a female character whose survivals relies on a man. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs depends on this theme heavily by having the life of Snow White hang on a thin thread if not saved by the prince and his non-consensual kiss of true love.

In the films "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Dumbo" children can observe the role given to women in the house and racial discrimination. According to Mishkat de Ram (2016), the first film mentioned shows the role of women because the princess works as a servant for seven men (par.3). The role of the princess establishes in children a prototype about how women should act in the home. In Dumbo, the film does not show the faces of the black characters. These are portrayed as people who can not read and write. In the film, they live only to work (par.3). These are examples of how Disney films portray racial and sexual stereotypes.

Snow White is a fairy-tale known by many generations; it is a beloved Disney movie, and a princess favoured by many kids. But did you know the fairy-tale was made to teach young children, especially little girls, their duties in life? It also values beauty over knowledge, portrays women to be naive and incompetent, and assumes that women cannot understand anything other than common household chores. Throughout this criticism, I will be using the feminist lens to analyze the fairy-tale, Snow White, through the perspective of a feminist.

“Through the cheerful music, funny characters, and happy ending, the character of Snow White starts the Disney trend of a domestic woman who becomes a damsel-in-distress relying on a prince to come and save her” (Barber, 2015). The original 1812 tale of Little Snow White by the Brothers Grimm portrays Snow White as a small, naive, self centered little girl who can’t seem to listen to anything she is told, and who has to rely a prince she doesn’t even know to wake her up from the dead. Two hundred years later, in the 2012 movie version Snow White and the Huntsman, the director Rupert Sanders revisits the original tale of Snow White, but decides to change it up a bit. In this version of the tale, Snow White is a strong, independent young woman who seems to be able to do anything she decides to do. In Sander’s version, Snow White not only conquers the cruel queen, but she conquers the labels society often places on women. Unlike the Grimms Brothers, Sanders develops his Snow White's character in a way that fits with women’s empowerment that the current generation now fights for everyday.

However, she is also one of the common females who finally falls due to female materialism, “cosmetology and cookery” (Gilbert and Gubar, 294). There are three episodes in the fairy tale, “Snow White.” When the queen tries to kill the princess, she accesses to her three times and she brings one thing each time. First one is Victorian lace, the second one is poisoned comb, and the last one is poisonous apple. These episodes show that although the princess Snow is the most beautiful woman in the story, she is also eager to be prettier just like other women.

Once upon a time in a land not so far away, the society of man created the idea that it was a woman’s job to conform to the ideologies generated in fairy tales. From women depending on their prince charmings all the way to romanticized sexual abuse and lack of consent, stories like Cinderella and Snow White radiate sexism within an array of scenes of the stories and films. Not only does this affect the way that men view women, but it has had a relatively negative effect on the ways that many women view themselves. Many fairy tales have made their way into mainstream culture, and today many young girls and boys grow up hearing and seeing the subliminal messages in fairy tales. As more and more fairy tales make their way onto the big screen, it can be seen that all princesses seem to share a common feature other than their crowns and lack of self worth without a man by their side; their tiny waists. In recent years during the 21st century more and more people in the media have been calling out fairy tales for their anti-feminist attitudes with sexism, body standards as well as societal comments about women being dependent on men.

Some of the recurring themes and messages I found while reading "Snow White", were women, (even Queens) actually like to do domesticating chores like sewing; that women are so indecisive that even after they get what they ask for they will still find some measure of dissatisfaction. Extreme vanity is a priority, being the most beautiful in comparison