Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves undoubtedly casts a spell on its audience. The film, when watched at face value, inspires feelings of innocence, purity, true love, good triumphing over evil, et cetera.
From the mines with dazzling gems of every color, the grandeur of the castle, the beauty of Snow White’s resting place, and the gorgeous sunset that she and the Prince ride of into, the graphics of this movie are irresistible. The color schemes of each scene clarify whether or not it is ‘pure’ or ‘evil’, allowing color to play a significant role in the plot. The Queen’s color scheme is very harsh and intense: deep greens, reds, and blacks. The dwarves’ cottage has a homey color scheme, with warmer colors from the fire and light present. In the mines, the gems are vibrant colors contrasting with the dark greys and blacks, and pastel flowers present in depictions of the enchanting forest. The color schemes reinforce the mysticism of the dwarves, the animals, the setting, and the forest while keeping each aspect feeling innocent and sweet to the audience.
Below the facade of cheerful chipmunks, happy little songs, and individualized gooseberry pies, however, lie deeply problematic gender roles and plot points. While Snow White is not 7 in this version, she is still quite young and foolish. She makes no decisions, she is a passive character, and she is subservient to each character she interacts with, except perhaps the adorable woodland animals. She only displays an opinion when she forces the dwarves to wash her hands. Other than that, she spends her time cooking, cleaning, and dreaming of the prince who will come save her. A small but aggravating detail was that Snow White barely opened her eyes- whenever she was speaking, she acted like Bashful, averting eye contact and keeping her eyes mostly closed.
What example is she setting for the little girls fixed to the movie screen? This subservient, opinionless stereotype is only perpetuated by Grumpy’s horrendous commentary throughout the entire movie: “Angel, ha! She's a female! And all females is poison! They're full of wicked wiles!” But it is revealed at the end that Grumpy secretly does love Snow White just as much as the other dwarves, which reminds me of the typical playground trope that boys will be mean to you if they like you. This does not teach young girls healthy ways to view themselves, their role in society, their potential, or the way they should interact with boys and men; nor does it teach little boys healthy ways to talk about or interact with women. It perpetuates male aggression and women-blaming (Grumpy’s quote above) while teaching girls to just hope males like them and not to stick up for themselves.
Further, the concept of True Love’s First Kiss does not reinforce the importance of consent. What is especially concerning about this consent-less kiss is that Snow White is actually brought to life by it. Her life was not just saved but completely renewed by the man who came to her aid when it was convenient for him and who put absolute minimum effort into reviving her. Both versions of this tale provide poor female and male role models to both little girls and little boys watching.
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