princesses and the effects of abuse
i lied. my actual roman empire is the trivialization of femininity and the rampant need to girlboss-ify disney's older princesses. this has been something weighing on my mind lately, and i'd like to talk about it. this won't be concise at all, just me rambling angrily!
i applaud movies such as snow white and the seven dwarfs and cinderella for their portrayal of familial abuse. if we're all so media literate, then why do we treat these female characters so harshly? the idea that's constantly propagated among these princesses is, "why doesn't she just stand up for herself?" "why doesn't she leave?" and more commonly, "why does she just wait around for a prince/fairy godmother to save her?" and honestly, don't we know better?
i'd argue that the familial abuse in cinderella is more straightforward and obvious (literally using the word abuse in the opening sequence) as opposed to snow white. but we can gather a lot from snow white that points to her mistreatment—she's dressed in rags, working as a scullery maid, and the sole fact that the queen was willing to kill her is enough evidence for me. the question remains, "why does she wait around to be saved? where's her agency?"
snow didn't have much of a choice to be abused by her stepmother, she didn't have much of a choice to seek refuge in the forest at the demands of the huntsman, and she most certainly didn't choose to cry and have a panic attack on the ground in the glade. what series of choices does she make exactly? she chooses kindness, of course.
it was her choice to clean up the dwarf's house! in the forest, it was her choice to put her chin up and persist. and that takes a lot of strength, especially after the events snow was impacted by. a young and naive fourteen-year-old girl easily could become bitter and jaded after experiencing that much trauma, but she doesn't! if she did, she would be exactly like her stepmother, and seeking revenge wouldn't be a good lesson to teach kids, no?
also, a lot of people say she has no personality, and i feel that the majority of the common opinions of this film are due to people;
fundamentally misunderstanding the film and
misremembering details from when they were children.
snow white is so disgustingly misremembered, mistreated, and misunderstood. much like any teenage girl, she had a bit of playfulness to her as well! she can be sarcastic, and makes a ton of quips at grumpy's expense. she's silly! she has agency when she's in an environment that's good for her mentally!
theres's not a lot of people can do much in an abusive household, especially when you're fourteen. i don't understand how people can victim blame her for not being proactive for that exact reason. even more so in cinderella's case, since she's being abused right in front us. she didn't wait around for the fairy godmother, she quite literally manifested her out of hope. it was her hope that drove her to go to the ball and meet the prince in the first place. it was hope for true love that kept snow white losing all hope in the castle. snow white had confidence and was sure of herself. if she wasn't, she wouldn't be nearly as kind and gentle.
it takes so much strength to be kind! for some people, being kind is as natural as breathing. but for others, sometimes it's extremely difficult to treat others kindly, but you do anyway! because that's how you properly heal. and that is such an important lesson to teach children.
did you expect me to be so passionate about disney princesses? neither did i. shitty live action remakes make you do surprising things.