Snow White

It is one of the most targeted fairy tales of the new politically correct world. After being judged “too white” and not respectful of any of the great advances made by the PC movement in recent times — through her Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs film adaptation —, and after losing her seven dwarfs — who became “friends” on the occasion of the 2015 Leicester De Montfort Hall Christmas pantomime, on the ground that “dwarf is not a word that people feel comfortable with” —, now Snow White would even be abused by a non-consensual kiss from her prince, who tries to wake her up from her eternal slumber.

The matter of debate this time is a new Disneyland’s ride called Snow White’s Enchanted Wish, in Anaheim, California, which features an animatronic recreation of the moment in which the prince kisses the sleeping Snow White. In a review of the new ride for San Francisco publication SFGATE, editor Katie Dowd and contributor Julie Tremaine wrote: “Haven’t we already agreed that consent in early Disney movies is a major issue? That teaching kids that kissing, when it hasn’t been established if both parties are willing to engage, is not OK? It’s hard to understand why the Disneyland of 2021 would choose to add a scene with such old fashioned ideas of what a man is allowed to do to a woman.”

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall…” And each of us probably still knows “who’s the fairest of them all.” It’s about a 19th-century German fairy tale which, along with others like Little Red Riding Hood or The princess and the pea, is today known widely across the Western world. Published in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm, in the first edition of their collection Grimms’ Fairy Tales, it was titled Sneewittchen and numbered as Tale 53.

Since then, there have been many versions and variations of the story — the Grimms completed their final revision in 1854. One of the best known is certainly the Walt Disney’s 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And since besides the dwarfs, the fairy tale features such elements as the magic mirror, the poisoned apple, the glass coffin, and the characters of the evil queen, there really is a great deal of depictions which inspired and continue to inspire artists from all over the world, from illustration to street art — not to mention the funny or slutty versions which are indeed quite sizeable. In fact, today Snow White became a real sex symbol, a controversial identity that allows her to still be one of the most loved characters of all time.