Controversy surrounding the live-action version of Snow White, which is released on Friday, suggests there is little likelihood of a happy ever after for Disney studios bosses. The £210 million remake of the beloved 1937 cartoon classic has been branded too woke and labelled ‘2025’s most divisive film’. It could be a recipe for disaster at the box office.
The accusation that Snow White is playing politics is hard to avoid. From the casting of Latina actress Rachel Zegler in the lead role, despite the character being described in the book on which the film is based as having ‘skin as white as snow’, to replacing dwarfs with CGI ‘magical creatures’ in order to avoid stereotyping, some decisions taken by Snow White’s producers reveal a doctrinaire, politically correct approach to filmmaking.
Decisions taken by Snow White’s producers indicate a doctrinaire and overly progressive approach
But for your time-poor, exhausted, menopausal correspondent, one particular aspect of supposedly progressive orthodoxy really rankles: the trashing of the dynamic on which fairy tales are based, namely that women need saving by men.
Zegler has talked about how the film is ‘dated’ in terms of its representation of women in power. Her approach to playing Snow White was, she has said in interviews, as someone ‘dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be’, rather than waiting for a man to come and rescue her. In fact, Zegler even seems to suggest women need saving from men, labelling the prince’s actions in the original film ‘stalker-like’.
Step forward then a rebooted Snow White who, like other sisters, is doing it for herself. Yet what this young, naïve high priestess of soundbite feminism fails to appreciate is that there are times in a woman’s life – in my life – when we actually want to be saved; to submit our habitual ability to cope to a dose of dragon slayer protectionism.
Take the time a so-called (female) friend once did something so weak and disloyal it left me reeling with unhappiness. Did I square my shoulders and insist that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? Nah. I bawled my eyes out to my husband who responded by whisking me away for a spa weekend. Who can resist male protectionism when it’s packaged in a fancy hotel and gifted with an expensive mud wrap?
Not that being saved always has to amount to grand gestures, as witnessed by the kindly chap I recently met at a bleak motorway service station. Noticing my struggle with a recalcitrant petrol cap, in the pouring rain he appeared out of the M62 gloom and used his brawn and focus to unscrew the damn thing.
Sometimes even the promise of rescue – however unlikely – can make such a difference. A few months ago, when telling a male friend about a former colleague who had been unnecessarily mean spirited towards me, I felt my eyes suddenly (and embarrassingly) experience the devilish prick of unshed tears. My saviour came riding to the rescue. ‘Give me his email address and I’ll tell him that if he does it again I’ll end his blood line’ my pal responded, humorously (I hope).
Okay, so perhaps this kind of reaction – even in jest – is a step too far. But how nice to hear, even for a moment, that a bloke wants to make it better.
Surely even successful emancipated women have some bandwidth for a male saviour, if only to pause for a moment from having to be the one who is strong, right or competent all of the time. Having it all can be so exhausting.
Anyway, wanting to be saved doesn’t undermine gender equality or reject the great strides women have achieved. Nor is it a weakness to make such an admission. If anything, being candid about the need for sporadic rescue is itself a form of strength. Biology doesn’t make us unequal, it just makes us different. This is why there are times when I want to be saved by someone bigger, stronger and essentially male because they are all the things I’m not.
Yet Disney endlessly hoses us down with a narrative that is antithetical to this view. Wanting women to believe that dependence on men to fight wicked witches, speak up for us or sort out our car insurance is a form of oppression.
Ultimately, being saved – physically or emotionally– is also very romantic, even for the sassiest, smartest women. Look no further than that moment in the finale of Sex and the City when Big races to bring an unhappy Carrie home from Paris. Or how Mark Darcy strives to get Bridget Jones released from jail in Thailand after she is mistakenly arrested for drug possession. The relief, as much as the rescue, is exquisite.
Disney has missed a trick in failing to emulate these moments of movie magic. But at least having advance notice of Snow White 2.0 as played by Zegler has, ironically, been my saviour. Armed with this knowledge, I have no intention of watching this celluloid exercise in cheerless feminism. Having been spared, I will instead snuggle up on the couch with my other half and watch the original version. Back in 1937, Snow White didn’t bark at Sleepy or Dopey for having the temerity to open the door for her. And, for that lucky girl, at least, one day her prince did indeed come.
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