Female
# 1: The combination of two perfect fairy tale storylines: the girl waiting for her knight in shining armor to come and rescue her, and the poor maid in rags becoming a princess. Disney's female characters rely on their male counterparts to rescue them from their unsatisfying lives.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was the first full-length animated feature in history. Its the quintessential fairy tale of love and tragedy with a couple of weird characters thrown in. Snow White is a princess who is forced by her evil stepmother the Queen to dress in rags and do housework. She dreams of the day when Prince Charming will come and rescue her. The Queen attempts to murder Snow White (the fairest in the land) who then flees to live with seven dwarfs. She finally falls to the Queen, but is miraculously brought back to life by her dream man.
Snow White
herself set the precedent for every other Disney animated heroine to follow in the future. She was young, virginal, and innocent. Her role in the movie was to act as a 'mother' to the dwarves. Upon entering their house her first task was to clean up the horrible mess. In exchange for letting her stay with them, she offered to clean their house, wash their clothes, and make them good meals. She valued their generosity so much that she sold her ability as a woman to take care of and nurture them. She was convinced that the 7 little men needed a female to keep house. Snow White is very dainty and delicate in her movements, whether its fussing with her rags before meeting the prince or never forgetting to tuck up the hem of her dress as she walks. She is Walt Disney's vision of the ideal female, one who is perfectly satisfied working to keep the men happy. Yet she cannot be truly happy until the man that she loves comes to rescue her from all of her troubles.
The seven dwarfs are in desperate need for a female to look after them. Its not because they are dwarves, but because they are men that they cannot be expected to clean up after themselves. Snow White wins the heart of every dwarf, even Grumpy. The dwarfs are terribly saddened when the Queen tricks her into eating the poisoned apple. They believe that she is dead and keep constant vigil by her glass coffin. One reason that they are so upset is because 'she was so beautiful'. The main reason is because she took care of them and they miss the attention and affection that she constantly gave to every one of them.
The
only other main character is the Queen, the evil stepmother. She transforms herself into a witch to trick Snow White into eating a poisoned apple that will put her asleep forever, unless a prince comes and plants one on her lips. She forces Snow White to dress in rags and clean everything. No mention is made of either her father or her mother in the movie. Their absence causes the viewer to believe that they are good people. It also makes you feel sympathetic for Snow White because you don't know if her parents are dead or not. You automatically see the stepmother as evil because she did not parent Snow White, but tells her what to do like she's still a child.
At least Disney has an excuse for the stereotypes in this movie. At the time when it was made (the 30s) those gender roles were actually pretty common, although they were slowly changing. But Disney productions over the last 70 years show that it doesn't want to stray from their original idea of perfection, the character that tied the corporate ideology to the company itself.
Part II: The Beast and Maurice's trade-off
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