Yahoo Finance TikTok is labelling the new Snow White 'pseudo-feminism' – and people are mad
Five years ago the name Rachel Zegler would have likely meant very little to you. A theatre kid turned international movie star, Zegler was still a 'regular' person when she was cast in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story in 2018.
Fast forward to 2023 and she's officially established herself as one of Hollywood's most in-demand leading actors, appearing in the superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods alongside Helen Mirren, as well as being cast in the new Paddington and Hunger Games films.
Most recently, Zegler has garnered attention for comments she made regarding her titular role in the remake of Snow White, set to be released next year.
"It's no longer 1937," Zegler said in a video interview with a Variety reporter. "She's [Snow White] not going to be saved by the prince and she's not going to be dreaming about true love.
"She's dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be and the leader that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave and true. So, it's just a really incredible story for young people everywhere to see themselves in."
Because the internet is, well, the internet, it didn't take long for the responses to roll in. And the sentiments were wildly divided.
Some claimed Zegler's mission to portray Snow White as a woman uninterested in love was crucially anti-feminist, resting on outdated tropes that curtail a woman's right to determine her own destiny, whatever that might be.
"I could literally write a PhD thesis on the pseudo-feminism that is criticising Disney princesses," says TikTok user @cosywithangie in a video that has since been viewed 7.1 million times and liked by over 1.1 million people.
"Criticising Disney princesses is not feminist. Not every woman is a leader. Not every woman wants to be a leader. Not every woman wants or craves power and that's OK. It is not anti-feminist to want to fall in love, to want to get married, to want to stay at home, to be soft, to want to be a homemaker. None of these things makes you less valuable as a person or a woman," she continues.
"The criticism of Disney princesses is always based on one of two things: criticising women for things men get to do unquestioned or writing off a woman entirely because she is or wants to fall in love."
"Real feminism is about depicting women who have different wants and different needs and different personalities who come from different races and ethnicities and depicting them all as equally valuable with something to offer and something to say and a voice that should be heard."
The comments underneath the video are largely supportive with many people quoting the infamous Little Woman line spoken by the character Meg March, "Just because my dreams are different than yours doesn't mean they're unimportant."
Others found that her statements further pigeonholed women into only having value when they ascribe to one form of womanhood.
"What doesn't fit into my brain is why does a woman need to somehow be proactive, extraordinary, have this incredible, successful career in order to be appreciated and in order to be considered a protagonist?" asks TikTok creator @shikalord.
In my mind, Zegler's words were lazy, misguided, and, as she is often accused of being, trite. But, I don't believe they were malicious. The conversations she's sparked about the innate right of women to choose who they want to be and how they want to exist in the world are a powerful reminder of how much has changed since the original Snow White movie was released in 1937. The vitriol directed towards her – one person – is not OK.
Besides this, the film is further mired in controversy for the choice to recast the seven dwarves as seven mythical creatures. Creator and little person Gabi D shared her thoughts in a viral video on TikTok:
"Although Snow White – that whole film – is not the best representation for little people... it still has Little People in it. The fact that you are taking them out and replacing them with averaged size people, i.e. erasing them from the media in general, is not okay with me.
"[I]f you are going to cast little people in these roles, make them multi-dimensional. Do not make them just one thing. That's what they were known for. They were given names that they were only allowed to be one trait and that is not what a Little Person is. So, if you're going to hire Little People – which you should because these roles were meant for us and made for us... give them main character energy. You know, allow them to explore these characters. In other Disney remakes, we've explored things that haven't been explored before," Gabi continued.
"This whole thing is just very near and dear to my heart because for the longest while, that was the only representation I had. It's not great. So now that we have the chance to fix it, now that we're having the chance to remake it, remake it in the right way. Allow us to tell our stories. Bring Little People to set, cast little people, allow us to tell you things and maybe we can even dive into Dwarfism and what it's like in this film so that kids can see it from a young age."
As many predict its flop, we wait to see if the live-action remake of Snow White will outlast its controversy or, at the very least, give critics more to chew on. It'll begin showing in cinemas on 22 March 2024.
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