Comment on Disney's Snow White | Official Trailer
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 2 weeks agoIt’s based on the 19th century Northern European standard of beauty that paler (fair) skin is more beautiful. The source of the Evil Queen’s jealousy is that Snow White is whitest of them all. The Queen hires a murderer to cut out Snow White’s heart because the Queen is only the second most whitest woman in all the land.
absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 2 weeks ago
Yes because fair skin implied that you were rich or upper class. White/pale skin = not working the fields or as a maid cleaning and getting dirty.
That notion got turned on its head relatively recently, when in the 1920 Coco Chanel got a sun tan whilst in the French Rivera. Being tanned no longer meant that you were “low class”.
A lot of old fairy tails are about paths to becoming rich. When Snow White was written it had little to do with race, if anything, and everything to do with classism. There was virtually no social mobility, if you were born poor you stayed poor! These are not aspirational stories designed to motivate you to better yourself, they are there to remind you of your place in the world.