The Reality as Opposed to the Disney Versions of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty

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Presently, many books and fairytales are converted movies and often, producers alters the original tales to grasp the attention of a large audience. However, some of these interpretations hide the primary interpretation. The original interpretations of the Disney classics Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are greatly reinvented from the original fairytales Sun, Moon, and Talia and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because of the brutal nature of the treatment women in these original forms. Although there are differences in certain aspects from the original tales to the movies, there are many issues that are influential to the young girls who are still watching the Disney version. I realize this when my youngest niece, Anella asks me, “Why can’t I be beautiful and fall asleep and suddenly wake up to finally find my prince?” This is true in all cases of the four different translations of the fairytales. Every single girl in these stories are in a “beautiful” state of half-death who wake to find a prince who if eager to carry them off. This can lead to negative psychological effects on young girls as they are growing up, creating a large amount of pressure and low self-esteem due to the beauty that these stories portray and maintaining restrictions that these women experience in the stories. While it is true that Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves are considered Disney classics that entertain children and provide meaningful role models, it is evident that the true, vulgar nature of these tales are hidden; these stories are about women who are thrown away. Basile’s Sun, Moon, and Talia is the first recorded version of Sleeping Beauty in which Talia the young daughter of a noble, is cursed once she pricks herself with ... ... middle of paper ... ...cuxHN-7iI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=8s1BU8azM6zisATn9oD4Dg&ved=0CFoQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=phallic%20symbol%20spindle&f=false>. Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. 1812. Pinkmonkey. Online. 6 Apr. 2014. . Basile, Giambattista. "Sun, Moon, and Talia." Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts. 1634. D.L. Ashliman, 7 June 2013. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. . Stone, Kay. "Things Walt Disney Never Told Us." Things Walt Disney Never Told Us 347th ser. 88 (1975): 42-50. American Folklore Society. Online. 6 Apr. 2014. . Stover, Cassandra (2013) "Damsels and Heroines: The Conundrum of the Post-Feminist Disney Princess," LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 29.

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