I hope not to shock any of you, dear readers, but when I was a teenager, I used to dream of finding a wonderful woman and getting married. Yes, I know, this isn’t 1937, but it’s so.
Let me explain the chronology reference. A few weeks ago, Rachel Zeigler, the actress playing Snow White in the new version of Snow White (not Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because there are some of vertically challenged persuasion who might be offended), said in a PR tour, “It’s no longer 1937…and she’s not going to be saved by the Prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love.“
(Sadly, because of the actors’ strike, the members of SAG currently can’t participate in public relations tours. The world is so much the poorer for it.)
I was a teen forty years after the Disney classic was made, in the disco era, the Me Decade, and it should have been a more enlightened time, but I was still hoping for true love. Romantic crushes bloomed and withered throughout my teen years, and yet, in my heart and mind, I still yearned for something more, something real that would in some way save me from the loneliness that teenagers feel so profoundly. What a Neanderthal I was!
I was almost as primitive as Miss White herself, who sang, “Someday my prince will come, someday we’ll meet again, and away to his castle we’ll go, to be happy forever I know.“
Can you believe it? This woman had the nerve to hope for a relationship that would bring happiness in her life, a permanent relationship at that. And with a cis man!
It had been quite a while since I saw the 1937 version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, so I watched it again yesterday. It holds up very, very well. The animation is gorgeous, the dwarves are funny, and I understand why the witch and the chase in the woods terrified me when I first saw the film as a child.
But what surprised me was what a strong and likable character Snow White herself is. I remembered finding Snow’s voice (Adriana Caselotti) as high-pitched and hard to take. And that is true. But that’s not all there is to her. She is brave facing the knife of the woodsman. She is exceedingly kind to the forest animals and the dwarves. She is hardworking and inventive in fixing up the dwarves’ home. You may not recall that she is also a woman of prayer (even asking God to make Grumpy like her.)
When she sees the handsome prince early in the film, she takes a liking to him. (I know, I know, a young woman taking a liking to an attractive young man. Fortunately, we have progressed beyond such things, so you probably want to shield young eyes from such a spectacle.) She even sings the above-mentioned song about the Prince. And it turns out, she does need saving. (Spoilers!) After the Evil Queen tricks Snow into eating a cursed apple, she falls into an enchanted sleep.
I know, I know. She should save herself from the curse. She should fight ninjas in a dreamworld or something to set herself free. But instead, she is saved by true love’s kiss. How absurd! I’m sure no one reading this has ever had life changed by the kiss of someone they loved or came to love.
But this wasn’t exactly the worst that Hollywood had to offer. In 1954, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers opens with Adam Pontipee singing these transgressive words,
“Bless yore beautiful hide
Wherever you may be. We ain’t met yet But I’m a willin’ to bet You’re the gal for me.”
This musical, set in 1850 in Oregon Territory, tells the story of a settler who goes to town to find himself a bride, and eventually seeks wives for each of his six brothers. Why did they need love and marriage? Shouldn’t they have just been happy farming and caring for their animals? Baffling.
Sorry to break this to you, but these love songs of longing are even older than Hollywood. Read these words:
Listen! My beloved!
Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
Can you believe it? A young woman longing for the approach of her lover. Right there in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Song of Solomon.
It seems the man and woman of this ancient book are obsessed with their love for each other, rather than the really important things like reaching their full potential as individuals and equity and diversity and, well you know, the things we know now are really important.
I’m sure you are looking forward to this Snow White remake that leaves out that yucky love stuff (because if you remember your third-grade science, love leads to cooties.)
I’m ashamed to admit to you all that not only did I continue to hope for romantic love, I found a pretty wonderful woman and we did get married and have lived happily ever after. If only Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot had been around back in the day to teach me better.
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