West Side Story actor and soon-to-be Disney princess Rachel Zegler has received backlash online for comments she has made about her rendition of Snow White being a “leader” and not prioritising falling in love.
Zegler’s trolling began with waves of racist remarks about her casting in the live-action movie in 2021, with many arguing that a Latina actress shouldn’t be playing a princess with famously pale skin. The latest criticism, however, is that she – and Disney – shouldn’t be discouraging young girls from being “saved” by a prince, or anyone, if that’s what they want.
The trouble is this: critics are taking what she has said out of context, and using facets of modern feminism, more specifically the importance of choice, to attack an attempt at empowering a Disney princess to do something other than fall in love.
In a 2022 interview, Zegler said: “It’s no longer 1937. We absolutely wrote a Snow White that is not gonna 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.”
These comments have been dragged back into the dreaded online discourse by critics, who have taken to TikTok to hit back at Zegler and Disney’s take on Snow White, arguing that it’s “pseudofeminism”.
“Thinking that a woman is any less valuable because she falls in love or because she accepts help from somebody instead of girl bossing her way through her problems is not feminist,” one TikTokker says.
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I personally agree with the above statement – it’s true that no individual is worth less because they fall in love. Why would one of the best human experiences available to us lessen our worth in any way? The problem here is that critics are assuming that prioritising or even championing the importance of one’s own empowerment somehow takes away from the validity of romance. Zegler said Snow White isn’t dreaming about true love – that’s fine. No one is questioning the validity of that experience here.
Another critic weighed in, insisting that we – and, by extension, Disney films – should be teaching younger generations that they have choices. That they can be saved, if that’s what they choose: “This is not what we should teach our girls. We should teach our girls that you’re able to have whatever it is you want. It’s OK to want to be saved. It’s OK to want Prince Charming. That, in itself, is feminism in my opinion.”
This is where it becomes clear that the messages seem to have been confused, and these “feminists” and Disney fans are trolling Zegler for no reason. At no point has she said that anyone shouldn’t be “saved” or “fall in love”. She’s saying this particular imagining of Snow White may not. And that’s OK.
Corey Nickols