Rachel Zegler, the star of Disney’s upcoming live-action “Snow White,” has spent what seems like every interview about the movie regurgitating the tired talking points of current-day feminism. Zegler, along with the many women who share her beliefs, blindly undervalues the long-standing feminine traditions that deviate from her ideal girl boss archetypes. She ought to reconsider what women truly find fulfilling.
When asked about Disney’s new angle on the fairytale during an interview, Zegler said, “I just mean that it’s no longer 1937, and we absolutely wrote a Snow White … [who’s] not gonna be saved by the prince, and she’s not gonna be dreaming about true love, she’s gonna be dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be.”
Zegler’s “progressive” take is actually regressive, mirroring trends that negatively impact marital stability and social cohesion. She fails to see the value in a reality many women do live and many women do find fulfilling. Zegler and those who share her beliefs could benefit from listening to the classics rather than jumping to critique them, starting with Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.
Jo March, like Zegler, is strong-headed, talented, and ambitious — and paralleling these qualities is her disdain for a traditional trajectory. Jo is incredibly resistant to the institution of marriage, saying, “I’m happy as I am, and love my liberty too well to be in a hurry to give it up for any mortal man.” Her rejection of what is classically feminine mirrors Zegler’s comments.
But what
