Disney taps into a taboo parental punishment, but why?
Snow White offers the latest live-action reimagining of a classic Disney animated movie. Critics are cheering some translations from the 1937 cartoon, including leading lady Rachel Zegler’s charming embodiment of the singing Disney princess. However, other elements of this remake haven’t received such love, like Gal Gadot’s underwhelming take on the Evil Queen, and the CGI monstrosities that are the seven dwarfs. But there’s one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment that deserves to be called out for its crass mishandling of Snow White’s signature fashion.

They do her signature hairdo dirty.

Before long hair became a staple of Disney princesses, from Sleeping Beauty to Belle, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Elsa, and Moana, there was Snow White’s jaunty black bob in 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Now, in Disney’s Snow White, key hair and make-up artist Niall Monteith-Mann dedicatedly recreates this look for Snow White, not only building the bob to perfectly frame Zegler’s face, but also to suit Emilia Faucher, who plays the child version of the iconic princess. It’s simply adorable, but there is one cutting distinction between these short hairdos. In the cartoon version, Snow White just has short hair. In this live-action version, Snow White’s bob gets a harrowing origin story that taps into problematic standards of feminine beauty.

Snow White shows short hair as a punishment.

Rachel Zegler as Snow White. Credit: Disney Enterprises, Inc.

In the first act of Disney’s Snow White, its eponymous princess (played by Faucher) is introduced with long black hair that tumbles over her pretty yellow dress as she frolics with her father and mother, the latter of whom also has long hair. But as is the way of Disney parents, the mom will die before the first act is even over, leaving room for the entrance of a wicked stepmother (Gadot). Faster than you can say, “Mirror, mirror on the wall,” Snow White’s life changes dramatically.

Locked away behind the castle gates, she’s cut off from the rest of the kingdom. The queen forces her to work as a maid. Her royal gowns are snatched away in favor of a more humble (yet still sweet) dress and apron fit. And her hair is cut. It happens in one dramatic slice of a big, meaty scissors, with the girl looking upset.
SEE ALSO:‘Disney’s Snow White’ review: Better than it has any right to be
One cut and all of her long locks are chopped off into a bob. Why? Perhaps the vain queen thinks short hair will make the little princess less pretty. Notably, however, the vicious royal favors keeping her hair firmly in check with a cowl-and-crown combo. Maybe the queen is simplifying childcare by giving Snow White a cut that doesn’t require much brushing. But, let’s get real, that was never going to be the queen’s job anyway. So that leaves us with the simple answer: It was a punishment.

Now, haircuts as punishment are a real thing, often used by parents to exert control over their children’s self-expression. This might have been the goal of the Evil Queen, looking to make Snow White feel less in control of her own life, weaker, and shamed for it. (Notably, some parents do post the resulting “bad haircut” photos on social media as a means of public shaming as punishment.) While the queen doesn’t express her reasons for the chop, her general antagonistic attitude toward Snow White suggests it was meant to hurt the girl’s self-esteem. And frankly, short-haired girls deserve better than the suggestion that short hair is inherently ugly, unfeminine, or unbecoming of a princess.

Snow White pulls Tangled 2.0.

Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) and Snow White (Rachel Zegler) in Disney’s live-action “Snow White.” Credit: Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Something similar happens in Tangled‘s climax, in which, to rescue Rapunzel from her evil adopted mother, Eugene cuts off her long, magical, golden hair, turning it short and brown. The resulting haircut was a bit funky, being done with a sword swipe and all. But it was cute in a Winona Ryder ’90s pixie way. For a brief moment, brunettes with short hair could feel pretty as a Disney princess! Yet, when it came to making toys for the movie, it was impossible to find a representation of Rapunzel that wasn’t all about her long hair.

This retroactively suggested the true sacrifice wasn’t of her magic, but of her appearance. Clearly, even in fantasy worlds, girls must strive for long, flowing hair to be seen as beautiful. I guess we’re lucky Eugene loved her despite the chop!

In Snow White, even with short hair, this princess somehow manages to attract a dashing bandit named Jonathan (Andrew Burnap). But perhaps, just as he fights against the queen for the return of a rightful ruler to the throne, he’s playing the long game here. After all, it’s not like Snow White’s hair is canonically magic, promised to stay short forever like Rapunzel’s. Maybe Jonathan is thinking once he gets her back on the throne, she’ll definitely grow it out — as all proper princesses since 1937 do!

I kid. No one in the movie comments on Snow White’s hair, and all mentions of her appearance are in praise of her beauty. Though, props to screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson, the fairy tale’s classic line “fairest of them all” is meant to apply more broadly to a woman fair in spirit, whose beauty comes from within. But then why make Snow White’s haircut a point of punishment at all?

In the original film, Snow White just had short hair. Here, the introduction of the punishment haircut raises questions that didn’t need to be asked before. Like, since Snow White keeps her hair short from this grim girlhood to her rebellious princess present, does that mean she’s getting regular relegated haircuts? Or, despite the traumatic first chop, maybe this haircut gives her life, even under her stepmother’s dead stare? Frankly, it’s a galling weight to bestow on a hairdo, especially when growing up for girls involves all kinds of experimenting with our hair.

Treating a short haircut as punishment undercuts Snow White‘s message that a girl’s value — or true beauty — goes beyond her appearance to how she treats people. Instead of the short hair being casually embraced as a point of her personal style — like her yellow skirts with a blue corset — one scene of violence positions it as a marker of shame. As in Tangled, with one swift cut, Disney once more sends the message to impressionable young girls that they should be brave, kind, and fair — but above all else, they should have long hair!