"Sleeping Beauty vs. Snow White"

Every little girl pretends to be a princess and prances around imagining a prince charming. Even when they grow up and become a woman, they're still waiting for that prince to come sweep them off their feet, so they can fall crazy in love and live happily ever after. This fantasy is much because of Walt Disney movies such as "Sleeping Beauty", "Snow White", "Cinderella", "Little Mermaid", and many others. These stories have been passed down for centuries and numerous versions exist today. There are many interpretations of the stories and their meanings that most people don't even recognize. Though the stories all seem different, some of them still have similar meanings. "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty" are two stories that have a common meaning.

Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are both characters that are unrealistically beautiful. Sleeping Beauty for instance, had fair skin, blue eyes, long blonde hair, and an impossibly thin figure. This sets unrealistic standards for female beauty. Also the stories show a dependence on males for the female identity. The princess is sleeping, just waiting for her prince to come save her so she can resume her place as princess and "live happily ever after". Snow White was also poisoned and laid sleeping until her prince came to save her. In a way, this is saying that women are simply waiting around for a man to come save them from ordinary life, so that they can have their 'happily ever after' ending. Another point that shows up in "Cinderella" is that the stepmother who raised three children on her own, which shows independence, is made the villain of the story, while passive Cinderella is the lovable victim. In these fairy tales, they show tat a woman is nothing without a man. They give the picture that a woman has nothing to do but wait for her prince, and then once he comes her life will be fulfilled. In today's world it's quite obvious that these things could not be more false.

According to Bruno Bettelheim, the numerous