Disclaimer: I do not own any fairy tales that the Princesses are in, nor do I own Disney, The Brothers Grim (original writers of these stories), or anything that has done a spinoff of these fairy tales.
Chapter two: Snow White
Snow White is an actual princess in her story. He step mother who just wanted to be the prettiest in all the land decided she was envious of her step daughter who just happened to be the prettiest in all the land. Not wanting to be second best, she decides to have her daughter killed.
The princess survives this murder attempt she finds a house and decides to say in it, not knowing that is belongs to seven small men. Men that she does not know and will probably try to take advantage of her. For a time when women were support to say virgins until the year before marriage where they have to prove they are fertile by getting pregnant, this does not seem like a good place to stay.
When the queen finds out that the princess is alive, via magic talking mirror, she goes on a man hunt. The princess gets put to sleep, either by poison apple or whatever else the other stories use and the queen in the Disney vision of this story get stuck by lightning and crushed with a bolder. In another version she gets sucked in by the magic talking mirror, many other things from other interpretations. The prince who only was shown briefly in the beginning and had absolutely on part in this story shows up and kisses her back to life. The go off to his castle and they get married.
Here is a history lesson, if a woman does not get pregnant before that year is up; they have to look for a different suitor to marry. This starts at thirteen years of age after they have their first period has started. If she does not get pregnant by the age of sixteen then she is considered and old maid and is no longer eligible for marriage as she cannot pop out babies, preferably boys. Now back to the story.
Believe it or not, this is what is called vanity to the extreme and in a way it does go with the way many thought back in the dark ages. Despite any education a girl or women may have, they were treated like objects by men and if a female was not pretty then they were not a must have object. There are different expectations between natural born princesses and noble women. Noble women have a bit more free range to do the type of things they would like while princesses have strict rules to follow as do queens. Princesses and queens had to be a man's idea of beautiful back then while noble's women were in an arranged marriage. While it is true that the princesses are in arranged marriages too, they were required to be beautiful and be fertile. This pressure is where the queen's obsessive vanity and envy comes from. These types of expectations can drive a female mad, and it is still around today in one form or another.
Snow White going back to the prince's castle and getting married is just another example of marrying a complete stranger just because he is a prince and how princes or men valued beauty over anything else in a woman. Again, this only severs to justify the queen's envy and reason for vanity. It also goes back on pointing out the issues of the time period the story took place and was most likely written. They say true loves first kiss, but is it really true love or does he just want to do something that would be illegal today? She did not have to ride off with him, if the little men were so good to her and kept their hands to themselves, why did she leave or decide not to go back to her castle. The 'evil' queen is dead and nobody is there to rule the kingdom, so why not take the role of queen and run the country better then the 'evil' queen. During that time of her rule she could have made an alliance with the prince's kingdom, gotten to know him a little better and then decide rather it is true love and she wants to marry him instead of leaving a whole country there to rot. This would have been the more sensible thing to do, since she does not have any brothers to take the role of king so she can skip out on responsibility and marry a stranger.
My problem with this princess is that she should have thought things through before making her choices.
Next princess: Sleeping Beauty.
