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Katherine Wong
Professor McClure
Writing 39B
8 November 2016
A Classic Fairy Tale Gone Awry
In the short horror story, Snow, Glass, Apples, Neil Gaiman reverses the roles of the two
main characters in the traditional fairy tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to send a message
that in todays society female sexuality is perceived as a more useful and powerful tool than a
womans experience, maturity and intelligence. Gaimans version of this fairy tale is unique
because its genre is completely different from the original version. In his short story, the roles of
the antagonist and protagonist are interchanged with one another as a resistance to the traditional
roles in the original story. He takes this well-known childhood fairy tale about a princess falling
in love and creates a story that shares a message about feminism in modern day society. In
Cristina Bacchilegas article, Cracking the Mirror Three Revisions of Snow White, she
shares how authors similar to Gaiman have also written subversions of Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs in an effort to change how society views women in contrast to how they are
portrayed in Disney fairy tales. Bridget Whelan, professor of the University of Louisiana at
Lafayette, wrote an article, Power to the Princess: Disney and the Creation of the 20th Century
Princess Narrative, that explains how Disneys retelling of fairy tales, specifically Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs, created an image of the ideal princess that young girls have desired to
become since its first release in 1937. By implementing aspects of horror to his story, Gaiman is
emphasizing that young girls should not aspire to live a lifestyle in which women need to use

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their sexuality to be respected in society. Gaiman wants his readers to be aware of the corruption
that exists in our world when it comes to women using their physical attributes and sexuality
rather than their wisdom and knowledge to be successful in life. Gaiman uses the expectations of
the horror genre that are listed in Nol Carrolls article, The Nature of Horror to support his
claim about how women are perceived in our world today. Men, Women, and Chainsaws is
another compelling article written by Carol J. Clover that highlights the fact that there needs to
be a change in our culture. The article Intro to Dark Nights Dreaming also focuses on how
people in society convince themselves that their view on how women should be respected is
moral, when in reality their perception is corrupted. Throughout this paper I will use these
sources to support my claim that the worlds perception of how women should be treated and
how women believe they need to act in order to be respected is dishonorable.
Gaiman reverses the roles of Snow White and the queen in a successful attempt to
challenge societys view on how women should attain success in todays world. He creates what
Bridget Whelan calls a progressive princess, which is a princess who rejects stereotypical
behavior from the past, behavior that was perpetuated by the first and second wave Disney
princesses. Such behavior includes characteristics considered to be unpalatable to contemporary
feminists, such as passivity, dutifulness, and subservience to male characters (29). That is, a
progressive princess is the opposite of what the audience would expect to see from an oldfashioned princess like Snow White. Gaimans Snow White is the opposite of submissive
because she takes authority and controls her victims, both male and female. In most cases, she
waits for her victims to approach her, and at the first sign of weakness she attacks. It is important
to note that the vulnerable action she seeks from her victims is not always sexual. For example,

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the queen narrates, I had always been scared of the little princess, but at the moment I warmed
to her and, with my fingers, gently, I stroked her cheek. She looked at me and smiledshe
smiled but rarelythen she sank her teeth into the base of my thumb, the Mound of Venus, and
she drew blood (Gaiman). Snow White uses her physical attributes to make the queen
vulnerable. For instance, her smile makes the queen feel like she is safe. At this point, Snow
White senses that the queen has let her guard down, therefore this is the time for her to attack.
Gaiman adds a layer of horror to draw in the audiences attention so that they can realize
that Snow White is not just a little girl, but is someone they can relate to as a woman in our own
society that is represented as more useful for her body than her mind. The queen would not be
scared of a six year old princess unless she has characteristics of a horror monster. Nol Carroll
explains how in works of horror, the humans regard the monsters that they encounter as
abnormal, as disturbances of the natural order (52). A little princess who bites people and sucks
their blood is more than abnormal. Therefore, Snow White meets at least one of the expectations
Carroll describes as monstrous. The queen was shocked when Snow White bit her because it was
out of the ordinary for someone in their world to act like a monster, more specifically a vampire.
Snow White combines her physical features with her supernatural powers to take advantage of
people in order to get what she wants. As my paper continues, I will explain how Snow Whites
actions intensify and she learns that she can use her sexuality to take advantage of the men in her
life.
Because Snow White knows that her body is more useful than her intelligence, she uses
her feminine sexuality to to take advantage of not only the queen, but men like her father, the
king. The queen, who is more mature and experienced than Snow White, does not have the

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ability to provide for her husband physically because he is having a sexual affair with his own
daughter. Cristina Bacchilega, Associate Professor of English at the University of Hawaii, points
out that, Looking at Snow White through the eyes of writers like Barthelme, Carter, and
Coover, then, involves more than renewing the narratives powerful image in the modern world,
it necessitates the cracking of that mirror so as to begin to imagine female initiation and its
narratives anew (Bacchilega 20). Bacchilega uses the phrase cracking the mirror as a
metaphor for breaking stereotypes and social norms in our society today. She also uses the word
renew to demonstrate how authors like Gaiman are making an effort to change the image of
females in the modern world. Gaiman is stripping Snow White of all of her personality traits that
she possesses in the original tale, and is creating a new character whose morals are the exact
opposite. She is no longer an innocent child, but a young woman who uses her sexuality for her
own personal benefits, even if it means hurting others in the process. In this case, the king suffers
greatly from Snow Whites actions. He died unshriven, his skin nipped and pocked from head to
toe with tiny, old scars (Gaiman). Through this passage it is clear that the scares described are
coming from Snow White biting and sucking the kings blood. Slowly killing your father, as
Snow White is doing, is immoral and disturbing. Nol Carroll states, Things that are interstitial,
that cross the boundaries of the deep categories of a cultures conceptual scheme, are
impure (55). Snow Whites actions fit perfectly into this description of a monster who is
impure. Her actions are literally killing her own father, and she does not care because all she
wants is to gain power and control. To the audience, it may seem as though Snow White is only
targeting her family so that she can gain control of the kingdom, but later in the story the queen
witnesses her seducing and killing men in the forest so that she can gain strength.

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Snow Whites use of her sexuality to lure men works every time because it reaffirms
Gaimans point that women are seen as more useful sexually than intellectually. In one particular
scene, Snow White lures a monk using her feminine qualities. In the story the monk comes
across as desperate when it reads, He grinned, as if it were a long time since he has seen another
human and beckoned her over to him (Gaiman). Gaiman chooses to point out that it has been a
while since the monk has had any sexual relations because it highlights the fact that he is
desperate. Snow White takes advantage of the monks sexual desire for a woman similar to how
women in todays society take advantage of mans lust for sex as described in the article Men,
Women and Chainsaws. King explains in the article, If The Stepford Wives concerns itself with
what men want from women, then Carrie is largely about how women find their own channels of
power, and what men fear about women and womens sexuality (Clover 3). In the same way,
Snow White deceives the men she seduces because when they first meet her they are unaware of
her supernatural powers. She knows that this is her own channel of power and uses her deception
of sexuality to trick men into thinking that that is all she wants from them, when really she is
looking to gain more from them.
Similar to how women in todays society use their sexuality in exchange for promotions
in the workplace or for social status, Snow White seduces and overpowers men when they are at
their weakest point. Gaiman uses this tactic with Snow White to prove that even though in
society women are presumed to be inferior to men, he wants his audience to know that not all
women are willing to let this conventional image of them stand in their way of getting what they
want. In the article Men, Women and Chainsaws, Carol Clover, an American professor at the
University of California, Berkeley, further emphasizes that authors, like Gaiman, are making an

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effort to bring awareness to the current perception of women today and change the way people
think. For example she states that when we observe a consistent change in the surface malefemale configurations of a traditional story-complex, we are probably looking, however
obliquely, at a deeper change in the culture (Clover 16). Unfortunately, one of the most
stereotypical ways women can become superior in our society is through the use of their
sexuality. Gaiman is saying that there needs to be a change in our culture today. His creation of
Snow White in this twisted tale is intended to make the audience realize that women should fight
the belief that they are inferior to men, but they do not need to use their sexuality to become
superior to them.
Along with using sexuality to overpower men, Snow White illustrates how women are
willing to give their body up for what they want in exchange. In the story, the prince prefers
women to be completely submissive when he is having sexual relations with them. The queen
doesnt give him what he wants because she is too experienced and mature to act that way. Snow
White, on the other hand, is willing to let this man take advantage of her body in any way in
order for her to get want she wants in return. Gaimans use of contrast in behavior between Snow
White and the queen resembles a contrast of behavior in women today. In the article Intro to
Dark Nights Dreaming it explains how some people escape from the imminent reality of such
horrors by denying their existence and by clinging to a perpetual suspension of
disbelief (Magistrale 2). Magistrale is explaining that horror stories highlight the existence of
corruption. In this case, Gaiman is using aspects of horror to emphasize how society perceives
women to be more beneficial using their sexuality rather than their experience. For instance,
Snow White is voluntarily giving up her body to men in exchange for power in the hierarchy. In

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todays world the female audience can relate that to using their own bodies to get promotions at
work or to receive a higher social status.
I think it is important to note that Gaiman is not raising awareness of these societal views
on women so that the audience can feel bad about themselves. Instead, he is using these two
female characters in his story to let his audience know that this is what is currently taking place
in our world, and there needs to be a change. The point Gaiman is trying to make is that female
sexuality is being taken advantage of by not just men, but women as well. There is a
misconception that a womans physical attributes are more important and dominant than her
intelligence, maturity, and experience. Snow White represents the women who do not respect
themselves enough nor do they care what it takes to become successful. The queen, however,
represents women who would rather fail than let a man take away the knowledge and experience
they possess.

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Works Cited
Bacchilega, Cristina. Cracking the Mirror Three Re-visions of Snow White. Duke University
Press, 1988.
Carroll, Nol. The Nature of Horror. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 1987.
Clover, Carol. Men, Women, and Chainsaws. Princeton University Press, 2015.
Gaiman, Neil. Snow, Glass, Apples. Dreamhaven, 1994.
Magistrale, Tony and Michael A Morrison. A Dark Nights Dreaming. University of South
Carolina Press, 1996.
Whelan, Bridget. Power to the Princess: Disney and the Creation of the 20th Century Princess
Narrative. Interdisciplinary Humanities, Volume 29, Issue 1, 2012.