Starting with snow white

cannot 
fulfill society’s expectations, not because 
she 
wants 
to reject them” (238). Each of these variations, in its own way—by means of 
narrative construction, alternative character development, sexuality, violence, 
consumerism, and/or female recuperation—strives to unmake the powerful influence of 
Disney. The cohesion, unity, and what Zipes refers to as “conservatism” (“stressing the 
morals and values of the Protestant ethic as well as sentimental love”) of the Disney 
version all have been broken (“Americanization” 99). While this may not be the sole 
purpose or intent of each textual re-presentation of 
Snow White
, the response to or 
rejection of Disney’s “utopian” formulation is clear (
Fairy Tales 
193). 
Filmic adaptations in the twenty-first century similarly counter Disney’s system 
of values, primarily in their treatment of female characters. Tom Shippey positions the 
contemporary fairy tale as a “contested site” wherein “The most straightforward way of 
engaging the contest was to write new stories which would provide girl-children with 
more active and more positive role models than […] Disney’s domesticated Cinderella,” 
or, one might add, Snow White (259). This same application is evident in 
Snow White 
and Huntsman 
(2012) which features revisions of the central female characters projected 
for an alternate (young adult/adult) audience, displaying its responsiveness to this most 
heavily contested attribute of the fairy tale. 
Interestingly, twenty-first century literary and television adaptations under the 
Disney imprint similarly configure the 
Snow White 
heroine or villain from an angle 

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which further attests to her strengths, multiple dimensions of character, and gendered 
positioning in society. Serena Valentino’s 
Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen 
(2009), R.C. Lewis’ 
Stitching Snow
(2014), and the ABC series, 
Once Upon a Time 
all 
feature alternative representations of 
Snow White
’s female figures. Furthermore, the 
latter example (from television) goes on to break the conventional framing of the 
Snow 
White 
tale, wherein this narrative is only a piece of a more complex fantastic and, in some 
ways, realistic structure. This additional break from the “classic” also represents an 
earlier 
Snow White 
revision.
Serena Valentino’s 
Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen 
(2009) provides 
precisely the alternate perspective that its title alludes to—“
A Tale of the Wicked Queen.
”

For the first half of the novel, however, this presumed villain is not “wicked” at all.
Rather, she functions as a mother/protector to Snow White, sheltering the young girl even 
from the brash reactions of her father when he returns from war. Where Disney’s earlier 
“classic” presented the simpler and more traditional modeling of “good” (Snow White) 
versus “evil” (Queen/Stepmother) through its characterization and plotline, Valentino’s 
adaptation (still under the Disney publication label) presents an interrogation into the 
“wicked” queen’s psychological undoing. Although the cover is shadowed by the glaring 
face of Disney’s animated stepmother/queen, this only serves to further complicate the 
Snow White 
tale presented within for its readers, particularly in the adaptation’s final 
suggestion that the Queen, standing before a cliff, chooses to punish herself. Had she 
recognized the err of her ways? The same question resounds when her image returns to 
Snow White through the very mirror that precipitated her downfall. The reader might 

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now wonder, “Has the cycle begun anew?” Or, has the elder, more experienced 
stepmother returned to meaningfully guide the younger female figure toward a new path 
or ideal? The gendered ideologies that Disney once aimed to project through the 
simplistic, “classic” framing have been muddled through the questions elicited by this 
ending and the dimensions of the queen which the novel on the whole provides.
R.C. Lewis’