Hypatia, Inc.

Snow White and the Seven "Dwarfs"-Queercripped

Author(s): Santiago Solis
Source: Hypatia, Vol. 22, No. 1, Writing Against Heterosexism (Winter, 2007), pp. 114-131
Published by: Wiley on behalf of Hypatia, Inc.
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Snow White and the Seven "Dwarfs"-
Queercripped
SANTIAGO SOLIS
In
this
essay,
Solis
contemplates
how
queercrip-both
homosexual and disabled-
readings of four
editions
of
"Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs" might
be used to
destabilize
"normative" sexual identities. His
goal
is to
argue against secrecy
and
for
disclosure; thus,
a main
question guides
the
analysis:
How
might
we
(for example,
parents, teachers, counselors)
use
picture
books to reevaluate human
sexuality
in
all its varied
manifestations
to avoid
condemning
to the closet all those who do not
approximate
a
prescribed
"norm"?
I wish I could
say
that I was
only
a child when it first dawned on me that Snow
White,
Prince
Charming,
or
any
of the seven dwarfs
might
be
homosexual,
but
that is not the case. What I do remember is
identifying
with Snow White. I do
not remember
exactly why-but
I remember
feeling giddy
when the Prince kissed
Snow
White,
embraced her with his
strong
arms,
lifted her onto his
horse,
and
rode off with her into the sunset. I remember
feeling
such an ardent
yearning
for the Prince. I could
only imagine, although
I dared not admit it to
anyone,
the
passionate lovemaking
that ensued once Prince
Charming
and Snow White
reached their final destination. For
me,
as a
child, living happily
ever after meant
falling
in
love-openly
and
freely-with
a
boy.
But I also remember
feeling
anx-
ious and confused.
Although
I was unaware that
concepts
such as heterosexism
and
homophobia
even
existed,
I somehow knew that it was
wrong
to like
boys.
So,
I
quickly
learned to
keep my
love affair with
my
action
figure
Evel Knievel
(whom
I viewed as
my
own Prince
Charming)
a
guarded
secret. Late at
night,
in
the
privacy
of
my bed,
I touched him
delicately
and kissed him
fervently.
I rec-
ognized early
on in life that I could use
my imagination
to create a
perfect world,
a
fantasy world,
in which I could
express my
sexual desire for other
boys.
Hypatia
vol.
22,
no. 1
(Winter 2007)
?
by Santiago
Solis
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Santiago
Solis 115
I
was around seven when I first discovered
my
attraction to
boys.
Even
though
terms such as homosexual were not
part
of
my vocabulary,
I sensed that there was
something
different about me-I knew I was a
boy,
but I also felt like a
girl. My
effeminate demeanor
provoked frequent
accusations of
being
a
sissy.
This detri-
mental
adjective
I never
consciously
embraced, yet subconsciously
it continues
to haunt me.
Hence,
while
my
childhood endeavor to be normal forced me into
loneliness, seclusion,
and
despair,
in
adulthood,
I strive to
question
dichotomized
homo/hetero
definitions-my
survival
depends
on it.
However,
heterosexual-
ity
does not work in isolation to
presume
a sexual
norm,
since able-bodiedness
also
posits
a
particular
sexual standard.
Perhaps
this is
why,
as a
child,
I do not
remember ever
contemplating,
even
remotely,
the
possibility
that one of the
seven dwarfs could rescue and
subsequently
fall in love with and
marry
Snow
White. Nor do I remember
feeling sexually
attracted to
any
of the dwarfs: their
infantilization made
my sexualizing
them
virtually impossible.
My
identification with the
dwarfs, then,
was based
solely
on
my conceptual-
ization of them as childlike or even as children. As a
child,
I had no reason to
think of them as sexual
beings
since
they
were never
presented
to me in sexual-
ized contexts. While it is true that
Dopey,
in Walt
Disney's
version of "Snow
White,"
demonstrates affection toward Snow
White,
her
motherly response
swiftly
curtails if not belittles his sentimental advances. I
quickly
learned that
certain sexual or sexualized manifestations are
inappropriate.
Therefore,
in this
essay,
I would like to
highlight
a
strictly
adult
perspective
in order to contem-
plate
how various
queercrip readings
or activist
interpretations
of "Snow White"
might
destabilize normative sexual identities in four
picture
books.
As Carrie Sandahl
suggests, "Queering
describes the
practices
of
putting
a
spin
on mainstream
representations
to reveal latent
queer
subtexts;
of
appropri-
ating
a
representation
for one's own
purposes, forcing
it to
signify differently;
or
of
deconstructing
a
representation's
heterosexism." In a similar
vein, "Cripping
spins
mainstream
representations
or
practices
to reveal able-bodied
assumptions
and
exclusionary
effects."
Ultimately,
"both
queering
and
cripping expose
the
arbitrary
delineation between normal and defective and the
negative
social
ramifications of
attempts
to
homogenize humanity"-hence
the term
queercrip
or
queercripping (2003, 37).
As an adult with
disabilities,
it is now
quite
evident to me that the seven
dwarfs'
supporting
role
simply
serves to
legitimate physical
and sexual normal-
ity. My
use of normative within this
essay,
therefore,
will
pertain
to its "ethical
justification,
how it is
established,
and what concrete
consequences proceed
therefrom"
(Butler 1999, xx).
A critical
question guides my analysis:
how
might
we
(for
example, parents, teachers,
and
counselors)
use
picture
books
like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" to reevaluate human
sexuality
in
all
its varied manifestations to avoid
condemning
to the closet all those who do
not
approximate
a
prescribed
norm?
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116
Hypatia
My goal
is to
argue against secrecy
and for disclosure as I
attempt
to deter-
mine how and
why
the closet defines homosexual and disabled
oppression. My
use of closet does not refer
only
to the social
practices
attached to individuals
either
staying
in or
coming
out of the
closet,
but also to the attitudinal and
institutional barriers
aiming
to
privatize, seclude, conceal,
and silence discus-
sions about
homosexuality
and
disability.
For
example,
adults often strive to
relegate
to the closet certain conversations and
topics
deemed uncomfortable
and
inappropriate
for children. But once adults
begin
to
position
themselves
as
physically, morally,
and
spiritually apart
from,
even
superior
to, children,
it
becomes
increasingly
more difficult to hear and
acknowledge
the children's con-
cerns.
According
to
Jonathan Silin,
this distance is "a function of our definition
of the child as innocent and
ignorant,
and the
corollary assumption
that the
adult is indeed the one who knows"
(1995, 112-13). I
want to
challenge
the
emotional distance that adults create between themselves and children. Since
homosexuality
and
disability
incite
legitimate questions
about sexual
practices,
marriage, illness, death,
and other
earthly
and
spiritual
issues,
adults learn to
mask their own anxieties
simply by ignoring
these
subjects.
I therefore want
to echo Silin's belief that "there is no sure
way
to
get
it
right.
There is
only
a
process
of
listening
to and
observing children,
of
sharing amongst
each
other,
of
reflecting,
of
learning
to do it better and better each time"
(114).
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
I am
particularly
concerned about the lack of a sound framework from which to
contemplate queercrip
in
picture
books. For
many
adults,
the issue is resolved
simply by treating
alternative identities as irrelevant.
Consequently,
the homo-
sexual and disabled
(homodisabled)
youngster
learns that what would validate
her or his
identity
and existence is
unimportant.
For this
reason,
I
investigate
those sexual
identity categories
"that are in fact the
effects
of
institutions, prac-
tices,
discourses with
multiple
and diffuse
points
of
origin" (Butler 1999, xxix).
Since bodies are
sociopolitically
and
socioculturally
constructed,
picture
books
also
play
a role in that construction. Hence the
question,
Do
picture
books
produce
new
meanings,
or do
they simply represent
(mirror) meanings
that
already
exist? This
essay
is therefore
implicated
in
trying
to
forge
an association
between creation and
representation.
But the cohesion and
harmony
of the
picture
book becomes
problematic
due to
disparate
cultural, social,
religious,
and
political
entities.
Accordingly,
the intersections
among
these
categories
need to be
interrogated
in order to
explore
the
possibilities
of
divergent
and
unstable sexual
configurations.
Because
I
want to destabilize normative sexual
practices,
the term
queercrip
becomes useful in that it
helps challenge
fixed sexual and
physical
identi-
ties. I use
queercrip throughout
this
essay
to
challenge
normative
sexuality.
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Santiago
Solis 117
Specifically, by examining
how the characters are
represented
in four versions
of the
story
of "Snow
White,"
I
explore
a
variety
of sexual and sexualized rela-
tionships
and
configurations
between and
among
the characters.
According
to Robert McRuer and
Abby
Wilkerson,
"a
queercrip
consciousness is about
desiring more,
about
developing
and
defending public
cultures in which we do
not
necessarily
'stand' united... . A
queercrip
consciousness resists containment
and
imagines other,
more
inventive,
expansive,
and
just
communities"
(2003,
7).
A
queercrip framework, therefore,
allows us to examine and
challenge
the
social construction of the homosexual and disabled
body
as
defiantly
shameful,
abnormal,
and
pathological.
A
queercrip reading
of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"
grants
us the
opportunity
to deconstruct
hetero-corporo-normative presumptions,
stereo-
types,
and social structures that have
predominated
in classical
fairy
tales.
Through
silence and
marginalization,
stories such as "Snow White" have
treated the homodisabled
body
as
unseemly. By positioning homosexuality
and
disability
at the center of our
analysis
of "Snow
White,"
queercripping
allows us to
challenge
the desexualization and infantilization of alternative
sexual and
bodily configurations
in the
story.
It is
important
here to
emphasize
that whenever a homodisabled existence is
denied,
a code of surveillance is
permitted
to define social
ideologies
of sexual
perversion.
A
queercrip analysis
challenges
this surveillance and
helps
us subvert
simplistic
classifications of
appropriate
and
acceptable
sexual acts.
Before I
begin my analysis,
I want to
emphasize
the
following:
Queer theory
and
disability
studies both have
origins
in and
ongoing
commitments to activism. Their
primary
constituen-
cies,
sexual minorities and
people
with
disabilities,
share a
history
of
injustice:
both have been
pathologized by medicine;
demonized
by religion
...
stereotyped
in
representation
...
Perhaps
the most
significant similarity
between these disci-
plines, however,
is their radical stance toward
concepts
of nor-
malcy;
both
argue adamantly against
the
compulsion
to observe
norms of all kinds
(corporeal, mental, sexual, social, cultural,
subcultural, etc.). (Sandahl 2003, 26)
Unfortunately,
in Western
societies,
heterosexist and ableist
assumptions
rest
on the beliefs that
homosexuality
and
disability
are
personal
misfortunes and
tragedies,
and that the social and environmental
problems
encountered
by
homosexual and disabled
people
stem
mainly
from their own bodies. From
this
perspective, rehabilitation, restoration,
and normalization are the
appro-
priate goals.
In this
essay, however,
I
challenge
these heterosexist and ableist
beliefs.
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118
Hypatia
PICTURE BOOK SELECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is one of
many fairy
tales German
philolo-
gists Jakob
and Wilhelm Grimm collected in the first half of the nineteenth
century.
There are several versions of the tale in the Grimm collections
alone,
not to mention the
many
variations that now exist in
English. Although
the
edition of Walt
Disney's
"Snow White"
analyzed
here was
published
in
2001,
Disney
has
produced
numerous
interpretations
over the
years, including
the
animated film that
premiered
on December
21, 1937,
which served as the basis
for the
Disney storybook. Accordingly,
the other three
picture
books I examine
in this
essay
have a more
contemporary
inclination or
appearance.
Neverthe-
less,
I
purposefully
selected these four
picture
books because
they
each illustrate
aspects
of the
story
that mainstream
society actively ignores.
In
particular,
through
its illustrations and
narratives,
each
picture
book contains
specific
normalizing goals
that are
important
to examine. Each
presents
a
unique way
of
negotiating normativity through invisibility.
The
sequential arrangement
of
the selected
picture
books is as follows:
1994
Elisabeth
Wagner-Koch,
Snow-white and the Seven
Dwarfs
1996 Richard
Hack,
Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs
1996 Charles
Santore,
Snow White
2001 Fernando
Guell,
Walt
Disney's
Snow White and the
Seven
Dwarfs
Each book manifests or illustrates
particular conceptualizations
of homo-
sexuality
and
disability:
for
example, Wagner-Koch's depiction
is
inspired by
a
spiritual
or
religious persuasion;
Hack's
interpretation foregrounds
a
hip,
modern
retelling
that features seven multiethnic
dwarfs;
Santore's rendition
emphasizes
a classical and nuanced artistic
style
that focuses on the emotional texture of
human
experience;
and Guell's
portrayal captures
the seven dwarfs' boundless
humor,
Snow White's
physical beauty,
the
Queen's
malevolent
witchcraft,
and the Prince's
passionate
love for Snow White.
Nevertheless, although
each
picture
book can
conceivably reinterpret
"Snow White" from
multiple-and
emancipatory-perspectives,
all four versions offer a normative
point
of
view;
combined,
they
advance a
representational
framework
shaped by
sexual
oppres-
sion and
corporeal stereotypes. Consequently,
the reader encounters
limiting,
inadequate,
and
problematic
strands of
meaning
in all four
picture
books: homo-
phobic
and ableist cultural beliefs inform them all.
Ultimately, they help
define
the limits of romantic
relationships by presenting hetero-corporo-normative
sexuality
within conventional
parameters.
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Santiago
Solis
119
QUEERCRIPPING
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
ELISABETH WAGNER-KOCH'S
SNOw-WHITE
AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
Wagner-Koch's
version of the
story begins
with the
Queen,
Snow White's
mother,
pricking
her
finger
with a needle and
spilling
three
drops
of blood on
the white snow. As she
contemplates
the
blood,
the
Queen
thinks to
herself,
"'If
only
I had a child as white as snow and as red as
blood,
and as black as
the
wood on the window frame"'
(2).
The
Queen
does not wish for a lesbian or a
disabled child. But
why
are
homosexuality
and
disability
not on the
Queen's
wish list? Would
being
a lesbian or
having
a
disability
make Snow White less
beautiful,
less
appealing,
and less envied? Since
homophobia
and ableism are
often
intertwined,
what these
questions
reveal is that we need to examine both
heterosexism and ableism as
products
of cultural values.
Sandahl
(2003)
suggests
that women and men who are homosexual or
disabled are
physically
and
mentally pathologized,
demonized,
and stereo-
typed through medical,
religious,
or mass cultural institutions. To
identify
as
homosexual or disabled
always
involves the risk of
being
in direct
opposition
to
heterosexuality
or able-bodiedness.
Hence,
one is forced to claim a
radically
less
privileged position.
And
through
a subliminal
repetition
that underscores
heterosexual and able-bodied
conformity,
the
story
of "Snow White"
deviously
sustains a set of social and
political
boundaries based on heterosexist and ableist
frameworks.
For
instance,
the
Queen
dies soon after
giving
birth to Snow White.
However,
a lack of
clarity
about the
Queen's
sudden death serves to set
up
an
antithesis between the
deserving
beautiful and the
undeserving sickly.
Not
only
does Snow White's
unparalleled
and
meriting beauty appear
to cause
her mother's
death,
but also her
breathtaking beauty inspires horror, envy,
and hatred from her
stepmother,
the new
Queen.
After
the
Queen
orders a
huntsman to kill Snow
White,
the huntsman is mesmerized
by
Snow White's
beauty
and
reluctantly spares
her life. Snow White's
beauty,
so it
seems,
is
deeply
connected to the misfortunes of its own
production.
But how should we
theorize the interconnection between
beauty, gender, sexuality,
and
disability?
While disabled women are
often avoided, overlooked,
and
rejected
as
being
unattractive and
asexual,
Snow White is ostracized and sentenced to death for
being
too beautiful.
It is
important
to examine how the
story
reinforces and sustains
stereotypes
based on
beauty, gender, sexuality,
and
disability
within a male-dominated
society.
For
example,
the
rivalry
between the
contemptuous Queen
and the
unsuspecting and innocent Snow White creates the
impression
that a
specific
kind of
virginal beauty
should be cherished and coveted
by all,
at
any
cost.
Her
fragile
demeanor
inconspicuously
sets the criteria for what it means to be
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120
Hypatia
feminine,
yet
her
depiction
as delicate and
virginal exposes
her
vulnerability.
It
is
only
from the
pristine
and
privileged position
of
possessing
idealized feminine
qualities
that Snow White can be admired and
protected.
But what
exactly
do children learn from this
problematic
and
disturbing
fairy
tale? First of
all,
it seems that this
story
teaches children
(and
especially
girls)
that it is
acceptable
to imitate the
stepmother by striving
to become the
most beautiful at
any cost,
regardless
of the
consequences.
To make sure that
specific
codes of
proper
behavior are
immortalized,
goodness
must
prevail
over
evil.
Hence,
the wicked
Queen
is sentenced to burn at the
stake,
as if she were
a witch who has fallen from God's
grace.
Nevertheless,
even
though
the
Queen
is
vilified,
children
might
learn that
being just
beautiful is not as
good
as
being
the most
beautiful,
and that
attempting
to become the most beautiful is worth
taking risks,
and even worth
dying
for.
Secondly,
Snow White's romanticized
coma
imparts
a
deathly message
to
anyone
who
might possess unsightly
features.
For
example,
What would have become of Snow White if she were so
ugly
that no one desired to rescue her? Would she have been buried alive? Snow
White's
presumed beauty automatically positions
disabled bodies as
doomed,
for disabled bodies are still
regarded
as
weird, abnormal,
grotesque,
and
appall-
ing. Hence,
the
story
fortifies the
assumption
that
beauty
and
disability
are
conceptual opposites.
The beautiful
body, therefore,
emerges
as the normative
corporeality
that
it
legitimates. Focusing
on the beautiful
body helps categorize corporeal
dif-
ferences into
acceptable
and
unacceptable physical
traits. Within this
process
of
sorting
and
ranking
the beautiful and normal from the unattractive and
abnormal,
the beautiful
body
evolves into the
very
act of
highlighting bodily
differences based on
normalizing
somatic attributes. One of the most
damaging
assumptions
"Snow White"
perpetuates
is that
homosexuality
and
disability
are
not beautiful. For
example,
the dwarfs maintain an obscure
presence
because
they
are viewed as
physical
anomalies. As icons of
deviance,
the dwarfs' unat-
tractive bodies are defined
by
the other characters' ideal
beauty.
The dwarfs
thus
comprise
a sort of third
entity,
defined
by
the masculine Prince and the
feminine Princess. But since the dwarfs are
positioned
as the
opposite
of the
masculine Prince and
simultaneously
as the antithesis of the feminine
Princess,
their role remains
ambiguous.
This
ambiguity might explain why
in this version of the
story
the dwarfs
occupy
such a
marginal position
that
they actually
resemble
legumes
rather
than
people.
In this
sense,
their
disability,
and
by implication
their
sexuality
is so aberrant in terms of
physical expectations
that
they
are reduced to the
level of dirt:
they
work in the mines.
Having
been devalued to
dirt,
the dwarfs
are deemed
contaminated and therefore hazardous.
According
to
Rosemary
Garland
Thomson, "The
logic
that
governs
this cultural narrative, then, is that
eliminating
the
anomaly
neutralizes the
danger.
.
..
It is the
logic
of
theodicy:
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Santiago
Solis 121
if
something
'bad'-like
having
a
disability-happens
to
someone,
then there
must be some
'good'
reason-like divine or moral
justice-for
its occurrence"
(1997, 36).
Perhaps
this is
why
a
theological
doctrine informs this
particular
version of "Snow White." A moralistic
approach
facilitates the
conceptual-
ization of
disability
as wicked and evil. For
example,
the seven dwarfs' visual
representation
contains
dehumanizing
elements that center on the ableist belief
that
physical deformity
is the dire
consequence
of a sinful
body.
The dwarfs'
wicked-evil-sinful-deviant bodies are
rejected
and
marginalized,
characterized
as diabolic. The dwarfs are
depicted
as monstrous
anomalies, portrayed
as
pathological specimens
to exclude them from the mainstream of
society.
The
dwarfs'
corporeal
Otherness
ultimately
facilitates their
segregation
from the
rest of
humanity-and by
virtue of what
appears
to be their own free will
they
toil in the obscure mines.
The
relationship
here between
religious
sentimentalism and
disability
is
a
problematic
one that leads to
treating
the
dwarfs,
not as sources of
inspira-
tion,
special
children of
God,
or
objects
of
pity,
but as demonic. While Snow
White resembles some kind of saint or even the
Virgin Mary,
the dwarfs are
depicted
as lost
souls,
condemned to hard labor
underground
in the shadows
of darkness. In this
particular account,
all seven dwarfs are
depicted
as
overtly
bizarre.
Apparently, they
were sentenced to manual labor in the mines as a form
of
castigation.
Such hellish
suffering symbolizes
a
punishment
for their sinful
bodies. As
disability
has
often
been
perceived
as unfavorable and
undesirable,
the dwarfs'
representation
as
dirty
sinners stands in
sharp
contrast to Snow
White,
who is
able-bodied, beautiful,
and
good.
The dwarfs are
inferior: weak, flawed,
and sick. In this
respect,
the dwarfs'
disability
is a test of their moral character.
They
are
responsible
for their own
suffering.
Punitive notions toward the dwarfs
position
them as
culpable;
their
"abnormal"
growth
becomes
synonymous
with unnatural
phenomena
that
they
should have
prevented
and avoided. The dwarfs' own
perspective
is never con-
sidered.
They
remain
subordinate, viewable, yet
invisible. Their
marginalization
is central to the issue of how disabled
people
are
often
transformed from human
oddities to evil
creatures,
with some sort of unidentifiable ailment
requiring
persecution, isolation,
and containment.
RICHARD HACK'S SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
As in several other versions of the
story,
the wicked
Queen goes through
various
physical
transformations in order to kill Snow White. The
Queen's multiple
metamorphoses suggest
that there exists a
normalizing corporal
framework from
which difference can be
negotiated.
For instance, when the
Queen disguises
herself for a second
time, she decides to become
"a
feeble old woman so
crippled
that she was
barely
able to walk"
(26). But what is the
purpose
and
significance
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122
Hypatia
of
adjectives
or labels such as
crippled? According
to
Jenny
Corbett, "language
is a source of
power
and control . .. the sense of self can become distorted and
denied if a
disproportionate emphasis
is
put upon
elements of
behaviour,
defi-
ciency
and limitations"
(1996, 46, 49). Therefore, although
this version
may
try
to
appreciate
cultural
differences,
it
simultaneously rejects being physically
different-especially
too different-because
corporeal
differences often con-
note
negativity, inferiority,
and
powerlessness. Perhaps
this
might explain why
even
though
this variant of the tale
depicts
the dwarfs as multicultural
(that is,
European-American, Asian-American,
and
African-American), homosexuality
and
disability
are
grossly unacknowledged.
Hack
apparently
selected a multicultural
perspective
as a
way
to
propel
the
story
forward into the
twenty-first century.
The multicultural
aspects
of the
story
offer a
glimpse
into the
diversity
of our
society, allowing
readers from
diverse racial and ethnic
backgrounds
more of an
opportunity
to
identify
with the seven dwarfs.
Nevertheless,
while the illustrations
give
the
story
a
contemporary
look in terms of race and
ethnicity,
the overall
premise
of the
narrative remains
relatively unchanged; accordingly,
Snow White and the
Prince-who
appear
to be Caucasian-maintain their racial
(and
heterosexual
and
able-bodied)
sociocultural and
sociopolitical privilege.
Furthermore,
homosexuality
and
disability
are neither
represented
nor discussed. While a
multicultural
perspective
embodies racial and ethnic
diversity,
then,
it excludes
sexual and
bodily
differences.
Here,
as in all the other versions of the
story
under
examination,
we see
that the
tyranny
for both homosexual and disabled
people
is their exclusion
from dominant discourses. This exclusion reinforces the belief that
atypical
sexual and
physical configurations
afford less
privilege,
status,
and
power.
In
addition,
it
perpetuates
the notion that serious
topics
such as
homosexuality
and
disability
should not be discussed with
youths. Consequently,
we never
get
to ask such
questions as,
How
might
the dwarfs
help young
readers create
an
imagery
of
queercrip
desire and
identity?
The
question
of same-sex desire
does not surface from the dwarfs'
representation
because it is
unequivocally
prohibited through
the dwarfs'
infantilization-specifically,
some of the dwarfs
look and dress like children.
In
addition,
embedded
throughout
the
story
are
multilayered aspects
of
patriarchal, sexist,
and heterosexist
biases,
which are founded on the
general
assumption
that women are
weak, subordinate, vulnerable,
and heterosexual.
For
instance,
following
Snow White's
birth,
the
King
is
presented
as a
proud
and
happy
father. This
retelling
of the
story
offers an
opportunity
to witness a
loving family
unit
containing
two devoted heterosexual
parents
(the King
and
Queen) and their
lovely daughter.
But a more
striking
feature about this
family
portrait
is that it
presents
heterosexual
marriage
as natural and benevolent;
heterosexual desire is normalized
by
its distinctive
public
and
open
status.
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Santiago Solis 123
Thus,
the
story
concludes as it
begins-with
a
public
and
open
celebration
of heterosexual
union,
this time between Snow White and the Prince. This
heterosexual narrative makes it
virtually impossible
to
imagine any type
of
homoerotic discourse from which other sexual and sexualized
configurations
might originate.
Within this normative heterosexual
frame,
all men and women
are
presumed straight,
but more
important,
women are
commodities, objects
of
pleasure
and
exchange by
and for men. The
Queen
dies soon after
giving
birth
to Snow
White,
it is
suggested,
because her
wifely duty
has been fulfilled. Once
dead,
she is
easily replaced by
another woman
(a stepmother)
on whom the
King depends
to nurture his
daughter,
thus also
satisfying
her
motherly
instinct.
However,
that the
stepmother
is not a
good
mother and therefore fails to
fully
discharge
her
womanly obligations
is a
sign
that she is evil.
Furthermore,
even
though
Snow White
appears quite young, apparently
she
must also
satisfy
her maternal instincts: she
automatically
assumes the role of
homemaker and caretaker. From this
perspective,
the
dwarfs
exercise their male
privilege
and
quickly
take
advantage
of the
opportunity
to have a housemaid.
CHARLES SANTORE'S SNOW WHITE
To be allowed to remain in the dwarfs'
house,
Snow White must
cook, clean,
wash, sew, knit,
and take care of the dwarfs. In this
particular
situation,
even
though
the dwarfs are desexualized
they
are not
portrayed
as
disabled,
but as
heterosexual men who
expect
the woman to
look
after them in
exchange
for
protection.
In that
connection,
the dwarfs
attempt
to control Snow White
by
instructing
her not to
open
the door to
strangers.
As
men,
they
are
depicted
as
rational and
knowledgeable,
while Snow White is
punished
for not
honoring
the men's wisdom. As a result of her failure to do as she is
told,
Snow White lies
comatose, thereby showing
that
disobeying
men has severe ramifications.
But,
ultimately,
because the dwarfs are not
complete
men, they
are unable to save
Snow White. A true
man,
the
Prince,
is needed to save her-but
only
after the
dwarfs and the Prince
negotiate
a
price
for her
body,
as if she were a
commodity.
In the
end,
the Prince's rescue
implies
that
only
a heterosexual and able-bodied
man's love can save Snow
White,
after which she marries the Prince in a white
gown, signifying
her
innocence, virginity, loyalty,
and
compliance.
In this
elegant presentation
of the
story,
the colorful and vivid illustrations
seem so
realistic
that the
myths they portray appear
natural
and true.
They
invite the reader to
accept
the
relationship
between the disabled and the non-
disabled as obvious and
righteous.
The
story's
heterosexist slant seems at first
to be of
minimal
significance.
However,
upon
closer
inspection,
one discovers
that the tale is heterosexist
through
and
through. Ultimately,
the effects of
heterosexism and ableism become so well fused that
they occupy
a seamless,
yet
central
position.
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124
Hypatia
The illustrations
carefully
create an
exaggerated physical
divide between
the dwarfs and Snow White. But this
physical
divide also translates into a
sexual divide between the disabled and the nondisabled.
Consequently,
when
one
compares
the dwarfs' assumed
deformity
to either Snow White's
presumed
beauty
or the Prince's
supposed
masculine sex
appeal,
it becomes
unimaginable
to
ask,
Would a dwarf have sex with Snow White? Would he have sex with the
Prince?
Instead,
we
might
be more inclined to
ask, Why
would Snow White
want to have sex with a dwarf when she can have sex with a Prince? But we
would
certainly
not even dare
ask,
Would the Prince have sex with one of the
dwarfs instead of
having
sex with Snow White? One effective
way
to construct
Snow White as beautiful and desirable is to create dwarfs that
appear
hideous. In
this
regard, ugliness
will not
suffice,
for
repulsiveness
is even more
striking.
In literal
terms,
sexuality
is what connects humans to each other.
Hence,
as the
process
of
dehumanization turns the dwarfs into unsexed
subjects,
their
asexuality
becomes a mark of their
inferiority
and
marginalization.
As
undesirables,
the dwarfs are defined
solely
in relation to their
inability
to have
sex.
Accordingly,
their sexual orientation is never in
question,
for the issue
is resolved even before such a connotation arises. The homosexual dwarf is
therefore an
oxymoron,
as the
story (and by implication, society)
dichotomizes
homosexuality
and
disability.
If the
homosexual,
on the one
hand,
and the
disabled
person,
on the
other,
are deemed
horrific,
the
homodisabled, then,
will most
definitely
be viewed as an
atrocity.
None of the dwarfs can be a
homosexual because none of them has a choice in the matter. Their
disability
does not allow them that
option.
Furthermore,
because
they
are viewed as
nonconforming,
the dwarfs "become
a
threatening presence, seemingly compromised by
the
particularities
and limita-
tions of their own bodies.
...
At once
familiarly
human but
definitively
other"
(Thomson 1997, 41).
The dwarfs are denied full
citizenship
because their bodies
do not accommodate the architectural conventions of
supposedly
normal bodies.
Consequently,
since their
stigmatization positions
them as
deviant,
the dwarfs
have no recourse but to
segregate
themselves from the rest of
society.
However,
perhaps they
also
rejected
a
society
that abused dwarfs
by using
them to entertain
the
aristocracy
and the
bourgeoisie.
If we look at the situation of dwarfs within
the context of the
story's era,
we see the
many ways
in which dwarfs were abused
and
exploited:
dwarfs served as "court
jesters,
circus exhibits and
performers,
and
pets
and mascots of
powerful
and
prestigious
individuals"
(Gerber 1996,
50).
Their isolation in the
fairy tale,
rather than
being presented
as
unjust
and
problematic,
is advanced as the dwarfs'
personal
choice;
it
appears
that the dwarfs
have
willingly
extricated themselves from mainstream
society by deciding
to live
in their own isolated world.
Ultimately,
the
story
fails to
position
the dwarfs'
inevitable need to remain
sequestered
as
demeaning
and unfair; a
meaningful
explanation
about
why they prefer
to live in isolation is
lacking.
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Santiago
Solis 125
Perhaps
all we can
say
about the dwarfs'
segregation
is that
they managed
to
make the most of a bad situation. Their isolation allowed them to earn a liveli-
hood in the mines without
being
mocked-as social
outcasts,
the dwarfs become
economically productive, self-determined,
and autonomous. In this
way, they
challenge
their classification as
corruptors
of the norm. But
unfortunately,
the
story portrays
the dwarfs as infantilized and
downplays
the fact that
they
are inde-
pendent
men with
significant power
over their lives.
Hence, they
are
depicted
as
passive
and
complacent,
rather than active and
political participants.
In
addition,
by positing
a heterosexual
identity
as the
norm,
this
type
of nar-
rative ensures that when homoerotic acts
occur, they
are
invariably
overlooked.
But once we examine this
particular
variant of the
story
more
closely,
we
begin
to uncover concealed homoerotic
episodes.
For
instance,
when the dwarfs dis-
cover Snow White
sleeping
in the seventh dwarf's
bed,
they
are careful not to
wake her: "The seventh dwarf had to
sleep
with his
companions
one hour in
each
bed,
in order to
get through
the
night" (25).
The contradiction here is that
the seventh dwarf's bed
hopping
creates a
homosexually explicit image
which
incites our desire to
imagine
the
very
homosexual act that the
story
concur-
rently
insists must not be conceived. The
abnegation
of the dwarfs'
promiscuity
attempts
to circumscribe or eliminate
queercrip
identities that
may
in
any way
encourage
fantasies that
transgress hetero-corporo-normative sexuality.
It can
therefore be
argued
that "an
assumption underlying
. .. is that the relations of
the closet-the relations of the known and the
unknown,
the
explicit
and the
implicit
around
homo/heterosexual
definition-have the
potential
for
being
peculiarly revealing" (Sedgwick 1990, 3). Ultimately,
what this
particular
interpretation
of "Snow White" reveals is that
homosexuality
is
judged against
a
heterosexual standard in the same manner in which
disability
is measured based
on a
corporo-normative
ideal. To
protect
innocent children from
perverted
sexual
transgressions, queercrip
identities can never be mentioned.
FERNANDO GUELL'S WALT DISNEY'S SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
Walt
Disney's
rendition of the
fairy
tale is
arguably
the most
popular
and
influential. This version
immediately displays
Snow White's social and
physi-
cal
privileges-beauty, youth, flawlessness, whiteness,
and wealth-which are
not
accidental,
but
deliberately
linked to the social norms
they perpetuate.
Like the other
variations,
the foundational
premise
of the
Disney
version is
that
socially
sanctioned
physical
attributes should be held in
high
esteem and
coveted
by
all.
By contrast,
after Snow White is banished from the castle
by
the
jealous Queen
and encounters the dwarfs'
cottage,
she
exclaims, "It's
just
like a doll's house!" (9). This
along
with other such statements, revitalizes and
reestablishes the historical creation of the innocent, incognizant, childlike,
and unsexed dwarf.
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126
Hypatia
The dwarfs' house is described as a
cozy cottage,
and Snow White
states,
"There must be seven children
living
here"
(10).
In this
context,
the
application
of the noun children can
easily go
unnoticed.
However,
the
vocabulary
selected
to describe the dwarfs informs what we see and how we see it. The word child
means more than small in stature or
petite
in
size;
it could also
suggest
that the
dwarfs are
contemptibly
limited or
lacking importance.
In a similar
vein,
the
adjective dwarf
could mean
"exceptionally
small in
proportion,"
but it
might
also connote abnormal
growth
and
development.
Alone
among
the variations
reviewed
here,
in this one the dwarfs are
given
names and thus a true
identity:
Doc,
Happy, Sneezy, Dopey, Grumpy, Bashful,
and
Sleepy.
However,
as
part
of the dwarfs' individual
identities,
each is characterized
as
having
some sort of
physical
ailment or
personality
flaw. For
instance,
Doc
has a
superiority complex
that makes him
pompous
and crass.
Happy
is
overly
sentimental and addicted to
high-spirited proverbs. Sneezy experiences sneezing
episodes
that are
provoked by hay
fever.
Dopey
is unable to
speak
and
appears
to have a
developmental disability. Grumpy
is a
grouchy
and
unwavering pes-
simist. Bashful is
extremely
timid and introverted. And
Sleepy
is a
narcoleptic.
Thus even
though
the dwarfs' "vices"
provide
comic
relief, they
are also used
metaphorically
to indicate
pathology.
The dwarfs lack
physical
and mental
health;
they
suffer from
physical
deterioration and
psychological
decadence.
Their "sicknesses" serve a dual function.
First,
the dwarfs'
physical
and mental
weaknesses become a
good
and
justifiable
reason for
exile; but, ultimately, they
symbolize
an
appealing vulnerability
because
they
create the
perfect pretext
for Snow White to nurture them back to health as if
they
were
sickly
children
in need of treatment and cure.
Once
again,
we see that the dwarfs' infantilization allows Snow White to
assimilate into the role of the
nurturing, motherly figure
in order to
protect
her
own
virginal purity.
After
having
eaten the
poisonous apple
and fallen into a
deep sleep, then,
"there was
only
one cure for the
Queen's sleeping spell-love's
first kiss"
(17). And, indeed,
after
endlessly searching
for his true
love, "the
Prince knelt beside the
sleeping
Snow White. Then he leaned down and kissed
her. Snow White's
eyes
fluttered
open.
....
Then the Prince lifted Snow White
onto his white horse and
they
rode off
together"
(24). Only
the
Prince,
with
his
privileged hetero-corporo-normative qualities,
could ever
posses
Snow
White both
romantically
and
sexually.
The desexualized
dwarfs,
in
contrast,
lack the
socially
sanctioned
physical
traits that would allow them to lust over
Snow White
(or
over each
other,
for that
matter).
From this
perspective,
the
right
to fall in love and to
sexually
desire
belongs only
to heterosexual and
able-bodied characters.
At times, some of the dwarfs
(specifically, Dopey)
seem to be overlaid with
sexual desire for Snow White.
Nevertheless, their lust cannot be taken seri-
ously.
After
all, can a
group
of
elderly,
disabled men dare to sexualize and
gawk
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Santiago
Solis 127
at a
young, virginal
woman without
violating
the belief that disabled
people
are asexual and morbid
objects
of
pity?
In order for the
story
to remain
pure
and
innocent,
the seven dwarfs are
stripped
of their
sexuality.
Snow
White,
however,
remains sexualized in order to incite
jealousy
from the
Queen
and to
be
sexually stimulating
to the Prince.
IMPLICATIONS
Ultimately,
in "Snow
White," fantasy
has such a
normalizing
function that
it is no
longer
about the reader
using
her or his
imagination
to
conceptualize
unfamiliar realities or
unexplored possibilities;
instead,
the
story attempts
to
restrict or
regulate
the reader's
imagination by producing
its own vision and
version of the ideal
fantasy-one
that
negates
the existence of homosexual-
ity
and
disability.
In this
way,
the
story operates
as a historical narrative as it
mirrors what
society
considers
objectionable,
indecent,
and immoral.
Through
subtle and
open
forms of
marginalization
and
silencing,
it reinforces and extends
homophobia
and ableism.
Consequently,
as the
process
of
homogenization
and
normalization
suppresses
alternative sexual and
bodily
identities,
the
young
female reader
may begin
to
replicate privileged ways
of
being
in the world. After
all is said and
done,
Snow White herself is the embodiment of the classical
beauty
that
girls (but
not
boys)
are
expected
to
reproduce.
"Snow White" continues to be a
popular fairy
tale because it
perpetuates
sexual and
bodily
ideals that the mainstream values and sustains. The ideal-
ized
virtuosity
and desirable
beauty
of Snow White-her
presumed
feminine
qualities (subservient,
virginal, defenseless, dependent,
delicate, refined,
able-
bodied,
and
heterosexual)-help produce
the ideal
image
of how
young girls
should behave or what
they
should look like. In a
society
in which the male
gaze dominates,
the female
body
is
already
viewed as an
object
of
desire,
and
Snow White's
objectification
is not seen as
problematic
from that
perspective.
The female
body,
and the heterosexual and able-bodied female in
particular,
becomes a site for a
specific
kind of sexual desire.
However,
what is
striking
about the "Snow White"
story
is that rather than
explicitly rejecting
the
undesirable homosexual and disabled
body,
it
simply disqualifies
them as
nonexistent-insidiously-through
omission.
Furthermore,
the rhetoric of infantilization that is used to
represent
the
seven dwarfs serves
multiple purposes. First,
the
physical shortcomings
that the
dwarfs
presumably embody
confirm ideas about
manhood;
their disabled bodies
explicitly
contradict normal conventions of
masculinity (sexuality, virility,
and
so
on). The dwarfs are
represented
as
displaced children, and therefore not as
real men.
Second, the dwarfs are emasculated. Since the Prince is the
only
one who
can view Snow White
through
the male
gaze,
it is
only he, not the emasculated
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128
Hypatia
and infantilized
dwarfs,
who can claim
sovereign authority
over Snow White.
And since
society presumes everyone
is heterosexual unless stated
otherwise,
the Prince is
automatically
assumed to be
only
and
exclusively
heterosexual
and, therefore,
he must fall in love with Snow White.
Third,
because of the masculine
prowess
the Prince
displays, young boys
(but
not
girls)
are
expected
and even
encouraged
to
identify
with him. Since the
Prince
epitomizes
heterosexual and able-bodied
manliness-physical qualities
that are
recognized
and admired
by
mainstream
society-young boys quickly
learn to emulate these
bodily
traits and behaviors. To
reiterate, contemporary
audiences continue to
accept
the
fairy
tale because the
story
extends idealized
notions of social and sexual
behaviors, which,
as I have
argued,
are based on
heterosexist and ableist
apprehensions.
I
attempted
to
explore
a
range
of conceivable
responses
that "Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs"
might provoke
to ascertain how different authors and
illustrators have
negotiated
the
stigma
and
invisibility surrounding
homosexual-
ity
and
disability. Furthermore,
I
proceeded chronologically
to determine if more
recent
publications progress
toward affirmative
representations.
Unfortunately,
even
contemporary
variations on the tale continue to
produce
a
public imag-
ery
that
supports hetero-corporo-normative
desire and
identity;
none of them
depart
from or
defy
heterosexist and ableist norms. For this
reason,
I tried to
pay
attention to that which remains silenced or unsaid. In
doing
so,
I discovered
a number of discounted erotic
possibilities
(for example,
between the
dwarfs,
between the dwarfs and the
Prince,
and between the dwarfs and Snow
White).
But what does it
mean,
after
all,
to
suppress
or
negate queercrip representations?
Why
should future
tellings incorporate
or
provide
a
queercrip perspective?
In
other
words,
What function would a
queercrip approach
serve?
A
queercrip reading
of the
story
offers the
potential
to
explore
sexual
fantasies that
might
inform and transform narrow
images
of
desirability.
The
eroticization of the
queercrip body,
for
example,
can instill
pride
and foster
public
affirmation for
queercripness. Queercripness
is located "not so much in
any specifically
...
[queercrip] practice
but in a
larger
liberation of
psychic
and
social
life,
one that
gives defiantly corporeal
form to the
repressed
materials
and forbidden fantasies"
(Meyer 2002, 161). Through
the lens of
queercrip-
ness a fear of sexual fantasies that
might
be
perceived
as "deviant" is not
only
displaced,
but fear itself is
subsequently replaced by
a desire for varied forms
of
corporeal
lustfulness. In this
way,
each
type
of
body,
or
body type,
is seen as
a new source of sexual
inspiration. Queercripness, therefore,
does not in itself
promote homosexuality; instead,
it seeks to
generate
new social conditions from
which all
types
of
people
can be
sexually expressive
and
passionately
embod-
ied. In
short, queercripness
undoes dichotomized distinctions between the
normative and the non-normative.
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Santiago
Solis 129
Ultimately,
we must
challenge rigid
definitions of
sexuality
based on
accept-
able
preferences
and identities if
picture
books are ever to
represent
all of
our
corporeal
functions and diversities.
Hence, countering
heterosexism
and
ableism demands more than
"positive" representations requiring
assimilation
into the dominant
culture; instead,
representations
need to draw
upon
ambi-
guities
with the
understanding
that
queercripness
can never be
fully captured,
contained, mastered,
or
disciplined.
It is
something
that is
fluid, "since
there is
no law which can
guarantee
that
things
will have
'one,
true
meaning,'
or that
meanings
won't
change
over time"
(Hall 2001, 9).
What
queercripness
offers,
therefore,
is a critical stance with
respect
to heterosexism and ableism. So how
can we use
queercripness
to think forward?
Queercripness provides
awareness
and an
urge
to
question
and to
problematize.
For
example,
in the four versions of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"
examined
here,
we witness time and
again
how the seven dwarfs
play
"a
sup-
porting role,
serving
as a marker for
larger
narratives about
normalcy
and
legitimacy"
(Davidson 2003, 57). However,
as sexual fantasies are allowed to
surface from the dwarfs'
bodies,
spaces
of
dialogue emerge, spaces
from which
children can
explore "humanizing possibilities"
(Greene 1988).
But how can
teachers and
parents
transform newfound sexual fantasies into
age-appropriate
conversations? How can
fairy
tales like "Snow White"
help
initiate constructive
dialogues?
Is it
preferable
to talk
openly
about sexual
fantasies,
or should
they
continue to function as
unacknowledged
sexual
perversions?
These
questions
force us to consider what sexual
practices
are most valued in our culture as well
as what sexual
knowledge
deserves to be validated and discussed.
According
to
Jonathan Silin,
"When innocence is defined
by
the absence of the
experience
presumed
to characterize
adulthood,
the
protection
of childhood
requires
con-
trolling
access to the
knowledge
that would
signal
its loss"
(1995, 122).
From
this
perspective,
the child is
presumed
to be unaware of her or his own sexual
desires and therefore in constant need of
supervision.
Unfortunately,
even
though queercripness promotes multiple ways
of know-
ing,
controversial issues such as
homosexuality
and
disability
that fall outside
the realm of the
hetero-corporo-normative
are often treated as
beyond
the
child's immediate intellectual
understanding
or
conceptual scope.
In this
regard,
we are uncomfortable whenever the child has too much
knowledge
or
information about
anything queercripped,
which
brings
me back to
my open-
ing
remarks. In
retrospect, my
innocence
(or ignorance)
of
homosexuality
as
a child made me fearful of
my
homoerotic fantasies. For
me,
the
presumption
of
hetero-corporo-normativity
was
extremely limiting
in that I
grew up
feel-
ing
ashamed and
socially
ostracized. Because
homosexuality
was not
part
of
my daily experience,
I
grew up
with a
great
deal of self-hatred. I knew I was
"different" and this "difference"
impelled
me into a world of darkness where
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130
Hypatia
I remained well into
adulthood,
for
only
then was I allowed the
opportunity
to
express my sexuality.
Hence the
questions:
If
my sexuality
was silenced as a
child,
how
might
homodisabled children feel about themselves? Do
they
feel
valued and
appreciated
as
they
read different versions of "Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs"?
Fortunately, queercripness
has made
hetero-corporo-normativity question-
able,
a
politically charged phenomenon
to be
problematized
and
challenged
rather than
presupposed
or elided. This
questioning
has
begun
to
unpack
what
it means to be a child
seeking
information about sexual identities.
However,
at what
age
is it
appropriate
to talk
openly
with children about
queercripness?
In other
words,
how
young
is too
young
before a child's
sexuality
ceases to be
suppressed
or denied? How can a child's sexual
identity
be
incorporated
into the
child's natural
development? When, how,
and
why
do we
attempt
to
regulate
the child's sexual
identity by reproducing hetero-corporo-normative practices
that
support "acceptable"
feminine and masculine behaviors? And how do
these social
practices
work to
protract
the institutionalization of
homophobia
and ableism? While we deliberate over such
questions,
one
thing
is
certain:
the concealment of sexual identities related to
homosexuality
and
disability
will
only
assure the continued isolation of
children,
especially
homodisabled
youths,
who seek
guidance
and
support.
It is because of this
group
of children
that I offer this
analysis
of "Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs,"
in the
hope
that
they
will not have to
grow up,
as I
did,
in distress over their
sexuality.
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