October 24, 2018
By: Linda Case Gibbons, Esq.
Once upon a time fairy tales could come true. And it could happen to you.
All you had to do was be young at heart.
But not anymore. Not according to actresses Keira Knightley and Kristen Bell.
And they should know.
"Don't you think it's weird that the prince kisses Snow White without her permission?" Bell said she asked her daughters, aged five and three, when interviewed by Parent magazine.
"And that it's weird that Snow White didn't ask the old witch why she needed to eat the apple? Or where she got the apple?"
Some would think it's weird Bell thought it was weird.
And this week, Cinderella also bit the dust, in actress Keira Knightley's home. Alas. There will be no more pumpkin coaches for Knightley's 3-year-old daughter.
"Cinderella waits around for a rich guy to rescue her," Knightley told Ellen DeGeneres. "Don't. Rescue yourself! Obviously."
And both these Tinseltowners should know.
But a simple review of history and literature would turn their indignant little actress hearts back toward pretty stories like Snow White and Cinderella.
The ones kids have loved for...well, centuries.
Snow White was a 19th century fairy tale, published by The Brothers Grimm in 1812. As the story goes, Snow needed a kiss to wake up from the poisonous-apple-coma her jealous stepmother put her in.
It was a coma. And the prince saved her life when he kissed her.
Cinderella was written by Charles Perrault in 1697, and kiddies loved his additions to the folk tale. The glass slipper. The Fairy Godmother.
And the Academy Awards had nothing but kudos for Walt Disney's Cinderella, deeming it "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant," as a "folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression and triumphant reward."
So who, in their wildest dreams would have thought the #MeToo/Feminist Movement would knock Cinderella and Snow White out of the running as Women of Value?
Well, probably people who don't remember history.
The ones who think statues commemorating American heroes should be toppled. Or that To Kill a Mockingbird should be banned because of racist themes. And, similarly, that Dr. Seuss' books, chosen by the First Lady, are unacceptable for a school library because of its racially themed illustrations.
Or guys like retired astronaut Scott Kelly, who apologized to the Liberal Left after he tweeted a tweet praising Winston Churchill.
"Did not mean to offend by quoting Churchill. My apologies. I will go and educate myself further on his atrocities, racist views which I do not support."
Winston Churchill.
People who don't realize history takes place in time.
Snow White and Cinderella were women, of a certain time in fantasy history, who had limited rights, and who unabashedly associated with men.
As was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Wife, suffragist, social activist, abolitionist, and a leading figure of the early Women's Rights Movement.
Stanton fought for women's rights in her time in history. 1848.
Andrew Jackson saved New Orleans in the War of 1812, but owned slaves, so now "Take 'Em Down NOLA" wants to remove his statue from Jackson Square.
People act in accordance with the social mores that existed at a certain time in history. To change the story now is to change history.
So how do Kristin Bell and Keira Knightley know that in a "Cinderella Sequel," after she becomes a princess, that she didn't use her position to fight for the rights of scullery maids everywhere? Or for those, like herself, who were cheated out of their inheritances?
They don't.
How do they know that Snow White didn't launch a movement against Wicked-Stepmother-Queens everywhere after she was awakened by a kiss?
They don't.
And they don't understand that fairy tales are just that. Fairy tales, but stories with a moral. And the moral in Snow White isn't "Don't eat apples from strangers."
Or, in Cinderella, "Keep your slipper on, honey, and go out and get a job."
Ironically Liberals, like Knightley and Bell have no problem swallowing fables like, "If you want to keep your doctor, you can keep your doctor." Or, "The attack on the embassy in Benghazi was caused by an anti-Muslim video." And in joyfully celebrating Meghan Markel abandoning an unremarkable acting career to marry a prince, as though that is something different. From Snow and Cindy.
It's one of the reasons Liberals are no fun at all. The way they take away the magic.
But hope springs eternal, even in the real world, so we can hold hope for Libs that, as C.S. Lewis wrote, "Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."
Until then, the Seven Dwarfs better hold onto their hats. They may be next.
Hold the line, America.
Where We Go One, We Go All
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