Is kissing a sleeping young woman "a real love kiss"? In any case, it is the controversy that rumbles on social networks following the final scene of the kiss between Sleeping Snow White and her Prince in the attraction of a Disney park in California.
"True love's kiss". It is on this famous scene of Prince Charming kissing a sleeping Snow White that the attraction adapted from the tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ends. , at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California.
Reopened this Friday, April 30 to the public after 400 days of closure, the amusement park did not fail to make people happy, but not only. With this "unconsented" kiss to Snow White, he also drew the wrath of defenders of cancel culture.
Two columnists from the San Francisco Chronicle , one of California's most important daily newspapers, which came to report on the reopening of the park were outraged by the addition of the final scene in the Snow White attraction. In their article published on the daily, Katie Dowd and Julie Tremaine acknowledge the "stunning new imagery" of the attraction which dates from 1955, but believe that with this kind of scenes offered to children, Disney is still promoting ideas that they consider "retrograde".
"A kiss he gives her without her consent,while she's sleeping, which can't be true love unless the person knows what's going on. Haven't we already agreed that consent in early Disney films was a major issue? , ask journalists.Teaching children that kissing, when it has not been established that both parties are willing to do so, is not acceptable?, they ask.
And conclude: It is difficult to understand why Disneyland, in 2021, chooses to add a scene with such retrograde ideas about what a man is allowed to do to a woman, especially as the company is currently focused on removing problematic rides' scenes.
It is true that the choice is difficult to understand after the MeToo wave that swept over the world, freeing the voice of victims and opening up important debates within our societies. Especially since this is not the first time that Disney has been criticized for the values transmitted to children through cartoon scenes. Some studies have already pointed to the hypersexualization of characters in films, the many sexual allusions present in certain films, or even racism.
At the end of 2020, the Disney + video platform had also subjected the access of the youngest to parental control regarding 4 of its great classics for the racist prejudices they conveyed . The Disney+ channel recognizes itself in a banner that appears at the launch of Peter Pan, the Aristocats, Lady and The Tramp, Dumbo, and The Jungle Book, "dated portrayals and/or negative treatment of people and cultures".
This time, it is therefore the notion of consent that is at the center of the criticism and is the subject of debate. And we can say that the question unleashes passions, especially on social networks in the United States... As in France! Some are scandalized by the scene and demand that the giant take a clear position on the sexual violence that hides behind the notion of consent . Others, on the contrary, like Jean Messiha and Eric Naulleau, castigate the delusions of a "cancel culture", which even attacks Snow White. In short, the debate seems far from settled!
