What's not to love? You've got the implication that a woman must be young and beautiful, white as a dove, and pure as the driven snow. When at home she makes herself comfortable by cleaning up after seven slovenly men, singing arias while doing so. In her spare time she darns their socks.

Like Eve before her, Snow White is too weak to resist temptation and partakes of a poisoned fruit. She awaits redemption in the form of a dashing young prince.

Well, when you put it that way, it was obviously a sexist pig, who desired to enslave women for his own sexual purposes. How did I miss that one.

you've left off the whole part about how all the stepmother really wants is to be the most beautiful, and when she's not, she attempts (repeatedly) to have her daughter murdered. Beauty competitions at their most brutal.

"Cut out her heart and bring it to me."

In the original, I don't think she knew it was her daughter until the end, though.

I didn't know that about the original. I guess it makes a more dramatic finish. Still, hating women for the beauty you seek to cultivate yourself and competing in terms of phyiscal appearance is a theme that's still pervasive. I'm sincere when I say I agree it's not a story I want children to read.

Some folks read too much into things.

Yeah, I don't see why we should carefully consider the themes or content of stories we read to our children.

You don't have to consider them if you deny that they exist.

If we don't screen the television babysitter, why the heck should we bother with their literature? Geeze get with the program.

Interesting question. Should we screen literature of this type? What about TV crap like the Disney channel. It tends to be very careful about avoiding sexit or racist plots and dialogue, but man does it serve up a heaping pile of steaming crap for kids. I cetainly acknowledge the themes of many fairy tales are not modern ones, but I am not sure avoiding the fairy tales, esepcially the actual grimm versions, which are usually quite different than the Disny-fied versions, is the answer.

Yes, btw, we did read the actual tales to our kids. We tended to counter the impact of the themes by discussion and example. Mom is educqted and works. we don't take an axe and kill wolves or dogs. It is only a story. I think a child's cultural life should include these great tales of the past.