Types of Women-Power in Mirror Mirror

We discussed last class the topic of the power of women in movies. Many people think that there is a shortage of the representation of powerful women in Hollywood movies, and others like Sutherland & Feltey think that there is a shortage of the right representation of powerful women in movies, which is, in their opinion, a power-with, which is a collective power of women who come together to influence social change.
Last Friday I went to the movies and watched Mirror Mirror, directed by Tarsem Singh, and staring Lily Collins, Julia Roberts, and Armie Hammer. The movie features the classical story of Snow White.



At first it is evident how the movie highlights the aspect of power-over in its representation of women. The Queen in the movie is the antagonist. She gets rid of the king, takes control over the kingdom, locks snow white in the castle, oppresses the people, and raises the taxes to spend the money on her parties, which leads to extreme poverty in the city. The movie reflects how this is a negative, oppressive form of power that women hold, and ends with the death as a consequence for the evil she does throughout the movie.


On the other hand, this movie had a twist in power distribution from the original plot in the classical Snow White movie by Disney. In the original movie, Snow White gets poisoned by the apple she gets from the evil queen while she pretends to be an old lady using magic. Snow White passes out, and she comes back to life when the prince gives her a true love’s kiss that breaks the spell of the evil queen. In the new movie Mirror Mirror, the roles are flipped. The queen gives the prince a puppy love potion to love her and marry her. The news both surprises and disappoints Snow white, since she shared a moment with the price where they showed interest in each other. Snow White ends up saving the prince from the situation, where she kidnaps him, and then gives him a true love’s kiss that breaks the spell of the evil queen. Moreover, Snow White saves the prince and the whole country from the queen’s oppression when she destroys the queen’s beast, which turns out to be her father under a spell. It is also important to mention that Snow White saves the elves while she lives with them from the fighting gigantic puppets the queens sends to kill Snow White and the elves.


This change in the plot of a major classical story in the movie industry to empower women is very interesting, where it gives agency to Snow White to be able to save men, which is the opposite of what usually happens in Disney movies. moreover, Snow White is portrayed with this kind of power-over without being portrayed in an masculine, oppressive or sexualized way as Sutherland & Feltey argue in Cinematic Sociology.
Snow white also shows a form of power-to, when she realizes her interest in changing the bad situation in the country. So, she goes against the rules of the queen, confronts her, and then defeats her.


Yet, many people argue that there isn’t enough good and powerful representations of women in movies as well as in the film industry, where men keep on dominating the field.