SFGate Op-ed About Snow White Ride At Disneyland Raises Questions Of Cancellation

A San Francisco Gate op-ed about the Snow White ride at Disneyland has found itself in the middle of the latest cancel culture debate.

Disneyland in California reopened on Friday after being closed for more than 400 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of its oldest attractions, "Snow White's Enchanted Wish," got a makeover in that time. The ride is a revamped version of "Snow White's Scary Adventures," which according to the paper, had more scary elements than its remodeled version, which is colorful and technologically very impressive.

After heaping praise on the ride's technological achievements, writers Katie Dowd and Julie Tremaine take issue with how it ends: with the prince leaning over to give a comatose Snow White a kiss, which in the movie, is the "True Love's Kiss" that leads to the pair's Happily Ever After. "A kiss he gives to her without her consent, while she's asleep, which cannot possibly be true love if only one person knows it's happening," they write. The next paragraph reads:

Haven't we already agreed that consent in early Disney movies is a major issue? That teaching kids that kissing, when it hasn't been established if both parties are willing to engage, is not OK? It's hard to understand why the Disneyland of 2021 would choose to add a scene with such old fashioned ideas of what a man is allowed to do to a woman, especially given the company's current emphasis on removing problematic scenes from rides like Jungle Cruise and Splash Mountain. Why not re-imagine an ending in keeping with the spirit of the movie and Snow White's place in the Disney canon, but that avoids this problem?

The piece soon made its way to Fox News, who dissected the piece as an example of cancel culture run amok.

Fox News hitting the important issues, like canceling Snow White.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA): “We are so screwed. I don’t know where these jackaloons come up with this stuff." pic.twitter.com/NtF1JvpDDB

— The Recount (@therecount) May 3, 2021

All morning long. Because someone wrote a take for the the San Francisco Gate. pic.twitter.com/pfc338doHO

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) May 3, 2021

The SFGate article hasn't done much better on social media, as people have chimed in that the "True Love's Kiss" scene isn't much to get worked up about.

Okay, now we're just being ridiculous. I mean… for real? This is a thing that people are mad about? https://t.co/sTxgz2uURm

— 🐺Frost Bight❄️ (@FrostBight) May 3, 2021

It's this sort of bullshit that irritates the hell out of me. No one is complaining about this. If you are, you need to re-evaluate what's important. https://t.co/xZ9aseg0N3

— Let The Fun Be”Gin” 🍸 (@MarkFloydThaut) May 3, 2021

I’m sorry, this is what’s wrong with the world. Snow White, a fictional character getting brought back to life by a kiss by her future husband. Y’all taking things too far and ruining the gullible by making them believe this is what to flip out about instead of REAL issues…. https://t.co/KZhKfNiYSG

— Matt Traynor (@matttraynor) May 3, 2021

Disney has yet to comment on the mini-controversy, though it seems unlikely they will. However, the company has been proactive in updating some rides to remove racist elements, which has not been received well by all. Recently, the Orlando Sentinel posted op-ed that went viral after a lifelong Disney fan wrote "wokeness" is ruining the park, citing changes to "Splash Mountain" and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride that removed racist and female slavery references, respectively.