Trivia!
The original question (in English anyway) is fairest of them all - as in pale of face. Snow White was so pale she was literally named Snow White.
Now… can you think of a reason people in history would interpret being ‘the whitest’ as being ‘the prettiest’…? Enough for the word ‘fair’ to be used to mean ‘pretty’ directly?
The evil queen was literally jealous she wasn’t the whitest person to ever live
Or maybe, Since most people including children, worked outdoors on farms, a tan and rough skin was common from manual labor. Pale or fair skin was a status symbol showing you were wealthy enough to stay inside, so ‘fair’ became synonymous with ‘beautiful.’"
I choose to believe there’s a missing panel, where the mirror tells the queen that it is simply finding the most attractive person by the person asking its own standards. If you ask a magic mirror who the most attractive person is, it will show you the most attractive person per your beliefs. If they’re a minor, that’s on you. Isn’t that exactly what a magic mirror would do, reflect your beliefs and inner desires back upon you?
And for pointing that out, that’s why the mirror was sent to prison.
Your word reflects a beautiful mind.
It’s a big, ornate, golden mirror. We all know who the original owner was.
“But wait a minute… aren’t you a witch and murderess?”
Now she’s an antihero, and doesn’t let herself manipulated by the mirror.
Snow White adaptation idea: It’s centering on the queen being manipulated by the mirror into trying to kill Snow White.
Similar to Fairest?
So mirror picked up a side job as a palantir?
Perhaps
Þat’s good! It’d also be interesting to make Snow White þe villain colluding wiþ þe mirror and dwarves, and have þe Queen be þe protagonist.
Doesn’t mean she doesn’t have standards.
The original age would be even worse for this comic
The magic mirror always tells the queen that she is the fairest. The Queen is always pleased with that response because the magic mirror never lies. When Snow White is seven years old, her fairness surpasses that of her stepmother. When the Queen again asks her magic mirror the same question, it tells her that Snow White is the fairest.
The key word is fairest. Of course, since the original featured a child not a teenager the mirror would be factually a pedophile - that is, if fairest means something on the line of “hottest”.
I wouldn’t confuse “fair” with “hot.” Words like “pretty” don’t have to imply sexual attraction. I can see a five year old girl wearing an adorable dress and complement her, calling her pretty. That doesn’t mean I’m a pedophile. I call my cats beautiful, but that doesn’t mean I’m into bestiality. The sunset can be beautiful or pretty, but I don’t want to fuck the Sun.
I would see this as simply asking the mirror who the prettiest girl or woman in the kingdom is. Remember, the Queen isn’t trying to get a date. She’s trying to seek out and eliminate potential future romantic rivals. She’s an aging woman jealous at the beauty of youth.
She’s essentially asking, “who in the kingdom has the greatest natural beauty?” If they’re a child, that beauty would be reflected as the simple innocent cuteness of an adorable young child. If they’re an adult, that beauty would be reflected as actual sexual attractiveness. She’s trying to take Snow White out while she’s still a child, before she grows up and her natural beauty shifts from childhood prettiness to the sexual attractiveness of an adult.
but I don’t want to fuck the Sun.
Thanks for that I am having Sun fucking fantasies now.
‘Fair’ used to mean ‘pale’. Snow White is called Snow White because of how pale she is.
Of course under White supremacy, there’s a reason being fair/pale came to mean ‘pretty-faced’. But it’s why a child can be ‘fair’.
“Fair” is more “beautiful” than “hot”
“Huge difference. A painting can be beautiful, but I don’t want to bang a painting.”
- Kevin Malone
Not even Peter Paul Rubens’ Venus at the Mirror?
the original “schönste” could be either translated to most beautiful or nicest (looking nicest [most nice?!]). but in the context of the time the modern “hottest” wouldn’t be to far fetched.
anyway, nowadays teens mature faster. so a 14 yo at that time could easily look like a 12 yo nowadays. but the sensitivities at the time were vastly different. good that we didn’t life then.
nowadays teens mature faster.
Thats not exactly true. The mean pubertal age has always persisted around 12-13, the only time that age has increased is during the industrial revolution causing a delayed sexual maturity.
Also, people can look way younger or even way older than they really are - past sexual maturity, the persons looks change dramatically.
when i wrote that i was thinking about a particular study, which was finding a correlation between food supply/shortages and onset of voice break. but for the love of God, i can’t find it now. so possible that i just hallucinated it ;)
first period earlier on average than they did in the 1950s and '60s
That is a extremely narrow scope, quite possibly interfering with heavy industrialization as stated before. The historical data therein are not really discussed; but in such narrow scope it is true that the age of menarche has gone down - its just that there is more to it.
Yep, just reflecting back on OPs meme. Not the most accurate.
You know it’s a fairy tale because the mirror actually get imprisoned for that.
Lots of pedophiles get locked up. It’s not like the mirror is rich.
Modern day mirror mirror just starts creating nudes
The actual line is “fairest”, and Snow White was named for her exceptionally fair skin, so
The original language story uses an unambiguous word for “beautiful” so the defence works in English but not for the actual story where it does mean beautiful
But the mirror has a solid defence
I mean, my cat is beautiful but that doesn’t mean he’s hot.
I disagree, your cat is hot as hell
This guy fucks cats
A cat is fine too.
Whoa, found Shane Dawson on Lemmy
Yes, it got translated differently because the original sentence (“Spieglein, Spieglein an der Wand, wer ist die Schönste im ganzen Land?”) doesn’t really rhyme when translated to english.
In the original (german) version she was asking who was the most beautiful in the kingdom(? not sure if that’s the correct way to translate that).
“Most beautiful in the whole land”
