The Social Fear of Female Subjectivity and Disney’s Liliths

The extant scholarly discourse on female Disney villains has often asserted the non-feminine identities of these fictional women. The female antagonists of the Disney fairy tales are generally assumed to display qualities that are believed to be too masculine. The term subjectivity is utilized in this paper as the awareness and assertion of one’s agency to achieve self-led goals and lifestyles and is an attribute that is deemed by patriarchal societies to be the indicator of masculinity. However, this subjectivity is observable in each of the female Disney villains. This paper specifically examines the animated Disney movies Cinderella (1950) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and compares the narratives pertaining to their antagonists with the myth of Lilith. In so doing, the paper argues that the quality of subjectivity has always been associated with femininity; however, this assertion of the self is still not considered appropriate for women. Just like Lilith, Disney’s female characters display a strong sense of subjectivity but are often vilified for the affirmation of their individuality instead of being passive recipients of the vicissitudes of fate. The narratives surrounding the female antagonists of Cinderella and Snow White seem to reinforce the normative patriarchal idea that subjective females are incapable of handling the responsibilities connected to their subject status. Keywords—Disney, villains, subjectivity, Lilith.