DISNEYLAND has come under fire for a new ride which has just opened because it features the moment where Prince Charming kisses Snow White 'without her consent'.
The new attraction - known as Snow White's Enchanted Wish - was recently updated following Disneyland's closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The upgrades have been mostly well received, but some fans have taken issue with a part of the ride which centres around the grand finale of the 1937 Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, where Prince Charming kisses a sleeping Snow White to wake her up and break the Evil Queen's curse.
Because the character doesn't get consent before planting the kiss, some don't think the scene should be included in the ride.
"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," wrote a critic from the San Francisco Gate, who argued the company should have "re-imagined" another ending which wasn't so "problematic".
"Haven't we already agreed that consent in early Disney movies is a major issue, [and] 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 criticism follows feminist academic Kazue Muta's claim that Snow White "promotes sexual violence".
But most Disney fans see nothing wrong with the ride, or of the non-consensual kiss itself.
"Snow White is well aware that if she wakes, it will be because she's been kissed by her true love," one social media user wrote.
Others simply sounded exasperated with the notion that the Disney classic is suddenly considered to be an issue.
"What's wrong with these people?" Wrote another social media user. "Just bugger off and leave old movies alone. It was made in 1937, if you expect it to live up to modern standards of courtship then you're a moron."
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