Labelled (Snow White: The "Wicked" Step-mother)
Ribs showing through her dark purple dress, once new, now worn with the signs of a thousand wears. Powder under her nails, and in the tired lines of her hard-set face. Her hair was fixed back so tightly, her whole face seemed drawn out, harsh even. A permanent scowl played at her withered lips, and anger was etched into the severe angle of her brows. She was a picture of violence, strength and power, even if she didn't believe it herself. Her rugged face was sagged with all her years of worry, her eyes lifeless and detached.
She stared at the mirror, hating herself with every ounce of her being. Those wrinkles, those grey strands... she saw only the ugliness on the surface and that hate, it rotten within. To her age wasn't just a number, it was everything. She whispered a silent prayer in that cold, dead heart that she would be young and beautiful once again. Even if it meant hurting everyone around her, even Snow, who she loved as dearly as her own. It wasn't her fault, she had grown up to value those same things as those before her. Beauty, skin deep, was worth the pain and the torture. Her mother had taught her that, and her mother before her. But it wasn't those women who were ugly, it was the society that had placed such material and idealistic expectations on the shoulders of women whose hearts were too fragile to bear it.
I wrapped my arms around her delicate, starved body as though that single act alone could protect her from all those feelings she bottled up inside. I wiped away her tears, and finally understood. She wasn't a "wicked queen", that just was the label that they had put on her. She wasn't inherently evil just because she was a step-mother, or because she was different than what was expected of her. They had forced that label on her, and at some point, she had begun to believe it. Just like the prayers that she whispered to herself, the pain she thought she deserved, and the hunger she had accepted as the normal, she had told herself that she was nothing... until she had become nothing. I didn't blame her for what she had done. Snow was young and beautiful and had men flocking to her like bees to honey. But here was this broken heart, which Snow had no empathy for. For all of her nonsense about being pure and polite and proper she really was as heartless as the dead of winter. Her name suited her.
"You are beautiful, and you are of worth." I told her, the raw emotion in her eyes shattering my heart into a million pieces. Her beauty wasn't skin deep. It was in her soul. And not because she was pure or innocent or lovely. It was because she was damaged, and because she was in pain. It was because in spite of all those things, she never gave up. She kept on trying. She did what she had to, even if her actions seemed ruthless. She was beautiful because of the person she wanted to be, even if she believed that she wouldn't ever be her. I held her, and we cried until no more tears came. And then I cried some more when I thought of the day Snow would grow old too. Then she would finally understand.
We held onto each-other as though that alone would fix a life-time of hurt, shame and fear. They would never understand how much their words affected us. They would never understand what it was to be a girl. The constant fear of imperfection. The way that we turn on each-other out of confusion and pain, instead of facing the true enemy... society. I wish that she would only understand how she didn't need a Prince Charming. She was fine, better than fine, just as she was. My lip quivered, the hushed words falling out, "you are beautiful, just the way you are. So don't you dare forget it."
Context;
A lot of people hate what they don't understand. This is definitely the case for villains in stories and movies alike. In my opinion, this viewpoint comes from a place of prejudice and bias towards the protagonist of narratives. I think that readings featuring villains would greatly benefit from both a neutral viewpoint and a greater understanding of the perspective and motives of antagonists. A lot of readers get bogged down in one character, which is certainly difficult to avoid in a first-person tale, as well as the fact that good authors will intentionally play on one's heart-strings to make them empathetic towards their protagonist. Alternatively, I think that to realize the larger picture of a story helps to understand the social context of a story and to have a greater appreciation for the "villain". A lot of villains are really just misunderstood, and are actually interesting, layered and intricate characters capable of change and development. They're often good people who had to go through terrible circumstances and are experiencing understandable turmoil. It's all about your perspective. I once read that 'one man's hero is another's villain. There is no right or wrong. Not when one man's right is another's wrong' (Red Queen, Victoria Aveyard). This is an insightful concept which certainly resonates within fairy tales such as Snow White, in which the dominant reading presents a simplified "black and white" version of life. These are essentially children's tales and are not realistic or fair to all characters involved. Rather, the characters portrayed fit into set archetypes. The protagonists make no attempt to understand the antagonist or resolve conflicts in a mature or sensible way. They are perfectly happy to seek out violent revenge, often in the form of murdering or ridiculing their enemy. Hypocritical if I do say so myself and not exactly what I would call a great message to teach children...
