“Mirror Mirror, on the wall…” 

Artwork by Anna Ye

By Phoenix Chuang

There’s my cue again, I mumbled to myself. After the Evil Queen had the huge “I-need-to-kill-Snow-White-because-the-mirror-called-her-the-most-beautiful-woman” episode, I was thrown away. I have been traveling all around the world (I also did not know there was something called the “world” until recently) since I was sold to various places. I am still doing my job, by the way, entertaining the people who ask me questions. I bet you thought I was going to show Snow White’s image again when asked “Who’s the fairest of them all?” Interestingly enough, things don’t work that way anymore, and this is why I wish to speak to you today. Now, let’s back up by a few years to when my story began. 

During my time hanging on the wall of the Evil Queen’s bedroom, I was programmed to judge “fairness.” For your information, I gathered a database of images of all the faces in town and made decisions based on the beauty standards I was exposed to. 

… Subject “skin pale as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony” inputted. Subject equals fairness…

Every day the Evil Queen came to me and asked “Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” And when I answered “Thou, O Queen, art the fairest in the land,” she sneered schemingly with satisfaction and left without saying another sentence. At first, I thought my answers could bring her joy, so I looked forward to our conversation every day, answering enthusiastically each time. Nonetheless, as time went by, every day felt the same and I hadn’t at all gotten to know my queen better. She was so beautiful but so cold. She was so beautiful but she didn’t seem happy. And I wasn’t happy, either, because I realized I was just some tool reinforcing her physical traits. Passive, resembling a robot. 

“Thou, O Queen, art the fairest in the land,” I began to say monotonously.

I used to think I understood the criteria for one to be fair. If you really think about it, the Evil Queen fits into these three just as perfectly as Snow White did. Before the day Snow White turned sixteen, I had already seen tons of images of her and had been investigating this character. I had seen her singing and dancing with the animals in the forest. There were some things about Snow White that drew me to her. Unfortunately, since I was fixated on the similar physical traits between the Evil Queen and Snow White, I could not have realized earlier. However, not to worry, that day that I burst out saying Snow White was the fairest of them all has become the biggest turning point in my life. 

As I’ve mentioned, I traveled from country to country, continent to continent. My database had grown larger and larger, and yet, I continued to be baffled about my own place in judging fairness. I saw people with black skin; I saw people with blonde hair; I saw people with brown or green eyes. I was never programmed to evaluate the beauty of these people, and I no longer knew who I was. That was when I realized my sole purpose on Evil Queen’s wall was to fill the void of self-consciousness that she couldn’t herself. I told her she was the most beautiful woman each and every day without actually knowing what being “beautiful” meant. And then I thought of Snow White. Why was Snow White so beautiful? Attempting to erase the formula inputted in my head, I tried recalling our first encounter. 

I saw Snow White for the first time when she was wandering in the forest. There was an injured bunny lying in the bushes. She rushed there and took care of the animal carefully. How nice, I thought. She used her beautiful voice to sing a lullaby to the bunny, and after the bunny fell asleep, this girl radiated the fairest smile I had ever seen in my life. The smile was embellished with kindness and confidence. I was completely drawn to her kind-heartedness, and suddenly it was as if the checklist of physical traits never existed. All along, kindness and confidence were what I truly perceived as fairness, but my thoughts were buried by the beauty standards someone else injected. 

And the story did not end there. From almost all the people I’ve met—no matter their skin colors, face shapes, or body types—I was able to find the same qualities I found in Snow White; I could always generate an image of when the person seemed the “fairest” to me. Sometimes it was a ballet dancer showing his gratitude towards his audience, and sometimes it was a hard-working teenage girl interacting with her customers at the farmers market. The truth was that, to me, fairness was never about a checklist of certain physical attributes. This explained why I found countless beautiful people around the world and realized that there was not a so-called “fairest of them all” all this time. 

To this day, I still ponder the meaning of fairness. I think fairness could be a moment, or exemplified through a moment—a moment when you are truly happy about being you, when you strive to be the best version of yourself. And of course, that is a different moment or phase for each person. With that being said, the concept of fairness transcends time and space, crossing all types of borders because it comes from within. I concluded one day that I no longer wanted to be the magic mirror that would show you who the fairest person in the world was, given that it was simply impossible. Every person has a fairest version of themselves, and I wished to help them find it. At that moment, I finally found the purpose of my existence. 

Legend has it that in Snow White’s hometown, there is a magic mirror hanging outside the castle. If you ask, “ Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all,” the mirror will always show you an image of you being your authentic self, helping you love yourself a little more. 

Phoenix Chuang is a junior at Steinhardt studying Media, Culture, and Communication with a double minor in Business of Entertainment, Media, and Technology, and Psychology. She grew up watching all Disney shows and movies, and her favorite princess is Rapunzel.