Correlation Between Sales Of Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales have been around for hundreds of years, but up until recently have never been profited on as they are in today’s modern world. It is impossible to hide from anything Mr. Walt Disney has created, and that is exactly the company’s intentions. One huge area Disney has been excelling is in “Princess Culture” most specifically the focus on pretty pink dresses. For example, in Peggy Orenstein’s article “What’s Wrong with Cinderella?” the author addresses the many different consequences of Disney’s lucrative marketing strategy. The heavy influence of everything princess down to the choice of clothing can have a negative or positive impact on young girl’s minds, while stimulating innocence and purity can also encourage body image issues

So ingrained is the image of women's beauty in fairy tales that it is difficult to imagine any that do not highlight and glorify it.” (722). Therefore, each story uses beauty to draw in a bigger audience because no one wants to see an ugly duckling. This is how the media portrays women today, that they should be skinny and beautiful and if they are not then no one will want to be like them; the young beautiful women get more rewards. What that shows girls is that they must be a fairy tale character just to be noticed, but what they do not understand is how naïve Rapunzel is to her surroundings because mother Gothel will not let her out of the tower.

Andrea Dworkin explains women are characterized by beauty, passivity, and innocence. She argues that fairy tales creates stereotypic roles.

Snow White is a fairy-tale known by many generations; it is a beloved Disney movie, and a princess favoured by many kids. But did you know the fairy-tale was made to teach young children, especially little girls, their duties in life? It also values beauty over knowledge, portrays women to be naive and incompetent, and assumes that women cannot understand anything other than common household chores. Throughout this criticism, I will be using the feminist lens to analyze the fairy-tale, Snow White, through the perspective of a feminist.

Original fairy tales restrict the opportunities of female protagonists, allowing their fate to be controlled by male characters and society’s restrictive expectations of women. Authors such as Perrault of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ were quick to provide advice to their suggestible female readers in moral that girls should not try to drift from the path that society has laid out for them. Thus they became ‘parables of instruction’ (Carter) to indoctrinate the next generation in the values of a patriarchal society. Fairy tales of this time consistently remind us that those of the female sex will not prosper if they choose to ignore and defy the social constructs. Pre 1900s, the roles of women were entirely predetermined. A clear female dichotomy was established portraying them as either ‘the virgin’ or ‘the whore’. Stereotypical perceptions of women reduced them to biological functions and stated that they should acquire the role of wife and mother – objectified to such an extent where they were essentially their male counterpart’s possession. Both authors scorn the importance placed on domesticity and conformity, stressing the vital nature of being able to choose and uncover the consequences of societal ignorance. Carter highlights to her literary audience a passive generation of women who face the inability to vocalise their thoughts and opinions in the context of oppressive patriarchy. Within her work ‘The Company of Wolves’ “The

Lori Baker-Sperry and Liz Grauerholz discuss the concept of female empowerment through beauty in their article “The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children’s Fairy Tale.” Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz state that, “women willingly engage in ‘beauty rituals’ and perceive being (or becoming) beautiful as empowering, not oppressive” (712). Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz argue that in children’s fairy tales, the female characters see their beauty as their most useful tool and would undergo “beauty rituals” to attain this beauty. By being beautiful, the Fairy Queen is able to win the attention and loyalty of Lanval. Not only does the Fairy Queen receive power in this bond, but also Lanval himself finds good fortune in the form of physical wealth. To further emphasize the Fairy Queen’s beauty and the power she holds over the court, France uses the series of girls prior to the Fairy Queen’s entrance. This builds a sense of suspense and the fact that the Fairy Queen easily trumps the girls in beauty further emphasizes her superiority. By emphasizing the Fairy Queen’s bodily beauty, France is able to show the power the Fairy Queen has over Lanval and the court.

Today's culture is one dominated by the media. People, especially young, impressionable females, are bombarded with images of “beautiful” and “desirable” women; these “sexy” women are lacking modest clothing, wearing copious amounts of make up, and are content to be viewed as objects, particularly by members of the opposite gender. In a society where the vision of true beauty has been distorted to such an extreme, fairytales serve as a reminder of the value of a beautiful

The men in “Cinderella” also value women for their beauty. The prince has a ball for all the maidens in the land to find his future wife, which “amounts to a beauty contest” (Lieberman 386) for a new trophy wife. While some argue that Cinderella’s rebellion of going against her stepmother’s instructions of staying home shows that the story has feminist qualities, the prince weakens her achievement when he chooses her only because of her beauty as “girls win the prize if they are the fairest of them all” (Lieberman 385). Her need for independence is transformed into the prince’s need for a pretty wife, making her again an object in her family. Once integrated into the prince’s family, Cinderella goes from the maid of her family to the smiling porcelain doll next to the prince as the “first job of a fairy tale princess is to be beautiful” (Röhrich 110). This gives the impression that the only way

In fairy tales, female characters are objects, and their value centers around their attractiveness to men. Since fairy tales rely on cultural values and societal norms to teach morals or lessons, it is evident that fairy tales define a woman’s value in a superficial way. Fairy tales teach that, typically, beauty equates to being valuable to men because of their fertility and purity; whereas, ugliness equates to being worthless and evil, including being ruined because of their lack of virginity. Descriptions readers see from fairy tales like “Rapunzel,” and “Little Snow-White” revolve around the women’s, or girl’s, physical appearance, and both stories play out to where the women remain in a state of objectification. In addition, they are damsels

In fairytales, royal women are typically regarded as delicate, sophisticated creatures, controlled by the kingdoms to which they belong. However, it is the strength within these women that is far more admirable than their outer appearance could ever be. This is why looking at royalty as perfection—a gift of beauty, wealth, and dignity—creates a widely known myth that hides the unattractive truth behind the royal life. Although you should always seek to look beyond the surface, “The Princess in the Suit of Leather” shows that upon deeper inspection you ultimately get hit with the harsh reality of conservative gender roles.

In well-known fairy tales the males and females characters are often portrayed in the same light. The male characters are often described as the hero with strong masculine traits while the female characters are portrayed as the damsel in distress. Throughout the years fairytales have been casting the same stereotypes for their characters. In the story Beauty and the Beast the author de beaumont depiction of what an ideal woman is lays in Beauty. She is meant to embody the role of a feminine, humble caretaker, lover, and savior. The author depicts males as provider’s, however, it is clear that the men in the story are dependent on a positive female figure for life. Beauty’s disappearance threatens both her father and beast with death, symbolizing

In a society unbridled with double standards and set views about women, one may wonder the origins of such beliefs. It might come as a surprise that these ideals and standards are embedded and have been for centuries in the beloved fairy tales we enjoyed reading as kids. In her analytical essay, “To Spin a Yarn: The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tales”, Karen Rowe argues that fairy tales present “cultural norms which exalt passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice as a female’s cardinal virtues.” Rowe presents an excellent point, which can be supported by versions of the cult classics, “Cinderella” and “Snow White”. Charles Perrault’s “ The Little Glass Slipper” and the Brothers Grimm’s “ Snow White” exemplify the beliefs that

Some things about fairy tales we know to be true. They begin with "once upon a time." They end with "happily ever after." And somewhere in between the prince rescues the damsel in distress. Of course, this is not actually the case. Many fairytales omit these essential words. But few fairytales in the Western tradition indeed fail to have a beautiful, passive maiden rescued by a vibrant man, usually her superior in either social rank or in moral standing. Indeed, it is precisely the passivity of the women in fairy tales that has led so many progressive parents to wonder whether their children should be exposed to them. Can any girl ever really believe that she can grow up to be president or CEO or an

Cinderella is a well beloved folktale following the life of a kind hearted heroine trapped in an abusive household, yet despite the obstacles faced, she manages to attend a ball and eventually receives her happily ever after. The story has been reinterpreted in numerous countries where it is estimated that there are nearly seven hundred versions out there. With the continuous popularity of Cinderella, there has been much criticism concerning the representation of Cinderella and the effects it has on the female demographic. By analyzing Cinderella’s gender representation of a particular version in accordance to generated criticism related to the effects it has on the female demographic, it can be determined that as new renditions are being created over time, it can be noticed that Cinderella’s gender representation are gradually becoming more independent, and active.

There are so many different fairy tales that people know, like Cinderella, Snow white and the Seven Dwarves, Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and many more. All the various versions of fairy tales are have their unique aspects that make them so great and loved as they are, but unfortunately there is one characteristic that fairy tales tend to have in common that many people don’t notice or choose to ignore. This is the fact that fairy tales portray women in negative and misogynistic points of view. This topic can be analyzed by looking at “The Robber Bridegroom” by the Brother’s Grimm, “The Story of the Black Cow” and “Snow White” by the Brother’s Grimm.