Disney Fairy Tales

Once upon a time, there was a literary genre commonly know as fairy tales. They were mystical and wonderful and a child’s fantasy. These fairy tales were drastically misunderstood throughout many centuries, however. They endured a hard life of constant changing and editing to fit what the people of that time wanted. People of our own time are responsible for some of the radical changes endured by this undeserved genre. Now, these fairy tales had a young friend named Belle. Belle thought she knew fairy tales very well, but one day she found out just how wrong she was.

Fairy Tales are not just stories that parents tell to their children, but stories with hidden valuable messages which are mostly left on a side. In the article “An Introduction to Fairy Tales,” Maria Tatar clearly explains how people need fairy tales in their lives. Tatar also states how fairy tales have the ability to take the listener, especially children’s, into a journey in which they can play with their imagination so that they can discover their deepest fears and wishes. Personally I agree with the author, because of the fact that in an individual’s lives as they get older, they will try to define themselves, sometimes comparing their own life with a character from their favorite story or Fairy Tale.

Most people cannot imagine coveted childhood fairytale with pure sadistic characters, blood, death and neglect. Disney motion pictures have depicted their classic fairytales by painting picture of princess with a loving parent, a dead parent, and a wonderful outlook on life with just the hope of dreams coming true. Many people cannot fathom the idea of a beloved fairytale containing the dark acts of rape, torture, and cannibalism. After all, Snow White’s apple was just meant to put her to sleep; and Sleeping Beauty did find her prince right? Wrong. In the original Grimm Fairytales Snow Whites apple was meant to kill her for good and Sleeping Beauty’s prince was

Overall, the emphasis that fairy tales place on physical appearance can be very detrimental to a child (particularly a girl’s) development and ideas of reality. To add, fairy tales, although perhaps unintentionally, depict that attractiveness determines who is good and who is evil. The protagonist is often the princess, who is described as the prettiest in the land. The antagonist on the other hand is often less attractive and more than likely labeled ugly (Schussler). Because fairy tales often depict good conquering evil and evil succumbing to its immorality, this therefore shows the reader that ugly people are punished. This also can influence a girl’s self-esteem, considering that the created sense of beauty is impossible, thus they may feel inferior (Danish). Grauerholz hypothesizes that “[t]hese powerful messages that say women need to be beautiful may compel some women to seek beauty at the expense of other pursuits, such as careers or education” (Grauerholz). The exaggerated emphasis on beauty has potential to be a very limiting factor for young girls. However, the stereotypical beautiful princess is not the only gender stereotype that plagues women in the tales.

Fairy tales picture a world filled with magic, love and the triumph of the good over the evil. Fairy tales are a window to other worlds where the wildest dreams can come true and the hero always lives happily ever after preferably paired with his loved one. Although some people argue that fairy tales are full of stereotypes, filled with frightening monsters and promote racism and sexism I believe that they are wrong because fairy tales provide valuable moral lessons to children, teach them other countries' cultures promote the imagination and the cognitive development and therefore they should be read to young children.

Fairy tales like Snow White and Cinderella both contain the struggle of good vs. evil. The struggle of good vs evil in these tales teaches us that good always prevails over evil. The fairy tales often times contain common elements that represent good and evil in the story. Both of these tales show the good and evil elements in similar forms. Both tales have the same outcomes where good prevails and they live happily ever after. These tales expose important concepts like good and bad for young readers. Tales such as these two can also teach young readers about good and bad things in life and ways of handling them.

Maleficent is the Disney mistress of evil. She cursed a small child causing people everywhere to shudder at her name. What most people do not know, however, is her past. Aurora's father, the king, was once a simple village boy who yearned for power. In order to prove himself to the kingdom he seduced young Maleficent, earning her love and trust. One dreadful night, while Maleficent was sleeping soundly in his arms, the boy cut her wings off and fled, not caring for a second about Maleficent or the danger he put himself in. Maleficent vowed to herself never to fall in love or trust anyone again, distancing herself from the natural world. Soon after, the boy was announced king for his bravery and valor. He married a young lady and a few years later they bore a child, Aurora.

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

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

In Disney’s 2014 live-action movie Maleficent, starts off with a young and cheerful fairy named Maleficent. She is known as one of the most powerful fairies in the magical forest of Moors. In the beginning of the movie she is very ambitious and thinks one day that the creatures of Moors can live in harmony with a kingdom of humans that neighbors them. This ambition only grows when she falls in love with a young peasant boy named, Stefan. Unfortunately the two began to drift apart as they get older. Stefan stopped visiting Maleficent due to him wanting to achieve his dreams of climbing up the social ladder and being wealthy. Years later the king of the kingdom is dying from an injury given to him by maleficent after he tried to concur the Moors.

In Sleeping Beauty, the Prince is portrayed a strong and courageous person, he can be seen as a great character because he overcomes many obstacles to be able to help the Princess survive. Although Sleeping Beauty is a fairy tale and is stereotypically more admired by girls, the masculine tale might be liked by the male population because they aspire to be the male hero. Maleficent shows the feminine tale and warns the girls that not men cannot be trusted in some cases, and that there is no need to have a man by your side. A woman can survive on their own using her own intelligence and courage to overcome any obstacle that she might face. For the female population, this change is very important because this “hero” story helps us relate to the character and our desire to do great and special acts (Seger 387). This film proved that a woman is capable of defeating evil, and brings a new perspective into Disney

Once upon a time in a land not so far away, the society of man created the idea that it was a woman’s job to conform to the ideologies generated in fairy tales. From women depending on their prince charmings all the way to romanticized sexual abuse and lack of consent, stories like Cinderella and Snow White radiate sexism within an array of scenes of the stories and films. Not only does this affect the way that men view women, but it has had a relatively negative effect on the ways that many women view themselves. Many fairy tales have made their way into mainstream culture, and today many young girls and boys grow up hearing and seeing the subliminal messages in fairy tales. As more and more fairy tales make their way onto the big screen, it can be seen that all princesses seem to share a common feature other than their crowns and lack of self worth without a man by their side; their tiny waists. In recent years during the 21st century more and more people in the media have been calling out fairy tales for their anti-feminist attitudes with sexism, body standards as well as societal comments about women being dependent on men.

Fairy tales have been embedded into our culture and date back before recorded times, they provide a source of entertainment and imagination for children. Despite today’s fairy tales having positive moral intentions they have been adapted from earlier versions which often can be very different and much more sinister. The fairy tale “Sun, Moon, and Talia” by Giambattista Basile formed the basis for the more commonly known Disney interpretation called the “Sleeping Beauty” however they are vastly different, Basile’s original is a very dark and twisted story compared to the Disney version.

As we grow up, we hear fairy tales and we read them into our lives. Every word and every image is imprinted into our minds. The fairy tales we read are never abandoned. They grow with us and our dreams become molds of the many morals and happily ever afters fairy tales display. We tell children fairy tales when they go to sleep and they read them in school and we even have them watch Disney adaptions that reinforce them further. Generally, they were everywhere while we grew up and they continue to be present while children are growing up now. But what influence do these stories have? We casually expose our children to these tales, but in some cases they can have particularly, harmful personal effects on them, although there is nothing completely or visibly “bad” about them or about the characters in them. Before we divulge our youth to these stories, we should assess their substance and see what sort of effect they may be having on them. They have received so much scrutiny and have been studied by many. Recognizing fairy tales effects on the minds of children is vital in their development. This paper will focus on the underlying messages that the average person wouldn’t recognize in these everyday stories. There’s a modern distort with fairy tales because while they still are widely popular with the youth, they influence children’s self images, outlooks on reality and expectations for their futures, especially for young women.

Fairy tales are something that everyone has read or seen, they all seem to have important lessons at the end of each one to teach young children some of the lessons they need for life. These fairy tales when we were younger all seemed innocent and something we all hoped that would happen to us. Little did we know as we got older that the fairy tales we all knew and loved when we were younger, weren't as innocent as they seemed.