Karen Rowe Fairy Tales Analysis

Children often learn about their society’s ideals of love and relationships from fairy tales. Told from a female perspective, the poem Puce Fairy Book by Alice Major challenges and disproves the unfeasible and degrading expectations that women are held to, specifically by men in relationships. The motivation of the speaker, addressing a male counterpart, is to say that she does not care for other’s opinions of her faults and does not desire such unaccepting people in her life. Major’s use of fairy tale allusions and metaphors play an important role in establishing the central message that is the “perfect” ideological image that society has created for women to conform to are unrealistic and

In our two tales, both Cinderella and Tam suffer from injustice and harassment. The evolution of magic or fairies has helped them to overcome the living condition. Both Cinderella and Tam gets help from miraculous power. Cinderella gets help from the fairy by getting a new dress and glass shoes. That gives her a chance to join the royal party. Also, Tam gets help from the magic fish bones and the bird. She gets a beautiful dress and two jeweled bai. Both Cinderella and Tam has new shoes; their shoes were a gate to royalty. Both have dreams of getting royalty marriage. Even they do not know the prince how he looks like, or where he lives. They are believed the mentality produced consecrates the power of the man in exchange the life of a submissive woman.

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

According to Disney, and other fairy tales, there are only three things that a woman can be; a pretty, love-motivated “dancing girl”, a “femme fatale” that knows of the power her sexuality can have on those around her and is trying to use this power for control, and a pear- shaped “grandmother” all-knowing and just trying to help a poor dancing girl find the prince of her wildest dreams. Throughout fairy tales and movies there is constant examples of these three women – and only these three models of women. This poses a problem for growing girls as maybe they do not fit one of these archetypes, and feel as though they are missing out on life – or they believe that they can only live a life represented by these characters.

Samara Green, High school student from Pontiac, Maryland Huffington Post Teen, published (February 14th, 2014) suggests that, “Do we really want to teach young children that women are weak and vulnerable and only succeed when a man intervenes?” She is trying to make a point in saying that mostly all of children’s books or fairy tales, make us women appear in need of help. Especially a from a man who usually appears the strong and supposedly have the capacity to do more. Green supports her statement by asserting and telling that, “These fairy tales became a part of popular culture and when they were adapted to the silver screen during the 20th century, a time when many minorities were striving for equality.” The author’s purpose is to inform

One distinctive thing about the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales is the fact that there are oftentimes no happy ending to the tale. When there is a happy ending, it is due to the death or punishment of the antagonist. It is easy to relate this with the need for an element of reality being needed to help ground the mind but this also creates a rift when the main antagonist is question is a woman. This paper will focus on the gender roles and stereotypes associated with women and how they are perpetuated in some Grimm fairy tales, dividing them into four sections: daughter, mother, and wife, with emphasis on the dichotomy of good and evil.

Another way that these tales make women accept violence is by making them as desperate as a person could possibly look. The fairy tale does it in two different ways, secretively and blatantly. They show desperation with Cinderella when show will do anything to go to the ball. It would have been a more effective form of desperation if she did not have all the birds in the world helping her. She would of done it herself it would of made her able to go. Making women look desperate is apparently what this society is going for. When women are desperate, they will do anything, which is what the poem is trying to subliminally work into women's heads. The obvious way that the poem did this was with the stepsisters and the amputations of feet parts to be with a guy, if that does not say desperate, what cruel

Disney’s Panopticon When looking through the eye of Foucault’s Panopticism, it becomes clear that Disney’s Cinderella is not only a story of a mistreated stepdaughter who marries her prince but also an allegory for an attempt to regulate women’s actions in society. Foucault described a prison in which a tower was placed in the middle and from which the guards were capable of viewing all of the cells concurrently. The prisoners, not knowing whether or not they were being watched, adjusted their behavior to fit the standards that the guards had set. The reason for this adjustment was to avoid being punished if a guard happened to have been looking in their direction.

INTRODUCTION Fairy tales in western culture are used amongst parents to teach their children strong moral lessons and teachings. The teachings embedded in fairy tales reflect the views and beliefs of society in that era, showing the different gender stereotypes for males and females. These views and beliefs that are reflected in fairy tales are patriarchal. Enticing children with the mystical elements of fairies, witches and princesses, guarantee that they are attentive to the story, whilst also ensuring that they are provided with moral instructions to abide by.

Throughout the years, fairytales have had a crucial role in perpetuating stereotypes regarding gender roles in society that portray women as dependent and distressed, also that being an attractive,young woman is the cause of most predicaments, and how women are entitled to specific jobs in the house while a man is supposed to go out and do all the hard work. In most cases, a beautiful young woman is put in a serious situation by a villain and/or monster who needs a hero, more specifically, a male, to come to her rescue. This is typically classified as using the literary device “Damsel in Distress”.

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

Many fairy tales emphasize sexist assumptions about gender stereotypes such as the beautiful damsel in distress being too weak and needs a strong and handsome man to save her. These gender stereotypes are damaging to both male and female children as they express a set type of gender roles and performances that are socially constructed, not natural. Sexist and gendered stereotypes are prevalent in Andersen’s tale The Little Sea-Maid, as female beauty is expressed as being a necessity to attain love in the human world. The protagonist is provided with overt instructions that beauty wins the sole affection and love of a mans heart. However, Andersen challenges this sexist assumption as the protagonist does not win her prince in the end. Andersen

“Once Upon a Time” and “Happily Ever After” have taken on a life of their own, independent from the stories in which they were written. Beloved by children and adults alike, these stories have been passed down over multiple generations. Along with these stories come morals, values, and stereotypes. A prevalent stereotype found in fairy tales deals with genders and their norms and children in their early developmental years are exposed to these gender stereotypes. These are used as a tool to help children develop their gender identity. As they endure over time, fairy tales continue to teach gender stereotypes and this perpetuates our society’s current beliefs of gender.

It was a long time ago when God created the first woman from man’s rib as a beautiful gift to him, and wanted them to become one flesh. Her role is to be a good helper, a gentle and compassionate caregiver to her husband and kids, a companion, and a reliable advisor. As the man presents the image of God, a woman presents the image of man so they are both God made. Man is obligated to protect his woman, to speak up for his family, to be a primary breadwinner, and to take leadership in their relationship. He is expected to be strong in his body and mind. Man should also love and respect his wife and their kids for God’s glory. Thus, a woman is supposed to be submissive to her man, be gentle, emotional, and spiritual. The marriage relationship is meant to serve one another and to fulfill each other. The fairy tale “Cinderella” by brothers Grimm destructs God’s order and misinterprets the role of woman and man. Only Cinderella is submissive to her father even if there is no strong daughter-father connection between them. That is why she does not seek help from him but from her tree and the birds. The stepmother and her daughters are not obedient to the husband and father and he blankly spoils them. Cinderella’s father does not protect her from his bad wife, stays impassive about his child miserable life and puts her life in risk. Thus prince is charmed by Cinderella’s beauty only as she has no

Over the past decades, the struggle for woman’s emancipation has been one of most controversial and eternal subject to prolong around the world. In fact, the continuation for gender equality and self- independence against the male dominant gender has become popular to the extent that, it has inspired many writers and movie makers to integrate this historical context in to their literary work and movies. As such, many fairytale writers have also perpetuated this cultural message in various stories for children. For example, the story Cinderella, a classic bedtime story for young children, has not only served as traditional fairy tale but legitimatize society’s expectations of young woman; it emphasize on the importance of the ultimate feminine beauty, the expectations of women’s etiquette, responsibilities, personal freedom and the dominant power of the men from 1700’s to even the 20th century. Each variation of Cinderella; Cinderella; Or, the Little Glass Slipper by Charles Perrault, Cinderella by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and Cinder Maid by Joseph Jacobs revealed the way a society functioned when woman have absolutely no control over sexual privileges, marriages, goals, behaviors, money and education.