Sexism In Grimm Brother's Snow White

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 the play, The Little Mermaid a 16 year old girl named Ariel is fascinated with life on land. On one of her visits to the surface, which are forbidden by her controlling father, King Triton, she falls for a human prince. With her best fish friend Flounder, Ariel collects human artifacts and goes to the surface of the ocean to visit scuttle the seagull, who offers very inaccurate and comical knowledge of human culture. Determined to be with her new love, Ariel makes a dangerous deal with the sea witch Ursula to become human for three days. But when plans get twisted for the lovers, the king must

After seeing the prince once and saving his life, the little mermaid developed an obsession with the prince. She would go up to sea level everyday to see if the prince was there and once she figured out he was not there, she would be sorrowful and distraught. The little mermaid’s happiness depended on the prince which is very degrading. This is teaching girls that they can only be happy if they have a man. When the little mermaid asks if she could live on land, the old woman responds with "unless a man should love you so much that you were

At the beginning of The Little Mermaid, Ariel is depicted as a brave, curious, and adventurous young mermaid. She explores the sea with her friends and saves Flounder and Prince Eric from drowning. However, once she develops a crush on Eric, she transforms into a quiet, almost lovesick puppy. She spends most of her time obsessing over the prince and staring in admiration at him, and he is totally attracted to this version of Ariel. Ariel literally sacrifices her voice and becomes mute when she exchanges her voice to the sea-witch Ursula for legs in order to live a human life on land with Eric. Her demeanor goes from from bold to submissive. In the end, she ultimately "gets" the prince, but at the expense of having totally revised her personality and having left her friends, family and world behind. The message here: Don't be yourself if you want someone to fall in love with

Fairy tales have always been focused towards children ever since Walt Disney took over the industry of remaking these stories. He took out all of the gore and some of the violence to make it more acceptable for children. With Anne Sexton's version of Cinderella, she brings back the gore and violence to its full capacity just like with the original Brothers Grimm story. Sexton's poetic version of Cinderella gives a humorous and eye-opened twist to this classic fairy tale. What brings all of these stories together is the way they all socialize women to make them naive. With this in mind, fairy tales do humiliate and objectify women to get them to accept violence within society.

distracted. Despite the fact that she nearly dies, Snow White just can’t resist what the old lady brings. The stereotype that women are materialistic and will do whatever it takes to receive material goods is displayed here. In spite of the fact that she is still a child, Snow White should know better than to just open doors to strangers and take whatever they give her. This is obviously due to the time Snow White was written in, when girls and their intelligence were viewed as lesser than boys.

But to gain legs, she must give up her most precious asset, her beautiful voice. There are some standard elements of teenage life here, including young love, and some degree of rebellion from ones parents, in this case King Triton, Ariel’s father. It was not Ariel's physical beauty that the Prince loved, but her voice. He is enraptured by the voice even in the presence of Ariel's physical beauty and great legs. The metaphor here should be obvious. What does a woman lose when she becomes subservient to a man, or male-dominated culture in general? She loses her voice. The point of the movie is that a young woman's beauty should come not from her physical attributes, but from her voice, her personality, her self. Metaphorically, without her voice in society, she is pretty helpless and powerless to change what's going on around her, explain herself, etc. As for the prince he isn't interested in Ariel just for her looks. It is also important to note that she gets her reward only after working together with her father, King Triton.

To start my criticism, I am going to start at the fact that the whole fairy tale is based on beauty, starting from Snow White’s original mother wishing her child to have very specific things, and in doing so generalizing the word beauty. They portrayed the character of Snow White to be extremely naïve and stupid. She got tricked by her step-mother three times, while wearing three different old woman disguises. After Snow White woke up from the coffin, the prince fell in love with Snow White and immediately demanded that she marry him, portraying that woman are obedient to men. Snow White instantly agrees to the prince, portraying to the young, impressionable audience that a woman’s goal in life is to get married and be a housewife. Snow White is portrayed as very naïve, and that she cannot comprehend many matters other than cooking and cleaning. She got tricked by her step-mother three times, each

As a payment for Ursula’s magic potion, Ariel must sacrifice her beautiful voice (Disney). Ariel’s desire for life “where they walk, where they run, where they stay all day in the sun,” is more priceless than her family’s honor, her mermaid fins, and her voice (Disney). In order to keep her land legs, Ariel must win the prince’s love before sunset on the third day (Disney). After many events concerning Ursula’s evil intercessions, Ariel’s dreams become a reality when Eric defeats the sea witch, wins back Ariel’s voice, and marries her (Disney).

First sentence: “Once upon a time in a land not so far away, man created the idea that it was a woman’s job to conform to the ideologies generated in fairy tales.”

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

First of all, a rather sexist view of women has emerged from the evolution of a variety fairy tales. In older versions of many fairy tales, on can see the female dominant, matriarchal societies through the strong female protagonists. For example, as Yolen reminds, “Cinderella until lately has never been a passive dreamer….The forerunners of the Ash-girl have been hardy, active heroines” (33). One of the earlier Cinderellas belonged to a hunting community where “most important is the function of a female. She was at the center of this society and maintained a nurturing element” (194). As time went by Zipes concludes, women lost their supremacy and “fairy tales…reinforced the patriarchal symbolic order based on rigid notions of sexuality and gender” (qtd. in Tatar 338). As Zipes explains, “the heroines in these fairy tales remain pathetic , passive, and pale in comparison to the more active characters”, usually the men, when compared to those of the first generation of fairy

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.

When I started analyzing Cinderella I noticed some gender roles/stereotypes that are brought to light. One of them being how women are the ones who stay home and perform household chores. They are “housewives” who depend on a man. The father is briefly in the beginning and afterwards we do not hear of him, initiating that he is off working, or on a business trip while the mom and daughters are home. We also see through Cinderella (who is forced to do all the chores) how their are consequences if she (or women) don’t complete or do the chores that are expected of them (like not being able to go to a ball in Cinderella's case). Another theme that is consistent in Cinderella as it is in other princess stories is the value of being beautiful. We see this when the fairy godmother shows up and makes Cinderella beautiful. She transforms her house clothes into a gown and so forth showing us that beauty is in the way you look or your appearance. If we pursue this theme further we see that the prince falls in love with Cinderella based on how she looks (love at first

Fairy tales like Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and Snow White have always been the best bedtime stories that have the power to establish a strong bond in the relationships between parents and their children. Reading fairy tales, not only enhances children's imaginations, but also helps them use different perspectives to see and judge the protagonists and antagonists in the stories. Unfortunately, in most fairy tales, female characters in Rapunzel, Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast, women always play inferior roles like cleaners or helpless princesses. On the contrary, the male characters usually play superior role like princes or heroes, who are set to save the weak (female characters). Fairy