Gender Influence Of Fairy Tales

5 Pages 1245 Words

Fairy tales have always been a part of children’s lives. Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and so on – we all know them off by heart, but have we ever stopped to think what messages they are sending to society? What kind of influence they have on the structure of social and gender roles? “Male/female roles have been ground into us since the day we were born, in the disguise of innocent little fairly tales”.1 It is amazing how many of us don’t realise what fairy tales teach us until we closely examine the way females are portrayed in each story and what roles have been assigned to them.

I have chosen to deconstruct Cinderella and Snow White as I have found them to be sexist and to be portraying women in a subordinate light, which oppresses them. Both stories perpetuate stereotypical thoughts on the “ideal virtues” of women. They are shown naturally beautiful, vulnerable, passive and obedient. “These tales teach us our little girls that the only way for them to get anywhere in life is to be beautiful, obedient and passive. They should be quiet, always smile and be friendly, and of course take responsibility for their actions and others”.2 Furthermore, both Cinderella and Snow White provide another example where the heroines of the stories must be “rescued” by Prince Charming who is by coincidence handsome, powerful, and good. It is sending a false message to girls that “Man is God’s gift to women”, “He will rescue you from all your troubles and take you away from a critical situation, where he will then marry you and make you his Queen, who will have to do nothing much but preserve beauty. If you follow his instructions you will live happily ever after…”

Having all these ‘fantastic’ attributes (in the view of men), both females of each story happily accept the role of a housewife. When Snow White finds shelter in a dirty little house in the woods, she immediately cleans it fr...