The effect that gender roles in fairy tales has on the collective mindset of people often goes unnoticed. Reading these tried and true stories to the youth is a subconsciously driven truth that we tell to ourselves, neglecting the primitive morals, ethics and gender roles that fairy tales pose. Influenced by these stories, children pick up the details that reinforce their perception of tired gender stereotypes, viewing themselves and the people they look up to in a negative manner. These negative perceptions on how they should dress, behave, look and follow instils into their mind and harms society as a whole.
A storytelling trait that is abundant in old Fairy Tales is the need for the main heroine to have little to no say in the direction of the narrative. They are more often than not dictated their roles and activities relevant to the story, and these passive traits lead to uninteresting characters that serve no purpose other than to be the outdated image of a heroine. Some stories like Sleeping Beauty drive home the stance of this argument by having the main heroine do nothing but sleep for the majority of the story. This type of character building is not only seen in the Grimm stories of old, but also in the Disney adaptations that came to pass. As detailed by Kay Stone in her article, “But if the Grimm heroines are, for the most part, uninspiring, those of Walt Disney seem barely alive” (44). If the passiveness of heroines can be described as “barely alive”, then we need to consider if we can call them the main characters at all. When a heroine takes action in a fairy tale, it is shown as a sign of unwanted rebellion, instead of accentuating the importance of responding independently. One of the most basic points to consider when writing a character that can positively influence the youth is to have motivations, Fairy Tale heroines lacking that is devaluing them to the point where they are comparable to objects, and when children pick up these details it drastically harms their outlook on themselves.
The passivity of heroines in Fairy Tales is apparent, but the negative influences they pose in establishing old gender stereotypes should not be taken lightly. The images of man and woman in Fairy Tales is shown with an uneven and biased duality, one that shows women as pure, fragile and frail, but the men as strong, independent and dominant. Dictated by Jeana Jorgensen in her article, “Helplessness and patience…are key characteristics of the critique of feminine passivity in the fairy tale” (38). The shallow features and characteristics of the genders in question is the root of the problem with Fairy Tale heroines, showing that in order for these labels to remain relevant in the stories the integrity of the characters take damage and vice versa. However, when looking at other aspects or stories entirely, female characters can be noticed taking an active part in the story. From Cinderella’s stepmother to the Queen in Sleeping Beauty, there remains proof of active female characters, so why can’t they be viewed as a positive influence? Firstly, these characters are all secondary, they play a role in the progression of the narrative but ultimately remains as a side character. They also are mostly antagonistic roles, Cinderella’s stepmother being the one stopping her from going to the ball. The lack of heroines that take action in their own hands or show signs of dominant behavior is a crucial step to fix in order to have better role models for children in fairy tales.
When the disparity in gender roles present in fairy tales is discussed, it is usually in the favor of female characters, since they are the ones being intrinsically discriminated in those stories. Focusing on the male characters, it is very apparent why that is so- the character traits that are given to male characters give them a stark advantage in whatever story is being told. The dominant nature that is presented of the male characters hints at an oppressive tone towards female characters and heroines. Sometimes these traits are shown in an obvious manner, other times it is subliminally suggested- such as in this line from The Grimm Brothers, “She looked so beautiful… so he stooped down and gave her a kiss” (Briar Rose, 43), where it shows the prince kissing the princess with no consent. So intrinsically, the discussion morphs into one to protect the perceptions of young girls, but the consequences of it on young boys are often left untouched. We ignore how the “Dominant, straightforward and hegemonic” image of a man can affect boys in how they grow to shape themselves. As Atteberry describes in his article, “In order to be eligible for the social benefits of patriarchy, men must give up any traits that might be labeled feminine” (332), and points out this unwritten ruling that gets burned into the minds of young boys. To make children’s perception on gender roles in these stories be meaningful, we must consider all children to advance to a solution.
If the character traits in fairy tales misalign what we believe to be the right mindsets children should have, then what should be even more concerning is the obvious references to non-consensual physical exertion. There are many stories that directly refer to scenes with rape, such as in Sun, Moon and Talia, “He lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love” (Para. 4), the “fruits of love” being the obvious reference here. In an age where we try to protect children from any sort of mature concepts in any other form of media, fairy tales become the perfect Trojan horse that sow these ideas in the minds of children. Even though the concern against these taboo topics are heavily opposed by certain groups, as mentioned by Westland in their article, “Classic feminist texts have memorably condemned…passive female behavior, male domination and even rape”, but condemnation is only the first step to take to mitigate the problem, there should be more elaborate messaging to parents about what type of content fairy tales really hold and influence. One might argue that these established gender roles might not directly influence the inner workings of a child, and that it may actually help them see what different gender molds there exists, and then find their own paths with that information. This however can be deemed irrelevant when we go back to the timeline of when these stories were written, in a time where women were disregarded of their right to everything and seen only as vessels of their own biased ideologies.
Every fairy tale that has been written and passed down for generations have at least one central message that they deliver that is aimed towards children. This is argued to be a cheap scare tactic in order to get kids to listen to their parents, stories like Briar Rose punish the heroine for not obeying orders, like when Briar Rose touches the spindle and immediately falls asleep for a hundred years, “But scarcely as she touched it…she fell down lifeless on the ground” (Grimms’ Fairy Tales, 42). These old ways of teaching children morals will ultimately confuse them, and they won’t ever learn the normal ways of societal morals and instead will be hesitant to ever stand up for themselves. What fairy tales can instead be retold to do is move down to the child’s perspective, instead of forcing down lessons about not being eaten, write characters that they instead find relatable or as a role model. “Fairy tales have an intrinsic draw…They offer an opportunity to explore the inner world of the child” (Wallace, Ryan, et al. 118), this quote accentuates the idea of the stories exploring the child rather than the child exploring the stories. When children find that the stories they read can be relatable to their own predicaments, then they can draw positive conclusions on their perceptions of the world through it.
Fairy tales have a magical draw to them that makes them timeless, and entertaining for every generation. The passing of time however reveals the many flaws of gender roles, implications of rape and oppressive tones that plague these stories, and which in turn plagues the mind of children around the world. The responsibility of passing down stories of yore to the new generation is our responsibility and should not be taken lightly, so naturally it is also our responsibility that the youth only get the best of these stories without risking their own identities. Properly mitigating the problems in fairy tales can prove to be helpful in restructuring how they affect society as a whole.
Works Cited
Attebery, Brian. “Reinventing Masculinity in Fairy Tales by Men.” Marvels & Tales, vol. 32, no. 2, 2018, pp. 314–337. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/marvelstales.32.2.0314. Accessed 13 Nov. 2020.
Grimm, Grimm. Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales. Osceola: Quarto Publishing Group USA, 2013. Print.
Jorgensen, Jeana. “The Most Beautiful of All: A Quantitative Approach to Fairy-Tale Femininity.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 132, no. 523, 2019, pp. 36– 60. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jamerfolk.132.523.0036. Accessed 13 Nov. 2020.
Stone, Kay. “Things Walt Disney Never Told Us.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 88, no. 347, 1975, pp. 42–50. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/539184. Accessed 13 Nov. 2020.
Westland, Ella. “Cinderella in the Classroom. Children’s Responses to Gender Roles in Fairy- Tales.” Gender and education 5.3 (1993): 237–249. Web.
Wallace, Kaliambou. “Fairy Tales and Psychiatry: a Psychiatry Residency’s Experience Using Fairy Tales and Related Literary Forms to Highlight Theoretical and Clinical Concepts in Childhood Development.” Academic psychiatry 43.1 (2018): 114–118. Web.
