Gender Role Essay examples

Submitted By bekkah94
Words: 531
Pages: 3

Rebekkah Jones
ENG-102
Erika Bein
4/9/13
Journey Some things about fairy tales we know to be correct. They start with “once upon a time” and end with “happily ever after”. Somewhere between these lines the prince rescues the damsel in distress. The stereotypical view of women is the stay at home wife who stays in the kitchen doing the cooking and cleaning while wearing the perfect outfit. Men are perceived as the stronger and dominant gender while women play the role of the weaker sex. While this particular view is more centered around the 1950’s the basic ideas of the woman’s role has been the same for hundreds of years. In the Brothers Grimm’s Snow White, though Snow White is a princess and a teenager, she is still taught that in order to be a respectable woman she must obey what she is told to do. This includes the cooking and cleaning the dwarfs ask of her. The other component of being a perfect woman is looking respectable at all times and looking better than everyone else. When the mirror says, “My Lady Queen, you are fair, ‘tis true, But Snowdrop is fairer far than you.” (Grimm, 2012) This is where the queen’s story finally fits in. She becomes so obsessed with being the best she essentially becomes evil. The story is giving women mixed messages saying not to obsess over looks but be beautiful, and portraying a woman as the heroine, but still saying disobedience of the women's roles will lead to consequences. When Snow White comes upon a house she enters hoping to rest seeing no one inside. As she is sleeping seven dwarfs appear and wait for her to wake up. When she awakens they make an agreement with her that they will keep her safe is she does the cooking and cleaning for them. By allowing this she is put in a position of servitude. A woman is supposed to be accountable for everything in the kitchen while the man, the dwarfs, is the guardian and is the one who will be right in the end.
The dwarfs warn her not to let anyone in, but Snow White