Gender Stereotypes In Fairy Tales

Words: 1507
Pages: 7
Open Document
Gender stereotypes plague our stereotypes still today. However, for much of history gender expectations have been much more rigid and non-plastic. It has been hypothesized that by in large fairy tales were written based on many of the stereotypes of the times. Thus, it is no surprise that many of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales clearly depict gender stereotypes that which are iconic of most of written history. The brothers Grimm’s tales show domestication, female submissiveness, and child, but most noticeably female adolescent naiveness. In this paper I would analyze two of the Brother Grimm’s most iconic tales: Briar Rose (commonly know as Sleeping Beauty) and Snow White. Both tales contain many similarities, but of the two tail, Snow White …show more content…
However, the beauty of the princess is portrayed in the plot much more in Snow White than in Briar Rose. In Briar Rose, the princess is instantly identified as so beautiful “that the king could not contain himself for joy” (). However, who really does not find their child as the most beautiful specimen that walks the earth. To solidify Briar Roses beauty, the second wise woman presented her with the magical gift of beauty (). To add, after the princess was stricken by the curse, “[a] legend circulated throughout the land about the beautiful sleeping Little-Brier Rose (sic)” (). Finally, once the prince conquered the hedge the story describes that Briar Rose “was so beautiful that he could not take his eyes off her” (). Briar Rose’s beauty is a defining attribute of her character, but the attractiveness of Snow White contributed much more to her …show more content…
For example, in Briar Rose, although a curse was cast on her in her toddlerhood, she was kept in the dark for her entire life and thus as she sees the women spinning, she is mesmerized and fascinated (therefore, adding to the fact that a women’s desires should be inherently domestic) and instantly foolishly grabs the spindle setting the curse. Additionally, in Briar Rose her submissive qualities become very apparent as she is awoken from her deep sleep by the kiss of the prince. Briar Rose instantly falls in love with the prince and agrees to marry him, all seemingly prior to them ever sharing a dialogue. Once again however, Snow White portray the stereotype to a much great extent and is much more detrimental. In Snow White, her naiveness allows her to be fooled time and time again by her evil stepmother, each time putting her closer and closer to death. It is only with the help of a male figure does Snow White survive and her security is reestablished because her envious stepmother is killed. Snow White’s submissiveness is also much more stereotypically present in the tale. Much like Briar Rose, Snow White instantly accepts the prince’s love and falls in love with him. As she awoke and questioned her location, the prince proclaimed “you are with me” as if already claiming her before she even offered him the opportunity. To add the prince essentially
Show More

Related Documents: Gender Stereotypes In Fairy Tales

Gender Stereotypes In Walt Disney's Fairy Tales

Although fairy tales have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, fairy tales were re popularized with the advent of the cinema in the 1920s- 30s. Now, the love story of Cinderella and Prince Charming could be glimpsed on the big screen. With the creation of Disney, fairy tales became even more popular. Though women gained immense rights and power previously unknown to them during this decade, ironically the patriarchal tales remained unchanged (largely due to Disney’s own personal attitudes…

Words 1161 - Pages 5

Gender Stereotypes In Grimm's Fairy Tales

females. These “harmless” stories established normality to domination of males and lower hierarchy characteristics present to females during childhood. Social conventions are placed in fairy tale characters, so at a young age, they can relate their behaviors, attitudes, and goals being placed in their minds. Fairy tales establish appropriate desire as well as appropriate behavior. As the reader’s or listener’s attention is drawn to individual characters desires and values, young children, especially…

Words 1130 - Pages 5

Cinderella Gender Analysis

in their major productions to reflect the current society's view of women, vast majority of the most popular fairy tales undoubtedly contain strong gender stereotype that portray women as weak, vulnerable, and puny characters; whereas men have a better chance of being portrayed as hero-like figures who are strong, courageous, and intelligent. Judging by the three most popular fairy tales, "Sleeping Beauty", "Cinderella", and "Little Red Riding Hood", there…

Words 1178 - Pages 5

How Did Grimm Fairy Tales Influence Modern Day Literature

The Influence of Grimm's Fairy Tales Have you ever wondered how fairy tales influenced modern day literature? Grimm’s fairy Tales have majorly influenced today's literature. You can see this in modern day stories and even older ones. Many stories have seemed to use the Grimm’s Cinderella story as an outline for their books or tales. They tend to use the same ideas in terms of plot, attitudes, and stereotypes of the family and the prince.. Nowadays you can find a wide selection of books with a similar…

Words 516 - Pages 3

Gender Roles In Fairy Tales

stereotypical genders roles putting patriarchy at risk and being labelled as witches. The heroine in fairy tales forms in the image of the ‘maid’, she serves as the model women that all girls should aspire to be. She conforms to the stereotypical gender roles set by society. Young readers are influenced by the fairy tales they read, they are prone to imitate their favourite characters and aim to be just like them, in appearance, mannerisms and even in values. In his article Fairy Tales and Feminism:…

Words 1071 - Pages 5

Essay on annas lit2020

industry, included in this industry were many fairy tales written for entertainment and seemingly to relay obscure cultural messages. The fairy tales that our parents have read to us night after night and the Disney movies we all know and love. What we didn’t know was how the authors of these stories were strengthening the stereotypical gender performances and social constructions enforced by many institutions for hundreds of years. Males wrote of tales characterized by hopeless woman whose’ fates…

Words 1315 - Pages 6

Fairy Tales Gender Roles

Eng. 334 November 7, 2015 Gender Roles in Fairy Tales In well-known fairy tales versions of Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, 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. Fairy Tales were created as a form of entertainment…

Words 1637 - Pages 7

How Radical Are The Changes To The Gend Essay

How Radical Are the Changes to the Gender Roles in Carter’s ‘The Company of Wolves’? Within my essay I plan to discuss the comparisons and contrast between Angela Carter’s characters presented with the story and the traditional stereotypical gender roles presented by Perrault’s fairy tales. Since “Perrault drew the moral that female curiosity leads to retribution” [1] it is clear to see that the first change Carter has made to the gender roles is that female exploration of herself and the world around…

Words 1340 - Pages 6

Beauty And The Beast And The Pig King

and the Beast are perhaps one of the most romantic fairy tales ever told. The tale manages to sustain its audience for so long by painting a picture of the beauty and ugliness that lurks in all of us, which is relatable to all humankind. When one digs deeper inside the tale, discovering the foreshadowed lining of “Beauty and the Beast”. In the following response, I aim to deconstruct by comparing and contrasting both the 1891 Italian fairy tale, The Pig King, written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola…

Words 503 - Pages 3

Sleeping Beauty Archetypes

outrageous stereotypes and unrealistic ideals for the people. However, such stereotypes can date back hundreds of years. In older stories, particularly fairytales and their original roots, many characters follow something similar with repetitive archetypes. One well known example of this is the story of Sleeping Beauty. As many may know, the plot follows a young princess who has been living with the good fairies outside of royalty to stay protected from the curses of the bad fairy—and in other…

Words 1445 - Pages 6