Patriarchy In Fairy Tales

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After examining several princess fairy tales it is blatantly obvious that fairytales further perpetuate the tradition of patriarchy. They promote the ideas of stereotypical gender roles, over emphasize the importance and significance of superficial beauty, and culturalize women to idealize “happily ever afters” dependent upon men. These fairytales promote self-immolation and sacrifice amongst women, and cater to the notion that women outside the nuclear family should be ostracized due to their useless and even devious nature. Female agency and intelligence is very much discouraged and is often associated with the wicked. Moreover fairytales endorse the concept of female rivalry based upon frivolous jealousy and envy. Fairy tales embody the …show more content…
If we recall Grimm's fairy tales, we think of the figures such as Snow White, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella that had to all deal with an evil person whether it be in the form of evil stepmothers or witches. The evil villain in fairy tales can be portrayed as evil from within, they can be expressed as ugly and always scheming. Unlike many Disney Villains, Ursula puts her henchman Flotsam and Jetsam before anything and everyone else. Ursula does evil things for her own good and for her best interests. She is also seen as very conniving, but if she was the “good” character in the story and doing things for herself she would have been praised. She is a sea witch who "helps" unfortunate merfolk by granting their wishes, but end up withering them into polyps for her gardens. Ursula is a very dark and sinister villain. Despite this, she has a large sense of humor. Ursula is very manipulative and has a talent of making great sense and making great points when trying to strike a deal. In the original version the sea witch tells her she is foolish, and she is just setting herself up for heartbreak on land. In both stories Ursula is clearly expressed as an evil character, but if she was not shown as one her actions would have not been shown
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