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Gender In Fairy Tales

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2. The Female Role in Fairy Tales
Being female is not always easy, but comparing today’s situation to ancient times, women are a requirement due to their strong abilities and positions. What were unbelievable decades ago, is the reality now. Women have full power and control to themselves, they decide which job to choose, whether to strive for a career or to be a housewife, they are chief executive officer’s, entrepreneurs, marry and divorce or even do not get married at all. Historically, issues of the female gender have been criticized for decades, women had always been fighting for their rights and freedom. Interestingly, ancient and traditional stories do not share this point of view. Therefore, it is very important to look at fairy tales, …show more content…

Therefore, especially girls could look upon the behavior of fairy tale’s princess’ and see them as a prototype in a romantic sense as well as in behavioral. Treating old traditional tales this way could lead to a problem in the contemporary perception of sexuality and …show more content…

This representation of women by far does not come close to reality because not every woman waits for a prince to come and save her, instead, women need to work for their beauty, their wealth and they are not only chosen but they get the chance to choose a partner by themselves. Therefore, fairy tales display an unnatural picture of women, although many women have surely felt connected to fairy tales and their representation, there are no feelings or emotions conveyed, women just exist to be beautiful as well as serve their husband but this is by far an unhealthy representation of a human being. The idolization makes women lose their humanity and turns them into an

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Many of the women in these stories are portrayed as strong, independent women who, in many cases, are the hero themselves. Women in Chrétien and La Motte-Fouqué’s stories are given strong roles in order to highlight and emphasize the important virtues of peace, bravery, and power which ultimately transfers the role of the hero from men to women. In order to understand why the women in Yvain and The Magic Ring are considered to be the true heroes, the definition of a true hero must first be fully defined. Many will describe a hero as a character who performs deeds to remove people from danger.

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Throughout the course of human history, literary works of various styles and genres across multiple cultures have had varying depictions of both genders. A literary work’s depiction of gender, particularly females, is generally dependent on the culture and/or society its author hail from as well as other factors such as regional and political ones. Despite such differences, literary works can share similarities in the depiction of genders. Antigone and The Canterbury Tales are prime examples of such types of literary works. Despite that nearly two millennia past between the publication of the two-respective works, the two have similar as well as contrasting portrayals of women.

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Women have always been portrayed as the weaker sex compared to men. It has been demonstrated in history itself and throughout literary works. Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Homer’s The Odyssey, however, portray women to be more powerful than men, even when their society thought otherwise and underestimated them because of their gender. Lady Macbeth, The Three Witches, Queen Arête and Penelope demonstrate the astute, charming, and ambitious side of women that was overlooked by men when it came to having power and making decisions.

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