ipl-logo

Gender Roles In Fairy Tales: Snow White And Rapunzel

1225 Words5 Pages

Unfortunately, the origin of the majority of these fairy tales started off with valuable life lessons. For example, in the Grimm brothers’ tale, which Disney has adapted its storylines from, Snow White and Rapunzel possess eerie undertones that accentuates the difficulties everyone faces in life (4). These original stories have actual meaning and substance, while Disney made some serious modifications in the storylines that results in the well known tales of today. Parents are reading to their children these santanized tales that misconstrue the true messages that were intended to tell and instead replaced the meaningfulness with bigotry and useless, false expectations. Fairy tales’ perception on gender roles affect women in more ways than …show more content…

Low self-esteem in young girls is rumored to stem not only from the roles they assume they must fulfill, but also due to the conventional image of a princess (5). Women are indirectly taught that in order to be considered beautiful there is certain criteria that must be meant. Princesses are depicted as skinny images of perfection, which alters girls perception on what and where true beauty stems from. In fairy tales when males speak of princesses it is simply for their great looks and very rarely for the smarts or kindness they possess. Descriptions of beauty in this light stifles the ambitions of young girls and damages the perception of others who may not conform to these stereotypes …show more content…

Disney has taken the well-intended morals out of tales with substance. In return Disney has offered relentless backlash towards the female race, making young girls everywhere self-conscious about what true beauty is. The youth are beginning to question the notion of beauty because they do not fit the stereotype of what they feel Disney is saying a princess is supposed to be. Looking at these tales as a standard of what love is supposed to be and what love should be is taking tolls on relationships. Marriages are failing and Disney is a prime suspect as to why. Women are growing impatient because the ideal of a prince charming is poisoning their brains with raw emotion and zero logic. This is due to the absurd love standards and no tie to reality. Fairy tales do not provide input for what happens following the happily ever after. Seeing the honeymoon phase is having detrimental effects on the self-esteem and self-image of these young couples. When things begin to go awry in a relationship people are unable to properly communicate their feelings because they have already shut down. Children spend their entire lives from birth on trying to distinguish right and wrong by observing others. Impressionable by genes, children formulate their opinions based on what they pick up from their surroundings. Stories spoken from parents stick like glue in the brains of

Show More
Related
855 Words | 4 Pages

Comparative Critique The topic of gender equality, culture and environmental effects on girls and young women has brought up the discussion of princess culture - dressing up, waiting for prince charming, the importance of beauty. Both “The Princess Paradox” and “Cinderella and Princess Culture” examine how companies such as Disney are responsible for girls falling into princess culture and influencing them. However, there are distinct parallels between Orenstein and Poniewozik on how they perceive the effects of cinematic influence. Orenstein insinuates that Disney’s princess culture bears a negative impact on the mental health of young girls whereas, Poniewozik disputes that princess culture is a gateway to female empowerment.

Read More
1213 Words | 5 Pages

The Cinderella tale has been at the heart of many stories for generations. People have become very familiar with the storyline, as it is very prevalent in society today through many moderns movies and stories. The Cinderella story is adored by young children, more specifically by young girls. However as a more feminist culture has emerged, society’s viewpoint of fairytales is becoming increasingly negative. In, “The Princess Paradox” and “Cinderella and Princess Culture”, authors James Poniewozik and Peggy Orenstein further evaluate themes found in the Cinderella stories.

Read More
1092 Words | 5 Pages

In the New York Times article “Cinderella and Princess Culture,” Peggy Orenstein investigates princess culture in today’s society. Orenstein is a successful writer for the New York Times and has published a best-selling memoir. In her investigation into the growing phenomenon of princess culture, Orenstein discovered that large companies, such as Disney, turn a substantial profit by selling costumes, dolls, and various princess themed must-haves. She argues that the princess hysteria sweeping the nation is not teaching kids life lessons, but rather further stereotyping little girls. Orenstein is a feminist herself as well as a mother.

Read More
1146 Words | 5 Pages

THE ZEBRA MUSSEL INCIDENT The Zebra Mussel Incident Zebra Mussels are an invasive species which now dominate the Great Lakes region, they were introduced in the 1980’s and ever since then their quantities have increased dramatically. Since the time they arrived they have caused many problems including problems in the ecosystem and with the economy. Human’s have been trying ever since their arrival to eliminate or reduce their quantities but not much progress has been made. Right now Zebra Mussels are one of the biggest issues affecting the great lakes.

Read More
1343 Words | 6 Pages

From its onset with its first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Disney has grown to become a worldwide phenomenon today. But over the years, various parent groups, scholars and film critics have accused Disney for creating shallow, stereotypical princesses whose ultimate aim was to find her 'prince charming ' and live happily ever after. In her article, “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” in the New York Times, Peggy Orenstein expresses her concern over the effect of princess figures like Cinderella on young girls ' perceptions of themselves and how they should behave (“What’s Wrong With Cinderella?”).

Read More
1690 Words | 7 Pages

Many families have many traditions, but one tradition that is common among all households is that they read fairy tales to their children right before they put them to sleep. They do this to fill their minds with good positive thoughts and leave them with something to think about. Religion dictates the characteristics of familiar fairy tales as religion provides a moral and ethical framework for having a good life, an ideal goal parents want their children to have. On the whole, fairy tales are constantly changed to adhere to cultural or social beliefs that are deemed important by diverse people in a community.

Read More
494 Words | 2 Pages

Princesses’ in Disney movies are tied down to a recurring theme: the princess that must be saved from the evil woman by the charming prince. A significant contrast to the usually weak and easily persuaded figure of the father. Even though the women are portrayed as weak, nobody stops to think how strong they have to be to carry the responsibility of an entire household on her shoulder, while the men always seem to be traveling or ill. Fairytales are based on a patriarchal way of thinking and as time passes by, it’s proven to be detrimental to society Women and men are constantly being bound to a series of stereotypes.

Read More
982 Words | 4 Pages

Yet, Orenstein claims that they have focused largely on the princess culture and also that these princesses have advanced from being simple storybook characters to now representing a negative influence on a female’s expectations in life. She suggests this idea in her article with the notion that other women, especially mothers, would agree with her opinion. Although, what she fails to acknowledge is that Disney isn't trying to sell messages of the “nice and pretty” girl or the perpetual “happily ever after” ending to young children. Instead, they are only marketing their products to a specific, easily influenced audience. Orenstein places blame on Disney, shaming them for taking advantage of the pre-existing princesses for their own profit.

Read More
597 Words | 3 Pages

The movie “The Princess and the Frog” is not your typical “boy saves girl” movie. Instead, this Disney movie presents us with a strong female lead who doesn’t need a man to achieve her goals. In many previous Disney movies, it is demonstrated that a girl needs a man in order to get her happily ever after. Without a prince, she is nothing. In “The Princess and the Frog” the gender roles are presented to us as equal, even reverse at times.

Read More
1219 Words | 5 Pages

Society as a whole has always pushed social norms on everyone, including mainstream movies aimed towards children, the messages of which can have profound effects on younger society. Disney princess movies have major themes that affect generations of children, and take care to promote positivity. However, some underlying messages in the older movies partially show gender and social norms, and are not necessarily true. Both Cinderella in Cinderella (1950) and Elsa in Frozen (2013) have end goals and strong character development in order to get across differing gender and social messages on love and life to Disney’s audience, with Frozen having the more powerful message. Both Cinderella and Elsa have overall goals that they accomplish over the

Read More
1032 Words | 5 Pages

It could also be argued that the killing of soldiers in World War One was unavoidable because they’re enlisted to fight and die if need be. Soldiers die in war because that’s their job, they volunteer or are drafted to protect their land and its people with their lives when necessary. It is unfortunate that human life must be lost at all, but in war, it cannot be avoided. Trench warfare is a particularly harsh style of fighting, is extremely dangerous for the attacker, and men in those days had weaponry similar to today, but did not have comparable body armor. Technology advanced so fast that, initially, the men simply didn’t know what they were facing.

Read More
1880 Words | 8 Pages

Margarita Carretero and Maria Elena Rodriguez state in their article: “Wicked Women: The Menace Lurking Behind Female Independence” that “fairy tales are probably the narratives which better express classic conflicts between women” (202). Reiterating that first notion of physical attractiveness being a girl’s most promising asset to secure a marriage, and as a result, a position, the fact that a marriage prospect often plants the seed of jealousy among women in fairy tales comes as no surprise at all (Carretero and Rodriguez 203). For instance, in “Cinderella,” the wicked stepsisters, clearly jealous of the maiden’s superior beauty, strip her of her pretty clothes, dress her in rags, and force her to do the housework (Lieberman qtd. Grimm 392). Disney’s Cinderella also has quite a similar jarring scene in which the stepsisters rip off the dress from Cinderella’s body in order to impede her going to the ball.

Read More
881 Words | 4 Pages

Numerous schools of criticisms have attempted to find the meaning behind most of our favorite childhood stories. From Marxist who pursue the idea of social classes portrayed in literary works, to Psychoanalysts who depict the sexual tensions and desires that are subconsciously embedded behind characters’ motives and actions, to Historicists who try to show the preservation of tradition in stories, many different concepts exist for each fairy tale. The Feminist school of criticism greatly focuses on unveiling the patriarchal system and sexist roles that are displayed in stories, and more specifically, fairytales. Four versions of the well-known fairytale of The Little Mermaid will be compared and discussed while focusing on many distinctive

Read More
1351 Words | 6 Pages

“Beauty and the Beast” is an original fairy tale and over time have incorporated social, religious and cultural themes. An analysis of the Disney version of “Beauty and the Beast” exemplifies the stereotypes of the more subtle forms of social manipulation that fairytales undergo to employ. The question of whether these stories are made for entertainment or send a much larger picture, depicting to children their gender roles within a society. In this paper gender roles will be represented showing the typical female and male character within a society. Historian Sylvia D. Hoffert defines a gender ideal as “the cluster of characteristics, behavior patterns, and values that members of a group think a man or a woman should have, a set of cultural expectations.”

Read More
1318 Words | 6 Pages

Abstract Most of us have grown up watching Disney films but never really thought of what they exactly mean to us. Our understanding of what it means to be a Disney princess is probably one of the reasons to what made us subject to the regulation of cultural values. Cinderella and other similar Disney princesses may be recognised as a part of an individual’s childhood but the values and ideas it conveyed can still be reflected in our decisions and behaviour as adults. Many young girls perceive Cinderella as a role model and create expectations and beliefs based on what is portrayed through her unfortunately these expectations are not fulfilled and ends in dissatisfaction.

Read More

More about Gender Roles In Fairy Tales: Snow White And Rapunzel

Related Topics

Open Document