Gender Roles as taught by Fairy Tales

Abigail Gurvich

Professor Hach

English 170.29

30 October 2019

Gender Roles as taught by Fairy Tales

I am a young woman who hopes to go into the STEM field, which has historically been a male dominated career path. Times have changed, and women are encouraged to go into STEM. There are even specific scholarships for young women who hope to study these fields. Similarly to how STEM has been historically male dominated, career paths such as teaching have been historically feminine. Assigned gender roles have been an ingrained part of culture and society for centuries. Male or female, there are roles seen as traditional for an individual based on gender alone. As time has gone by, the strict enforcement of gender roles has decreased, and people these days are often encouraged to do what they want no matter what the traditional stance on it is. However, years of strict enforcement are not easily overlooked. The traditional gender stereotypes are unconsciously still enforced, in ways that are critical parts of our culture, such as the classic fairy tales that most children grow up hearing. As a young woman who hopes to go into a male dominated career, the idea of a person’s life being decided based solely on their gender is something that I have issue with. Though the modern retellings of classic fairy tales often take a more progressive stance, the classic stories can influence a child’s thoughts on what is masculine and what is feminine.

Fairy tales have historically portrayed young women and girls in very specific ways. Classic fairy tales, told by the likes of Hans Christian Anderson and the brothers Grimm, reflect the norms of the time period in which they were written. During the time when these great writers lived, the roles assigned to each gender were strictly enforced, and going against them was frowned upon. Fairy tales were a tool, used to teach lessons to children, including the roles expected of them based on their gender. Particularly young girls. Young girls, are taught how to properly behave and present themselves, as well as how not to behave. A big example of a fairy tale that teaches proper feminine behavior is “Snow White”. The story of “Snow White” presents the titular character and her stepmother as rivals. “It is a patriarchal frame that takes the two women’s beauty as the measure of their (self)worth, and thus defines their relationship as a rivalry” (Bacchilega). By teaching young girls that their only worth is their appearance, and that a less attractive woman is a rival who will want to hurt them, the story enforced the ideas in the girls of the time that the only things that mattered were appearance and innocence. The two traits that led to Snow White getting her happy ending. On the other end of the spectrum, these same stories were used to teach young girl what not to do. “Disney adaptations of “Snow White” and “Cinderella,” stories presenting meek, enduring young women whose kindness and resilience are to be rewarded by happy marriages, or whose curiosity and disobedience are to be punished, as in Perrault’s “Bluebeard” (Bénédicte). By showing that the young and obedient girls get their happy endings, while the disobedient girls are punished, or even downright wicked, the classic fairy tales subtly influenced the children of the time to stick to their assigned gender roles.

Fairy tales are often used to teach lessons and can even be changed to better suit the intended message. Classic fairy tales have been used by parents to teach and influence their children for hundreds of years. Many parents take advantage of a fairy tale’s lesson to influence their child into seeing the values of kindness and hard work. An example of fairy tales being used to influence a child’s view of the world is during the Victorian era. Fairy tales were used to spread ideals from parent to child, but even then they were spreading the ideas of a proper young woman or young man.

Just as fairy tales were making their way into the nursery, they very quickly became a means to question social, political, and cultural issues. Indeed, though mid-Victorian fairy tales undoubtedly represented middle-class settings, protagonists, and codes of conduct, some of them also debunked the bourgeois ideology. Not all literary fairy tales were subversive, however, and many of them seemed to both affirm and denounce the fairy tale’s patriarchal discourse, especially when written – or rewritten – by women. In fact, in order to challenge traditional roles, women had to work within cultural paradigms. (Talairach-vielmas)

Even though parents used the fairy tales to influence a child’s opinion on political ideology, the classic gender roles in fairy tales were still enforced and not to be changed. Young girls were being prepared to be treated as nothing but the property of their husbands or fathers. “It is probably in [. . .] the models of behavior and incorporated norms and values most reflect how the emerging bourgeoisie stamped their literary fairy tales with the seal of patriarchy” (Talairach-vielmas). By introducing these ideas to young girls as “the norm”, it makes it less likely that they would rebel against these ideals and do what makes them happy later in their lives.

Fairy tales are deeply ingrained into the culture and introduce valuable life lessons in fun and interesting ways. Many individuals have fond memories of these classic stories, whether from reading them or watching the Disney movies. These fairy tales are so intertwined into modern day culture, that practically everyone in the world knows the stories. “Most visible as entertainment for children, whether in the form of bedtime-stories or of games and props marketed in conjunction with a movie or TV series, fairy tales also play a role in education” (Bacchilega). Fairy tales contain valuable lessons that all children should be exposed to. They teach the values of having a good heart and of being honest. They show children that being a good person will lead you far in life, while being wicked and doing evil things will only lead to your downfall. These lessons are very important for children to learn and can lead them far in life. Fairy tales provide a fun and entertaining way of introducing these lessons at a young age, and they benefit people of all ages through their simple storytelling and the positive energy associated with them.

In modern times, the roles of men and women in classic fairy tales have come into question. The sexist sides of fairy tales have come into contest as the feminist movement goes forward. Fairy tales are being retold and rewritten with stronger and more independent female characters. The idea of a damsel in distress is growing less and less popular as fairy tales are rewritten to appeal to modern audiences.

Over the past 20 years, feminists have relentlessly attacked the type of fairy-tale promoted by Anglo-American culture, claiming that its gender stereotypes serve to reinforce those restrictive images of girlhood and womanhood that are already deep-rooted in our society: Most simply and clearly [the fairy-tale] tells the story of women in our culture, and simply states that they must be either innocent and beautiful, so passive that they are almost dead, or profoundly and monstrously evil: good mother, bad mother. (Westland)

This view of how a woman is supposed to behave, which has been unconsciously enforced by fairy tales for hundreds of years, has been falling out of practice. Modern rewrites and retellings of classic stories have been showing the stories heroines as more independently minded and strong-willed characters, who are easier to relate to for modern audiences. This change in storytelling is an improvement over where things were, but there is still a ways to go.

Children take in a lot of their opinions and biases at young ages. The best way to undermine the gender roles that society still unconsciously expects, is to teach children to think for themselves. Young children, both boys and girl, are easily influenced by the world around them. By teaching young children that they can think and act in any way they want, and that they can do anything they set their minds to, it eases back on the subtle stereotyping that is still a part of society. There have been studies conducted that show how children respond to fairy tales being read to them in the classroom. The children were read fairy tales and told to draw pictures afterwards, and after drawing the pictures they were asked questions about the stories.

The girls favoured `upside-down’ fairy-tale scenarios that gave their heroines independence, while the boys clung to the traditional image of the prince for the same reason. These results indicate that girls of this age are `resisting readers’ able to criticize and manipulate–as well as enjoy–the gender images presented to them in the dominant fairy-tales of our culture. (Westland)

The young girls believing that they can be the heroes of their own stories, and not just an object to be won in the boys, is a very positive change when one considers how the classic gender roles were enforced in the past. This independence in the young girls deserves to be encouraged and is something that shows just how we as a society have moved forward and grown better as people.

Fairy tales have, for centuries, been used to teach lessons and values to children. Mostly, these lessons and values are positive things that teach children to be kind, hardworking people who look out for others. They also teach children the downfalls of being selfish and how hurting other people is never okay. The part of fairy tales that enforces gender roles in society is a product of the time period in which the fairy tales were written. As society has grown more advanced, these classic gender roles have grown out of practice. Children and young adults are being encouraged to break the mold and do what they want with their lives, no matter what classic gender roles their ambitions are. This change in the way society sees things can only be for the better.

Fairy tales are an important role in the lives of countless children, spanning centuries. They have influenced cultures all around the world. Practically everyone on the planet has heard at least one variation of the classic stories at one point or another. The fairy tales teach valuable lessons to children around the world. While their enforcement of gender stereotypes is something that is an issue in modern times, the authors of today’s world are retelling and rewriting these beloved classics to appeal to a more modern audience. Children are being raised to be independent thinkers who don’t pay attention to stereotypes. I personally look forward to the day when I have a career that would have been forbidden in the past based solely on my gender. I know that there are hard times overhead, and change doesn’t happen overnight, but if we don’t try then nothing will ever get better. In tomorrow’s world, people will be able to do whatever they want with their lives, regardless of gender.

 

 

 

Works Cited

Bacchilega, Cristina. Postmodern Fairy Tales : Gender and Narrative Strategies, University of

Pennsylvania Press, 1999. ProQuest Ebook Central,

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/newpaltz-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3441398.

Bénédicte Meillon. “Deconstructing Gender Roles and Digesting the Magic of Folktales and Fairy

Tales in Annie Proulx’s Omnivorous Wyoming Stories.” L’Ordinaire Des Amériques, vol. 224, Institut Pluridisciplinaire pour les Etudes sur l’Amérique Latine, July 2019, doi:10.4000/orda.4868.

Talairach-vielmas, Laurence. “Beautiful Maidens, Hideous Suitors: Victorian Fairy Tales and the

Process of Civilization.” Marvels & Tales, vol. 24, no. 2, Wayne State University Press, Jan. 2010, pp. 272–96.

Westland, Ella. “Cinderella in the Classroom. Children’s Responses to Gender Roles in Fairy-

Tales.” Gender and Education, vol. 5, no. 3, Taylor & Francis Group, Jan. 1993, pp. 237–49, doi:10.1080/0954025930050301.