As a contributing writer for the New York Times, Peggy Orenstein stresses in her article, Cinderella and Princess Culture, that the "princess craze" and "girlie-girl" culture is ruining young girls as they feel constantly pressured to be perfect. Orenstein also recognizes the fact that large companies like Disney are responsible for pushing the princess craze.…
In The Woman in Fairy Tales, Marie-Louise von Franz studies the feminine representations in fairy tales. She bases her study on collective symbols assumed to be present in these stories to shed light on the various facets of the anima. This book points at the fact that even if fairy tales are generally seen as a form of distraction, these stories have also a psychological function which expresses the psychic processes of the collective unconscious. This is of a capital interest to analyze the instrumentalization of the princesses in the advertising campaigns.…
Virtually everyone has heard many kinds of fairy tales at some points especially in their childhood. Fairy tales are not only for entertaining, but also for passing down information. Tales and stories have been used as a valuable tool to explain natural phenomena, explored relationships, and teach morals. Tales can mirror and influence society. Different cultures have their unique version of tales to carry and pass down the needs of their particular society to the next generation. The same tale in the Europe is different from the tale told in Canada. Both Cyrus Macmillan and Charles Perrault’s “Cinderella” tales describe Cinderella as a gentle and beautiful young lady. Cinderella in both versions had a tough life at the beginning that her sister treated her very cruelly, yet she received a good marriage at the end because of her good characters. However, those two versions have difference. In Macmillan’s “Cinderella”, the author focuses on the character of protagonist. The warrior married Cinderella because she had spoken truth. In Perrault version, the prince fell in love with Cinderella because of her beautiful appearance although the story was also emphasis on her good character. Overall, both versions of Cinderella were stressed on her inside and outside beauties, which make her had a biggest reward.…
Poniewozik begins by stating that it is a nightmare for the young girls wanting to be princesses today. Society expects every little girl wants to be a princess. Poniewozik blames Hollywood for this. It’s true in recent decades that Hollywood has produced quite a few cinderella stories and also many other fairy-tail type projects. It’s not a bad thing for them to do this because they’re making a large profit off these projects. Princess fairytale stories and movies are surprisingly popular today. Poniewozik claims that we have come a long way from the girls-kick-ass-culture of just a few years ago (Poniewozik 666).…
In the author's article he presents the idea that girls should follow a more independent manner rather than the stereotype of princess who needs saving in modern films. With evidence from movies like Ella Enchanted where the princess is escaping the binds of having to marry her prince, rather than wait to be saved by her prince it is clear the author supports more feminist themes for modern fairytales.…
Media plays an important role in the depiction and construction of gender. Several studies exist which have focused on gender role portrayals and gender stereotyping appearing in the media. Considering this phenomenon, gender stereotyping is not only displayed in commercials or other television programs, but these can also be found in media products directed towards children. One of the issues , which is of great interest to many researchers is that even fairy tales, like cartoons and animation films, present male and female characters portrayed stereotypically (Robinson et al. 2006:203). Fairy tales have been the first kind of literature with which children…
Fairytales: when someone says that word, the first thing that might come up in your mind is probably kid’s reading Cinderella. Fairytales’ simplicity and accuracy in delivering a moral to young kids and adults is wonderful. We’d give an adult a eerie look if we caught them reading a kids book on the train to themselves. The reason behind our thought is cause it’s a kids book why would an adult read it but behind all this is the difference of interpreting stories for adults and children. Stories like Juniper Tree, Snow White, and Little Red Cap include hidden messages through violence and imagery and dialogue. Fairy tales teach children how to grasp the meaning and power behind storytelling. In this paper I will discuss the vast ways in which a child and adult interpret fairytales. Its…
From dazzling dresses, to happy ever afters, the Walt Disney corporation has little girls around the wold choosing princess as their future occupation. What the fairy godmothers left to tell us, is that the gender stereotypes depicted in these motion pictures are the poison apples girls are being fed. It’s time that we gaze behind the twirling creatures and the enchanted lands, to realize that the princesses shown are not the best role models for little girls.…
Samara Green in the article, Fairy tales and Gender Stereotypes, written on February 14, 2014 claims that people are taught gender stereotypes when they read or listen to certain texts. Green supports her claim by providing examples of gender stereotypes such as: The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Twilight. The author’s purpose is to inform the readers that gender stereotypes are taught through texts in order to show people that if they want to change gender stereotypes, then they need to change the readings people are surrounded by. The author writes in a contemptuous tone for adults to change what types of readings they are surrounding younger adults and children…
For the past several years, I have been a babysitter for a little girl by the name of Magnolia. She and I have developed a clockwork schedule of our time spent together. Four o'clock we play princesses, five o'clock we eat, six o'clock we play princesses again, and by eight o'clock I am reading a story to her while she drifts away dreaming of faraway kingdoms. My favorite part is always story time; when her little hands eagerly shove her now tattered copy of Cinderella into my own. I always suggest another story, perhaps the Velveteen Rabbit, or Rainbow Fish, but to her her bedtime story is not complete without a princess, a brave knight, and a happy ending. These once upon a time’s are all that dominate…
The introduction of the book The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim focused on the benefits of fairytales on child development. Bettelheim talks about how important developing the child's imagination is. Developing the imagination allows children to process what they see in the world and process what they hear in stories. This gives them a good grasp on their conscience (11-12). Fairy tales allows for children to learn about problems in the real world and ways to deal with them. Bettelheim says that there is a fine line between a story holding a child's attention and not; the story must be entertaining but by arousing their imagination…
Fairy tales always used “once upon a time in a kingdom far far away” as the beginning of the story, thought very simple but this sentence is actually very important to a fairy tale because it makes every thing about the story divorced from the reality and allow things impossible in real life, such as talking animal present in the story. Especially for fairy tales, animal personification is a very important part. In my story, the folks in the village are animal and human, they are equal, thrive together, sharing the land, however human is the master of the world in the reality, so I need to put that sentence to lead my readers to a different world. In addition, the main characters are not prince and princess so I used a “village” rather than a “kingdom”. I think this sentence had added some feelings of mystery into my…
Stereotype. Stereotypical. Stereotyping. All are words I’m sure we all have heard. A question I have asked myself is “Why do stereotypes exist and more importantly, why do they matter?” A stereotype is an oversimplified image of a person, place, or object. George Takei, a Japanese actor, once said “If we allow ourselves to judge another based on a stereotype, we have allowed a generalization to replace our own thinking.” So why do we allow ourselves, as people, to judge one another based on a stereotype? The answer is we shouldn’t.…
Fairy tales have portrayed woman in different aspects: admirable and abominable. The underlying messages in these stories convey the praise and adulation of beauty not only externally but also internally (Nanda, 2014). Through both tales Cinderella’s beauty is commonly knowing and spoken throughout the entire tale. Cinderella is told to be “a young daughter, but of unparalleled sweetness of temper” (Perreault 16) she is viewed above all else in Perreault’s tale the Little Glass Slipper as she could not be anymore…
It is no secret women's roles have changed but, no one seems to notice they have also changed our fairy tales. Over the years fairy tales have evolved making women play many roles, some submissive others assertive; the females in Little Snow-White and Beauty and The Beast portray these roles as reflections of the times in which they were created. Written in the 1800’s Little Snow-White personifies the submissive roles assigned to women at the time. In this time period being a housewife is typical and expected of a woman. "If you will keep house for us, and cook, make beds, wash, sew, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can stay with us, and you shall have everything that you want"(Grimm’s 57)…