Folklore Analysis: Selected Topics in Industrial and Organizational Psychology
FOLKLORE ANALYSIS
Selected Topics in Industrial and Organizational Psychology
LIVING A FAIRY TALE LIFE
This analysis will be on the topic of folklore, including the interpretation of fairy tales and proverbs and their relation towards gender-role stereotypes. I. Insinuations of differential treatment men and women receive in Fairy tales Fairy tales are known for generations, and are most likely past from generation to generation. People assume that these stories are written especially for children. But many of these so-called fairy tales do have a clear double meaning and often a deeper meaning than you would suggest when reading it out loud to children. The stories are interesting for children, since they can identify themselves with the ‘good’ characters and this makes it easy for them to remember the ‘moral’ lessons to be learned. Which basically is to separate the good from the bad/evil. Furthermore, what can be identified when assessing fairy tales is that there is a clear usage of stereo- typing. The first division is made between good and bad/evil and men and women. Simply by showing which actions are socially accepted and which are not, to show what is moral and what is not. Second, is that the characters of both female and male are very superficial and shallow. The good girl is kind, beautiful, good looking, naïve, never gets angry, and she takes bad/sad situations for granted. The male person is always handsome and makes sure the girl ends up being happy. A third character is the bad/evil person, which basically is an ugly person, or might be good-looking, but will have no good intentions and wants to harm the good. In the end the evil always get punished and the good will conquer the bad. In the following section I will examine two well-known fairy tales to identify gender discrimination or differential treatment of men and women. Therefore, I choose Cinderella and Snow White. First is Cinderella, which tells the story of a girl named
Selected Topics in Industrial and Organizational Psychology
LIVING A FAIRY TALE LIFE
This analysis will be on the topic of folklore, including the interpretation of fairy tales and proverbs and their relation towards gender-role stereotypes. I. Insinuations of differential treatment men and women receive in Fairy tales Fairy tales are known for generations, and are most likely past from generation to generation. People assume that these stories are written especially for children. But many of these so-called fairy tales do have a clear double meaning and often a deeper meaning than you would suggest when reading it out loud to children. The stories are interesting for children, since they can identify themselves with the ‘good’ characters and this makes it easy for them to remember the ‘moral’ lessons to be learned. Which basically is to separate the good from the bad/evil. Furthermore, what can be identified when assessing fairy tales is that there is a clear usage of stereo- typing. The first division is made between good and bad/evil and men and women. Simply by showing which actions are socially accepted and which are not, to show what is moral and what is not. Second, is that the characters of both female and male are very superficial and shallow. The good girl is kind, beautiful, good looking, naïve, never gets angry, and she takes bad/sad situations for granted. The male person is always handsome and makes sure the girl ends up being happy. A third character is the bad/evil person, which basically is an ugly person, or might be good-looking, but will have no good intentions and wants to harm the good. In the end the evil always get punished and the good will conquer the bad. In the following section I will examine two well-known fairy tales to identify gender discrimination or differential treatment of men and women. Therefore, I choose Cinderella and Snow White. First is Cinderella, which tells the story of a girl named