Gender Stereotypes In Fairy Tales

Frozen is one of the Disney fairy tales that shows women as powerful and can make their own decisions and aren't dependent on men and both genders are strong and powerful and do not overpower each other and is written by a female, but the fairy tales that are written by men are presented differently. It is evident that males are more dominating and have more power and the females are presented as weak and have no voice/opinion. That being said in the fairy tale “Cinderella” written by Charles Perrault a man, has men be the more dominant gender in the fairy tale. He uses the men to show that men have power over the women. Furthermore he does not show the same type of dominance when it comes to woman but makes the women less than the men and makes them look cruel, passive, greedy, nurturing, powerless, and not able to make decisions on their own.
Cinderella analysis: Fairy tales are fabricated stories in which improbable events lead to a happy ending.
In this and in many other fairy tales throughout history, women are portrayed as being inferior to men. Children being quite impressionable, begin to believe that they must dress and act a certain way in order to gain interest of a man or be considered the ideal woman, therefore that is why fairy tales are guided towards children because they want girls to grow up and think that in ordered to be happy or successful you need a man. This classic Disney movie, Cinderella may seem like an innocent love story of a girl whose dreams come true and falls in love with a prince. Cinderella established the idea that women have to depend on a man in a time of
need.
The fairy godmother was used in Cinderella to show the way women feel in society. The fairy godmother turns Cinderella’s rags into a ball gown because who wants a woman that wears rags. The fairy godmother enforces the idea that men only want beautiful women and the only way women are beautiful is if they are dressed well and put together.

Next we have the prince who immediately notices Cinderella because of her beauty. As they dance throughout the night the prince “falls in love” with Cinderella ironically without even saying one word to her. Cinderella glass slipper is the only thing the prince has to find his true love by letting her put the glass slipper on and decides to marry her because the shoe fits.

Lastly, Cinderella’s family. Cinderella is shown to be innocent, nurturing and is the ideal women for the men. Charles Perrault makes Cinderella’s step sisters cruel and greedy, showing that there are only two types of women. At the beginning of the movie you see Cinderella being abused by her stepmother and sisters and being forced to do traditional woman task such as cleaning the house and cooking for her family. Cinderella is established to be the innocent girl who is mistreated and needs a way to escape. This is where the prince comes in. Even though Cinderella accepts the prince’s proposal not because she is “ in love” but, in fact, to escape her abusive home life of being a slave.

Cinderella is not just a fairy tale of dreams coming true for an innocent girl. It is a story about the control and power by the men. This story also is about women being dependent on men to escape their problems. By taking a closer look into fairy tales, like Cinderella you see that they are not just stories of women whose dreams come true, but that they what people in today’s society see in women.