Little Red Riding Hood Gender Roles

A child’s most impressionable years are the preschool years. During these years children become exposed to a variety of gender roles through television shows and fairy tales. In children’s literature, the roles of men and women are almost always stereotypically simple; women are weak princesses, and they need men to rescue them. These ideas have been copied and engraved into children’s minds for generation to generation. These gender roles, however, can provoke children to emulate the way these characters behave and deal with situations that arise within the stories they read. In the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood” from the Brothers Grimm, the gender roles of men and women are definitive, and the young children reading this novel can be
Already, the reader is presented with the gender stereotype that young girls must listen their mothers, As the mother warns her daughter not to stray from the path. But along her way, Little Red Riding Hood comes across a wolf, who sees that Little Red would make an enjoyable meal. The Wolf lured Little Red to from the path to distract her so that The Wolf may find his way her grandmother’s house. With Little Red distracted, The Wolf rapidly makes his way to grandmother’s house and feeds on her. Now, Little Red had defied her mother, and was somewhere she should not belong. Little Red then is swindled by The Wolf and devoured. These all play into the gender stereotypes that women are vulnerable and lack obedience and men take advantage of that. The moral of the story seems to be, if little girls do not listen to their mothers, do not stay on the path, and are fooled by wolves, disobedient little girls will be eaten. The gender roles and stereotypes in “Little Red Riding Hood” may be corrupting to young girls, but in comparison to the gender roles of men in the story, it seems that males can have all the