Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
The way in which women are represented and defined throughout Western culture is leading somewhat of a controversy between the male and female genders. Within the chapter, “Dreams, Fears, Idols”, by Simone de Beauvior, she expands upon the numerous problematic ways in which a woman is represented in these cultures. In most situations within fairytales or short stories, women are portrayed as the “damsel in distress” or the “weak link”, meaning that they are powerless and are always easily captured or in the worse case scenario, murdered. In the original “Little Red Riding Hood” Fairytale, written by Charles Perrault in the 1600s, he takes the approach of expressing how Little Red, a powerless, innocent child roaming the forest is looking to find her grandmother’s house. Whereas, the fairytale “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf”, written by Roald Dahl, takes the approach of the stereotypical Little Red Riding Hood fairytale where Little Red battles the stereotypical “damsel in distress” type female character and shows that she is more powerful than her appearance and age is showing. In this version of the story, Little Red skins the wolf and makes him into a fur coat, which shows that not all females are weak and powerless as they are all hyped up to be. “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” and the points and theories made by Beauvior, suggests that women can be equally superior and heroic to men and that they should not constantly be misjudged by society which makes them seem co-dependent on men, when in reality, they are not.
The way women are represented within most stories, fairytales, films, etc categorizes them as: powerless, unwilling and weak characters. This outlook on women shows our society a negative point of view on women, leading to some complications such as sexism and men bringing up their theory of being misogynists. The Little Red Riding Hood fairytale, on the surface shows an innocent little girl traveling through the
The way in which women are represented and defined throughout Western culture is leading somewhat of a controversy between the male and female genders. Within the chapter, “Dreams, Fears, Idols”, by Simone de Beauvior, she expands upon the numerous problematic ways in which a woman is represented in these cultures. In most situations within fairytales or short stories, women are portrayed as the “damsel in distress” or the “weak link”, meaning that they are powerless and are always easily captured or in the worse case scenario, murdered. In the original “Little Red Riding Hood” Fairytale, written by Charles Perrault in the 1600s, he takes the approach of expressing how Little Red, a powerless, innocent child roaming the forest is looking to find her grandmother’s house. Whereas, the fairytale “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf”, written by Roald Dahl, takes the approach of the stereotypical Little Red Riding Hood fairytale where Little Red battles the stereotypical “damsel in distress” type female character and shows that she is more powerful than her appearance and age is showing. In this version of the story, Little Red skins the wolf and makes him into a fur coat, which shows that not all females are weak and powerless as they are all hyped up to be. “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” and the points and theories made by Beauvior, suggests that women can be equally superior and heroic to men and that they should not constantly be misjudged by society which makes them seem co-dependent on men, when in reality, they are not.
The way women are represented within most stories, fairytales, films, etc categorizes them as: powerless, unwilling and weak characters. This outlook on women shows our society a negative point of view on women, leading to some complications such as sexism and men bringing up their theory of being misogynists. The Little Red Riding Hood fairytale, on the surface shows an innocent little girl traveling through the