by Hastur
From the time we are able to understand language, children in our culture inevitably are introduced to fairy tales. They may be Aesop’s Fables, the works of Hans Christian Andersen, or a variant of the works of Charles Perrault. Through these tales, we are given our first insights into gender identity and the dynamics of male-female relationships.
Through this literary looking glass, we gain our first enculturation into how we should act for our biological gender identity and how we should treat those of the opposite biological gender identity.
But, do we learn from these fairy tales an objective lesson on who we are and who others are, or do we learn a rigid lesson on how to fit in, how to oppress, and how we are supposed to behave? Do men get slotted into being hyper-masculine providers, women into being nurturing, dependent mother-figures, and girls as helpless romantic objects that must be saved?
Some people cannot see how these tales, which supposedly are a product of their time period, affect the current modes of behavior and enculturation. As Suo Na said on the Straight Dope Message Board when asked about fairy tales, “some fairy tales are misogynist; they're a product of their time. If you read them the right way, some are [misandrist] as well (Suo Na).”
Suo Na’s perspective notwithstanding, looking over classical fairy tales inescapably reveals certain motifs within them, and how they perpetuate behavior in our society. It also is easy to see these tales’ target audience.
As Ella Westland states so eloquently in her work on fairy tales, “Historical work on the fairy-tale has shown how far its development depends on the dominant value system of the culture that appropriates it (Westland 238).”
Through the works of Charles Perrault, we receive the tales of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood. In each of these tales is a recurring theme of women/girls and their expected roles in society.
As Little Red Riding Hood begins her story, she is being made into a miniature lady by the virtue of her clothing: “This good woman made her a red hood like the ones fine ladies wore when they go riding. The hood suited the child so much that soon everyone was calling her Little Red Riding Hood (Perrault 23).”
She is sent to her grandmother’s house with food, because her grandmother is ill and can’t cook for herself. As she goes to deliver the food, Little Red Riding Hood makes the “mistake” of talking to a wolf. This leads to the death of the Grandmother, and finally the death of Little Red Riding Hood at the hands (or teeth) of the wolf.
In earlier, non-bowdlerized versions of this story, the wolf’s consumption of Little Red Riding Hood is far more sexual, with the wolf getting the girl to undress for him before the fire and to climb into bed with him before he kills her.
Were this dire outcome not enough in itself, insult is added to injury through the moral:
“Children, especially pretty, nicely brought-up young ladies, ought never to talk to strangers; if they are foolish enough to do so, they should not be surprised if some greedy wolf consumes them, elegant red riding hoods and all."
Now, there are real wolves, with hairy pelts and enormous teeth; but also wolves that seem perfectly charming, sweet-natured and obliging, who pursue young girls in the street and pay them the most flattering of attentions.
Unfortunately, those smooth-tongued, smooth-pelted wolves are the most dangerous beasts of all (Perrault 28).” So, to be a girl or a “young lady,” one must be demure, not talk to strangers, and do as one is told. You must be pretty and nicely brought up — otherwise a “wolf” will consume you and you deserve what you get.
Conversely, men (or “wolves”) cannot help themselves, and if you tempt them by talking to them or by not being a “lady,” they will harm you because they have no self-control. The fairy tale paints men as aggressors and women as helpless victims, with any easily misinterpreted action being seen as a reason to enact rape and torture.
Sleeping Beauty gives different “lessons” on how to be a woman, and what requirements she needs to fulfill to have a happy life. As she is born, she is given gifts by fairy godmothers who grace her with beauty “to be the loveliest woman in the world (Perrault 58),” the disposition of an angel, the grace of a gazelle, the gift of dancing, singing like a nightingale, and the ability to play any musical instrument. (Useful talents, if you want to be a dancing supermodel musician who moonlights as Mother Theresa.)
These “gifts” are confounded by an “old fairy,” who was not invited because as Beauty’s parents had not seen her in fifteen years, they had assumed she was dead. With malice she showed up for this showering of gifts to bestow her own. But as she was poorly treated, her gift was a curse that Beauty should die when a spindle pricked her finger. One of the prettier, younger fairies leapt out from her hiding place behind a tapestry and modified the curse, as she could not destroy it, and made it so Beauty would fall into a deep sleep for one hundred years, at which time she would be wakened by the son of a King.
So, Beauty is tricked into using a spindle, falls asleep, all the servants are put into the same mystical sleep by the fairies at the King’s request, and the King and Queen leave, making sure that no one can get into the castle in the interim. It is at this point we learn the fairy tale’s lesson about class distinctions: It is more important to serve the ruling power structure, which is of course headed by a man, and to go into a hundred-year sleep alongside a narcoleptic girl rather than being assigned to a new job or finding other work.
After one hundred years a prince finds out about Beauty and her situation and he goes off to save her, “fired with thoughts of love and glory (Perrault 63).” He wakes her, and they annoy the servants who, though starving, must wait to eat until the princess stops talking and does so herself. Then the Prince, observing Princess Beauty dressing, realizes she is from a hundred years ago because she is dressed like his grandmother. Of course, as her beauty is so radiant, it doesn’t matter much to him that she has no fashion sense.
In this older version of the Sleeping Beauty tale there is a further twist, and not a happily ever after. A wicked queen, the mother of the Prince, now is introduced. She is kept in the dark (as is the King) about the marriage and she starts to fume, as she is made out to be more observant than her mate and knows exactly what is going on.
When the man formerly known as Prince becomes King, he installs his wife as the Queen, and goes off for a summer to fight a war. This leads to the Queen Mother wanting the Queen Beauty and her children served as an Unhappy Meal™. In Snow White fashion, a way is found around serving human flesh by cooking animals in various savory sauces, the wicked Queen Mother is dispatched, and they live happily ever after.
The moral is as smug and condescending as in the former tale:
“A brave, rich, handsome husband is a prize well worth waiting for; but no modern woman would think it was worth waiting for a hundred years. The tale of the Sleeping Beauty shows how long engagements make for happy marriages, but young girls these days want so much to be married I do not have the heart to press the moral(Perrault 71).”
So to be happy in love, you must wait for the right man and then have a long engagement, but because women want so much to be married, why not patronizingly tell them that their feelings are understandable — a bizarre paradox, as women have been told that they should want to be married, but then are supposed to demurely wait for the exact right time?
Women in this tale either are perfect and pure, or they are evil, vengeful monsters who will resort to cannibalism and curses to bring down that which they can never be.
The virtue of Sleeping Beauty is the standard by which women are judged in this tale. Any woman who falls short of the ideal is doomed to malicious jealousy that has to work itself out in heinous revenge.
After these two tales, Cinderella is a story of a different stripe. We never know the original name of the young woman called Cinderella, only that her wicked stepsisters nickname her Cinderbritches, and the kinder of the two modifies it to Cinderella. She is beautiful, charming, and demure. She does not mention the abusive behavior she suffers at the hands of the new wife and siblings or the filthy menial work she is forced into to her father because “...he would have lost his temper with her. His new wife ruled him with an iron rod (Perrault 84).”
So, we have an emasculated husband who only appears in a small reference at the beginning of the story, and a young woman who is laden with suffering at the hands of a new stepmother and stepsisters who hate her for her “virtues” of beauty, charm, and good nature.
With an impending ball to attend, the sisters ready themselves for it, making Cinderella do their hair and get them dressed, as she has such excellent taste. Cinderella is made ready for the ball by her Fairy Godmother who gives her a gown and glass slippers, and creates for her an entourage of transformed mice, rats, and lizards.
She attends the ball, entrances the prince, and astounds her stepsisters by giving them oranges and lemons. She is so beautiful that her stepsisters do not recognize her, proving that Lois Lane wasn’t a complete imbecile for not figuring out Clark Kent was Superman. Put on the dress and you are a whole new person; put on the rags and be recognized by everyone.
A second ball is happening the next day, at which the same events occur once more, with Cinderella being outfitted into a better dress, proving that Dress for Success isn’t just about corporate life, but about dating in higher echelons as well.
In her haste to leave before midnight, she loses a shoe as she goes gentle into that good night and sends the Prince on a hunt for his perfect woman. He finds her quickly, and because Cinderella is so nice, she hooks her stepsisters up with some second-tier members of the nobility.
One moral was not enough for this story:
“Beauty is a fine thing in a woman, it will always be admired. But charm is beyond price and worth more, in the long run. When her Godmother dressed Cinderella up and told her how to behave at the ball, she instructed her in charm. Lovely ladies, this gift is worth more than a fancy hairdo; to win a heart, to reach a happy ending, charm is the true gift of fairies. Without it, one can achieve nothing; with it, everything (Perrault 95).”
Moral number two:
“It is certainly a great advantage to be intelligent, brave, well-born, sensible and have other similar talents only given by Heaven. But however great may be your god-given store, they will never help you get on in the world unless you have either a godfather or godmother to put them to work for you (Perrault 96).”
So, whatever your gifts, you cannot get along with them in life. You must be a charming woman, but without a godfather or a godmother, you will never gain entry into polite society, and if you are deprived of these things, you must be content in the caste into which you were born.
Of course, this rampant pile of patriarchal sexism — like Sleeping Beauty before it — and the next example have been adapted as Disney animated films. The concerns of parents in exposing their children to such cultural gender training should not go unnoticed:
“‘Cinderella’ was one of the breakthrough films of its time, with some great animation work. However, I hardly see it as a "classic fairy tale." It's certainly not a very inspiring story. What lesson does it teach? Stick around through suffering which you have no right to suffer, and your fairy godmother will come and save you. If you're going to show it to your kids, try waiting it out a bit until he, she, or they are old enough to distinguish between fantasy and reality. That, or hope that you're a darn good parent(Lafaurie Internet).”
In Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” we have a young mer-woman named Ariel who falls in love with a land-walking Prince. She sacrifices her people and her tail and goes after him with no voice to try and win him. In the fairy tale, she dies, being told that as she has not married a man she has no soul (Andersen 105). In the Disney adaptation, she gets her man and lives happily ever after.
Many parents and feminists were bothered by this image of womanhood, including a Canadian who calls herself “mirrors”:
“As an adult viewer, I have to say I was (sic)dissapointed with this movie when I saw it recently on video. If I had kids, I wouldn't be overeager to share this with them — but kids like what they like. What stuck in my craw the most was the storyline of Ariel thinking she needed to give up her family, home under the sea, and a part of her body for this guy (okay, he's a Prince and "The Love of Her Life," yadda, yadda, yadda...). Maybe it's just the (sic)millenium talking, but it's not a message that needs to be promoted to all the little girls out there(mirrors Internet).”
In fairy tales, a woman has to sacrifice her identity and her desires to have a man, who invariably must save her. Many parents are concerned about these images, which perpetuate misunderstanding and gender stereotyping which they do not want passed on to their children through the viewing of these deceptively innocuous-seeming images.
In his article, “Ariel Anonymous,” Lawrence Jack Cohen comments on this issue:
“According to the official Disney book, Ariel is 16, "the age when a mermaid was supposed to be thinking about marrying a merboy and settling down." In the worst scene, Prince Eric has to fall in love with the mute Ariel in three days in order for her to remain a human and stay on land forever. She has given up her voice to try her hand at this romantic roulette, even though failure means eternal servitude to the sea witch. Sound familiar to any of you women out there? Anyway, he has to prove his love with the kiss of true love, but he's shy and she's mute. So what's a prince to do? Along comes the movie's hit song with the answer: "You don't need to say a word, just kiss the girl. . . . Yes you want her; possibly she wants you, too. There is one way to ask her. You don't need a single word, not a word, you've got to kiss the girl."
And to think I've been wasting my time as a psychologist trying to get rapists and child molesters and plain old guys to a) stay away from 16 year olds, b) talk before kissing, and c) don't be an idiot and assume that the person you want to kiss wants to kiss you, too. Silly me. This film is probably banned at Antioch, but most three-year-old girls have seen it dozens of times. We don't even have a VCR, and my daughter has still seen it countless times. And yes, it's a girl's movie. Her male peers are into Peter Pan, Batman, and that construction video. The new Disney message is clearly aimed at girls, perhaps because the New Feminism must be countered by the New Sexism (Cohen 43).”
So, at a radical extreme, we can point to fairy tales (and the modified Disney-fication of them) to lead to a potential of date rape, child molestation, and a host of other crimes. Were more people to think about these potential ramifications, would our culture continue to see fairy tales as innocuous?
Throughout these fairy tales mentioned, and far more that were not covered, there are repeating themes which enforce rigid gender-based standards of behavior for women and men which supports the patriarchy and makes feminism a necessity.
Men must be strong, bold, and willing to inflict themselves on women to win them. Women must be beautiful, self-effacing, demure, and charming if they hope to land a man and marry him after a long engagement. As so many in our culture are reared on these oppressive and virulent fairy tales, and those who don’t are assailed by the more patriarchal Disney versions, is it any wonder that until educated otherwise we consider such behavior to be appropriate? It is only by deconstructing these images, pointing out their fallacies, and replacing them with more balanced works that we can hope to effect change in future generations of men and women.
Bibliography
Aidman, Amy “Disney’s ‘Pocahontas’: Conversations with Native American and Euro-American Girls.” International Communication Conference May 27-31, 1999: 28p
Andersen, Hans Christian Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales. Trans. L.W. Kingsland. Great Britain: Oxford Press, 1984
Bettelheim, Bruno The Uses Of Enchantment New York: Knopf, 1976
Cohen, Lawrence Jack “Ariel Anonymous.” Mothering Fall 1995: 42-46
Lafaurie, Ricardo A. “Great animation, sure. Great film? Hardly.” Internet Movie Database http://us.imdb.com/CommentsShow?42332 July 2, 1999. Accessed: November 23, 2000.
mirrors “not as good as I expected” Internet Movie Database http://us.imdb.com/CommentsShow?97757 -24 September 7, 2000. Accessed: November 23, 2000.
Perrault, Charles Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, Trans. Angela Carter. NY, NY: Avon Books, 1979
Suo Na “Women of the SDMB: Do you think fairy tales are misogynist?” Straight Dope Message Board http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=46215, November 13, 2000. Accessed: November 25, 2000
Westland, Ella “Cinderella In The Classroom: Children’s Responses To Gender Roles In Fairy-Tales.” Gender and Education 1993, Vol 5 Issue 3: 237-250