Gender Stereotypes in Fairytales

Gender Stereotypes in Fairytales

In The Little Mermaid, who provides Ariel with a shelter and future life of luxury? Prince Eric. In Cinderella, who brings her out of rags and into riches? Prince Charming. In The Sleeping Beauty, who awakens Aurora from her wretched curse and saves the day? Prince Phillip. Seeing a common trend? Fairy tales are a child's world of imagination and pleasure, but they also provide a source of inspiration and role models. Do we really want to teach young children that women are weak and vulnerable and only succeed when a man intervenes? Especially now that our present society is shifting to be more tolerant of a diverse array of lifestyles. These fairy tales became part of popular culture when they were adapted to the silver screen during the 20th century, a time when many minorities were striving for equality. Surprisingly, even today, you can see similar themes. Take Twilight, for example -- a great example of a 21st century teenage girl-crazed phenomenon. Twilight represents the idea of a girl's dependency on strong, capable men. Bella, the main character, is a weak and clumsy human, which requires her vampire boyfriend Edward and werewolf friend Jacob to constantly come to her rescue.

Both men and women have a tendency to make assumptions that women belong in specific types of jobs. Psychologists have performed experiments and studies to support this concept. They had a mixed group of girls and boys, and asked them to write "female" or "male" to a list of job occupations and personality traits. Most of the secretary, assistant, or housework was categorized under "female" while lawyers, CEOs, and higher-up positions were designated to "males." Same held true when testing for personality traits. The dominant, loud traits were more likely to be considered masculine attributes while comforting, warm traits were viewed as feminine. This cultural belief that women are "soft" or "need support" or are in some other way inferior beings may be far less apparent than in...

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