Fairy tales might be a bad influence on women, whose roles are less liberated in most fairy tales.
The woman's portion of the story involves staying trapped in the castle and awaiting her rescue – much as once women would once have stayed at home with their parents until they met a man who could support them. Today though things are different and women are expected to have the same 'hero's journey' as men – and to live life as they choose and pursue a career and go traveling and do all the other things that men do. It could be that children who read fairy tales a lot end up with out-dated views of the woman's role and this could potentially have a negative impact on their ambition and their eventual life outcome.
Some studies have suggested that girls who read a lot of fairy tales or have a lot of them read to them have lower self images than others. This could also be because of the conventional image of the princess – of being slim and beautiful and attracting men from around the world – like sleeping beauty, 'Bell' from Beauty and the Beast.
Another problem that some might find with fairy tales is that they are often far removed from reality. Many women end up waiting out for their man that fits the image of 'Prince Charming' and who will ride in on a steed and rescue them – whereas the reality is often a beer-guzzling sports fan. - can lead to something like dissatisfaction.
Fairy tales can be somewhat scary for young children and that they often contain quite horrific images and scenes.
Many of the fairy tales we think we know – such as 'The Little Mermaid' – are in fact based on stories by the Brother's Grimm and originally these stories were much less 'Hollywood' and had rather depressing endings.
- Elizabeth Danish.
No comments:
Post a Comment