The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children's Fairy Tales by Lori Baker-Sperry and Liz Grauerholz
The research for this scholarly article specifically looked at fairy tales written by the Grimm brothers to investigate the pervasiveness of beauty, and see how this idea of beauty has shifted over time. Most of the stories that Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz chose, were stories that have manifested into the media world and have developed into different movies or versions of children books today (Disney franchise). Provided in the bullet points below, are important facts that were mentioned in the article, that I believe should be carefully looked at and taken into consideration:
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The Production of Meaning through Peer Interaction: Children and Walt Disney's Cinderella by Lori Baker-Sperry
As much as I wanted to keep the focus on traditional fairy/folk tales, I think it's important to also discuss personal experience and interaction with younger children, and their perceptions of fairy tales, specifically looking at Disney's Cinderella. In this scholarly article, Baker-Sperry spent a significant amount of time interviewing multiple first graders during their reading groups, and of course they were reading Cinderella, the Disney version. Through her interview, it was an eye opener to hear the children's answers about Cinderella, and how their answers really reflected gender roles portrayed in America. Here are the most important parts of the article:
Isabel: Very, very, very beautiful.
Shelly: She probably looks very pretty with blond hair [touches her brown hair] and blue eyes. [touching near her own brown eyes]
Isabel: I have blond hair [touching her hair] and blue eyes! [Shelly swats Isabel]"(722).
As we can see, girls at the age of 6 or 7 are already picking up on the importance of beauty in fairy tales, they even start comparing their own looks to the main character.
LBS: The book does not say; what do you think?
Kristi: She should have babies, and she will change diapers, right?
LBS: If they have babies, do you think the prince will change diapers?
Chorus: No!"(722)
At the age of 6 and 7, children are already fully aware of stereotypical gender roles. By reading stories and watching movies of princesses, children believe that is how it should be. The
Mike: Shoes.
Larry: Glass shoes.
Chorus: Glass slippers!
Larry: It looks like a glass dress!! I wish it were a glass dress!
Larry: Ha! It would be funny if it was...
Mike: And then we could see...
LBS: All right. Her slippers are the only clothing item made of glass."(723)
LBS: I have a couple of quick questions for you, do you mind answering?
[No comment]
LBS: What is the Prince like?
Matt: Stupid.
Ben: Dumb.
Brian: A dummy.
Jeremy: He got in a coach crash.
LBS: Why?
Matt: Because he does not even love her.
LBS: Why?
Matt: [in a gruff voice] Because she is rotten to the core!...
LBS: What is Cinderella like?
Chorus: Dumb.
LBS: Nice or mean?
Ben: She is a cleaning lady.
Matt: She loves me.
LBS: I did not know she had ever met you. [Boys laugh]"(724)
It was apparent that girls were more effected by the story, rather than boys. It is important to point out though, that girls paid close attention to not only what Cinderella looked liked, but they compared her life to their life. Gender roles were also very apparent, when the girls said that a Prince would never change their babies diapers. Even though this article didn't specifically look at the original Grimm stories, it's important to point out that the emphasis on beauty in the story has been passed down from each generation, as well as gender roles, and this is why fairy tales are becoming so damaging for a society that has slowly started slipping out of gender roles. With this being said, I thought it would be great to look at a article/study of what children thought and/or took away from a modern fairy tale, and the results were impressive:
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Children's Reflections on Gender Equality in Fairy Tales: A Rwanda Case Study by Pierre Canisius Ruterana
In this scholarly article, Ruterana discusses the gender roles that play out in children's books, most specifically in fairy tales. His main study is done in Rwanda; gender equality has been made a major goal by the government. This policy that the government has come up with ensures that young girls receive primary, secondary, and tertiary education. Not only that, but the government is working to develop equal opportunities for both women and men. With this taken into consideration, Ruterana looks at how gender roles are portrayed in children books of Rwanda.
The research for this scholarly article specifically looked at fairy tales written by the Grimm brothers to investigate the pervasiveness of beauty, and see how this idea of beauty has shifted over time. Most of the stories that Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz chose, were stories that have manifested into the media world and have developed into different movies or versions of children books today (Disney franchise). Provided in the bullet points below, are important facts that were mentioned in the article, that I believe should be carefully looked at and taken into consideration:
- Fairy tales written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were intended to teach girls and young women how to become "domesticated, respectable, and attractive to a marriage partner and to teach boys and girls appropriate gendered values and attitudes" (714).
- 94% of the tales that were looked at, made some statement of physical appearance, and the average number of times for one story was 13.6. Men were 6.0 and women were 7.6 (717).
- Beauty=goodness, while ugly=evil/wicked, with that being said "31% of all stories associate beauty with goodness, and 17 percent associate ugliness with evil"(718).
- Most beauty is rewarded in Grimm's tales, but it has also been a source of danger. "Of the tales in which danger or harm is associated with physical attractiveness (28% of all tales), 89% involve harm to women. 40% of these acts of victimization are the direct result of the character's physical appearance"(719).
- 17% of the stories are linked between beauty and jealousy, such as Snow White and Cinderella.
- Of the 168 tales that were analyzed, "43 (25.6%) have been reproduced in children's books or movies"(720).
- Beauty is likely associated with being white, privileged, and virtuous..."This finding suggests that both men and women are being increasingly manipulated by media messages concerning attractiveness, a trend that is undoubtedly linked to efforts to boost consumerism"(721).
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The Production of Meaning through Peer Interaction: Children and Walt Disney's Cinderella by Lori Baker-Sperry
As much as I wanted to keep the focus on traditional fairy/folk tales, I think it's important to also discuss personal experience and interaction with younger children, and their perceptions of fairy tales, specifically looking at Disney's Cinderella. In this scholarly article, Baker-Sperry spent a significant amount of time interviewing multiple first graders during their reading groups, and of course they were reading Cinderella, the Disney version. Through her interview, it was an eye opener to hear the children's answers about Cinderella, and how their answers really reflected gender roles portrayed in America. Here are the most important parts of the article:
- Baker-Sperry provided the interaction/interview with a group of girls, while she was reading Cinderella, and this is what happened: "The girls sometimes seemed envious of Cinderella. For example, one girl asked, with a voice full of anxiousness, how Cinderella got to be so beautiful, and stated that she wanted to be as beautiful as Cinderella. Even at age 6, a girl knows that beauty is rewarded in our society. LBS is the author.
Isabel: Very, very, very beautiful.
Shelly: She probably looks very pretty with blond hair [touches her brown hair] and blue eyes. [touching near her own brown eyes]
Isabel: I have blond hair [touching her hair] and blue eyes! [Shelly swats Isabel]"(722).
As we can see, girls at the age of 6 or 7 are already picking up on the importance of beauty in fairy tales, they even start comparing their own looks to the main character.
- This was the most striking part of the article for me:
LBS: The book does not say; what do you think?
Kristi: She should have babies, and she will change diapers, right?
LBS: If they have babies, do you think the prince will change diapers?
Chorus: No!"(722)
At the age of 6 and 7, children are already fully aware of stereotypical gender roles. By reading stories and watching movies of princesses, children believe that is how it should be. The
- While Baker-Spery interviewed groups of boys, one thing became very clear, the boys didn't care to stay on topic when question were asked, because it was a "girl book." Here were some of their responses when interviews by Baker-Sperry:
Mike: Shoes.
Larry: Glass shoes.
Chorus: Glass slippers!
Larry: It looks like a glass dress!! I wish it were a glass dress!
Larry: Ha! It would be funny if it was...
Mike: And then we could see...
LBS: All right. Her slippers are the only clothing item made of glass."(723)
LBS: I have a couple of quick questions for you, do you mind answering?
[No comment]
LBS: What is the Prince like?
Matt: Stupid.
Ben: Dumb.
Brian: A dummy.
Jeremy: He got in a coach crash.
LBS: Why?
Matt: Because he does not even love her.
LBS: Why?
Matt: [in a gruff voice] Because she is rotten to the core!...
LBS: What is Cinderella like?
Chorus: Dumb.
LBS: Nice or mean?
Ben: She is a cleaning lady.
Matt: She loves me.
LBS: I did not know she had ever met you. [Boys laugh]"(724)
It was apparent that girls were more effected by the story, rather than boys. It is important to point out though, that girls paid close attention to not only what Cinderella looked liked, but they compared her life to their life. Gender roles were also very apparent, when the girls said that a Prince would never change their babies diapers. Even though this article didn't specifically look at the original Grimm stories, it's important to point out that the emphasis on beauty in the story has been passed down from each generation, as well as gender roles, and this is why fairy tales are becoming so damaging for a society that has slowly started slipping out of gender roles. With this being said, I thought it would be great to look at a article/study of what children thought and/or took away from a modern fairy tale, and the results were impressive:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Children's Reflections on Gender Equality in Fairy Tales: A Rwanda Case Study by Pierre Canisius Ruterana
In this scholarly article, Ruterana discusses the gender roles that play out in children's books, most specifically in fairy tales. His main study is done in Rwanda; gender equality has been made a major goal by the government. This policy that the government has come up with ensures that young girls receive primary, secondary, and tertiary education. Not only that, but the government is working to develop equal opportunities for both women and men. With this taken into consideration, Ruterana looks at how gender roles are portrayed in children books of Rwanda.
- "In fairy tales male characters have been portrayed as being strong, potent, and powerful, with mastery themes such as cleverness and adventure, whereas female character were portrayed as impotent, weak, passive, naïve, even sweet, with second sex themes such as beauty, gentility, domesticity, marriage, emotions, motherhood, and so on"(89).
- Ruterana argues that stereotypical characteristics can be harmful for children, in the sense that it can limit both boys and girls of their realization of their own potential and expectations. (89)
- Studies on children's literature actually show that this misconception that boys and girls are expected to act a certain way is damaging to children, "gender stereotypes depicting girls as weak, passive, and beautiful deprive them of a range of strong, alternative role models, which only increases inferiority complex in girls. However, as the situation stands in this century, women are encouraged to be independent and rely on their brains rather than beauty. Similarly, male portrayals of lacking emotions, fear, and so on, pressures boys in many ways to behave in this way"(89).
- When Ruterana conducted his study, he based it off the Rwanda's main fairy tale "Ndabaga." A story of tradition, when every man has to go to the king's camp where he can only be replaced by his son or die there (so, having a son is every families goal). Ndabaga, the main female character, has always wanted to know where her father went, which she finally finds out (he's at the king's camp). So, she starts learning skills meant only for boys. She then disguises herself as a boy, goes to the camp and says she is there for her father, her father is released and she lives there as a boy. One day, the other men in the village find out she’s actually a female, they run and tell the king. The king demands she tell her side of the story, she does, and the king is so impressed with her that he marries her.
- With all that being said, Ruterana interviews multiple classrooms of different ages, and one response was: "We girls should forget the traditional ways of thinking that certain activities were meant for boys and others for girls. We were all born equal capacities and we can compete equally in any activity(GR6)." Another response, "Gender awareness in Rwanda has made it in our families, parents have comes to understand that their sons are not anymore more important than their daughters"(93).
- What was so positive about this study was that both girls and boys agreed that Ndabaga was a courageous girl, and they agreed that tales like these prove that males and females are capable of doing anything, gender was not a factor. One student even said, "Females should stop thinking of themselves as weak; unable to do some things males do because Ndabaga and many other women have proven they could, and she performed even better than men"(96).
