Annalise Puntorno, Verrazano Class of 2019, Completed Major in Childhood Education (1-6), with a Minor in HistoryMy project was about the evolution of fairy tales during recent years and its influence delving into the representation of women in fairy tales and literature. I learned about the purpose of fairy tales throughout history and the how they reflected their current society. In classical fairy tales, women are represented as helpless, weak, unintelligent, and dependent on men. Through this recent decade and with the rise of feminism, fairy tales are now representing women as the hero or more independent.
Society is often reflected in literature. For example in the Victorian Era, women were portrayed as very dependent on men and they were written as if a women’s life’s purpose was to find a man and get married. A women’s stance in historical society had no economic freedom or a say in the community. This is seen in the classical version of Disney's “Sleeping Beauty”. Aurora sleeps her life away until a prince kisses her, symbolizing women being passive in society until they get married.
Throughout history, fairy tales were used to teach lessons to society. For example, Snow White teaches society not to be vain and that there are consequences to vanity and selfishness. This fairy tale also represents women as unintelligent and dependent on men because Snow White lived with the dwarfs, but her true love came to wake her up from the curse. It is also representative of the value of beauty in society and how it was important to women.
In present day, there are progressive fairy tales such as “Mulan”, a princess and the hero in the story. Mulan did not need a man to save her; instead she fought in a war, defended her country and made her family proud. “Frozen” is another shift in the common motifs of fairy tales. In “Frozen”, Elsa was not saved by love from a man but from her sister. The is very progressive because usually a fairy tale ends with the princess finding their true love. This show cases that girls do not need a man to be happy.
Fairy tales are presented to children to engage their imagination and develop their love for reading, and I learned how teachers can incorporate fairy tales in the classroom. A social studies lesson about a country or a time period can discuss how a fairy tale shows the history and culture of the society. Fairy tales send a direct message to children. Classical fairy tales instilled the idea of needing to find a husband, and being dependent on someone else. However, current fairy tales encourage girls to be whatever they want to be. Girls no longer have to be kept in a box and thought of as the damsel in distress. Fairy tales are now showing that girls can also be the hero and be strong. This presents the message of female empowerment to children at a young age. Not only do the girls learn that they can be anything they want to be but boys can see women being portrayed as powerful, which discourages the ideas of gender bias for generations to come.
Fairy tales are presented to children to engage their imagination and develop their love for reading, and I learned how teachers can incorporate fairy tales in the classroom. A social studies lesson about a country or a time period can discuss how a fairy tale shows the history and culture of the society. Fairy tales send a direct message to children. Classical fairy tales instilled the idea of needing to find a husband, and being dependent on someone else. However, current fairy tales encourage girls to be whatever they want to be. Girls no longer have to be kept in a box and thought of as the damsel in distress. Fairy tales are now showing that girls can also be the hero and be strong. This presents the message of female empowerment to children at a young age. Not only do the girls learn that they can be anything they want to be but boys can see women being portrayed as powerful, which discourages the ideas of gender bias for generations to come.
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