Kevin Rutledge

Professor(s) Voisard & Hoehne

FIQWS Fairy Tales and Rewritings & Composition

9 November 2019

It’s 10 P.M. Do You Know What Your Children Believe?

We, being civilized people have decided that if we are to live alongside each other peacefully, there is a set amount of guidelines we must follow. There’s a lot to remember, ranging from the morbid topic of murder to the lighthearted concept of being kind to one another. As such, we have a multitude of options to not only teach our following generations but remind us of what they are. Of course, time passes and our values, guidelines, and thoughts change, so do our forms of teaching these values. The message of movies, literature, and news outlets all change to fit our current view of the world and the things in it. However, there is one thing that always seems to stay the same and continue to display for all to see, despite all these years of new ideas and beliefs. This “thing” is fairytales. But perhaps it’s time for that to change. 

Before we discuss the underlying problems in fairytales, we must try to understand why this genre of literature has been able to stand the test of time and remain popular. Unless you’re a history fanatic or a philosophy major, likely, you won’t read any of Descartes’ Meditations, despite what they can teach us about being skeptical of the world around us. Yet, ask anyone if they know the story of “Cinderella” or “Sleeping Beauty” and they’ll repeat the whole thing to you, despite both being written (at least starting to be) at around the same time. Psychologists like Carina Coulacoglou have proposed that the reason fairy tales have remained relevant and captivating to each generation is that “as children grow up they read fairy tales that best reflect their own psychological conflicts. The opportunity to externalize them and to identify with fairy tale characters may help reduce anxiety” (Coulacoglou 33). In other words, seeing problems displayed in a story format allows them to come to terms with their own in the real world. For example, say a girl is being excluded from friend groups in school. She may empathize with Cinderella’s pain in her story, helping her relieve all the sorrow she’s held inside. The story may even give her some hope that she couldn’t find anywhere else; hope that she’ll one day find a “Prince Charming” of her own and have true happiness, that is if she stays kind and passive like Cinderella is in the story. While this seems like a great way to not only comfort our children but teach them about the world, there is an underlying problem that is often overlooked in all fairy tales like Cinderella. 

The problem here is that this sets up a standard of how the world should be that is, oftentimes, outdated. Take the previously mentioned, hypothetical case of Cinderella, for example. It isn’t the kind of message we should be giving our future girls in this day and age, at least not entirely. In the past, being passive and reserved and pleasant was seen as the proper way for women to act. Today, our standards are different. The part of being kind is still something we want to teach our children but think of the problems we’re facing today. In our current fight against gender-based violence and stereotypes, teaching the future women in our society that being “dainty and passive” is the only way to not only “appear attractive” but to achieve happiness might not be the best course of action. That tale isn’t the only one to present this message though. Thousands of stories implant social norms that don’t exactly align with how we perceive the world today. Cinderella, despite its praise, is just one of the examples of how fairy tales negatively affect the mind and personality of its readers through its portrayed outdated standards. 

Say the hypothetical example didn’t work for you. That’s okay because there is real evidence of that same tale affecting and implanting negative thoughts into the minds of impressionable children. I ask you to look at the research conducted by Professor Pamela C. Regan. In one of her studies, she analyzes how the story of Cinderella affects our standard of beauty, and what that beauty can get you in life. After analyzing Cinderella’s tale, she concludes, “This story employs a logic that is familiar to readers of all ages – the morally righteous are physically flawless, and this combination guarantees benefits in the form of material possessions, social status, and psychological well-being, whereas the morally corrupt inevitably sport warts, blemishes, or a variety of other undesirable physical characteristics, and are denied access to the resources available to the good and the beautiful”(Regan 564). In short, Cinderella gives us the impression that by looking a certain way, you can be considered beautiful and will, therefore, be popular, successful, and happy, but anyone cursed with the completely natural wart or pimples are bound to be sad and alone for the rest of their days. In our current age, we have strived to not only accept but applaud all our differences, specifically when it comes to women. In the past women felt ashamed if they were slightly bigger or darker than the ideal standard. Unfortunately, many young girls feel the same way today, and much of that shame is the result of Cinderella. They felt they didn’t look like the fairly white, lightweight lady that was Cinderella, so they must have been “ugly,” which we know today is simply not the case. Nowadays, while little girls may feel that they’re not pretty for not looking like the cinder princess, they have access to media that allows them to see women that look more like them and are praised in the same way. Plus-size women and black women can be found in just as many magazines as Cinderella-like women, but that’s only after years of women fighting for it. Teaching this standard to our future generations tarnishes all the hard work we as a community have done to demolish this sad belief. 

Fairy tales not only give us negative outdated beliefs of how we should see ourselves, but what is acceptable in the world. “Sun, Moon, and Talia” is one of the many versions of the Sleeping Beauty tale, written by Giambattista Basile, a famous poet and was known for the fairy tales he wrote and collected during his lifetime. While his work has without a doubt affected the fairy tale genre, some of his works, like “Sun, Moon, and Talia,” are a prime example of the outdated values we should no longer share. The very intimate scene of the love interest seeing Sleeping Beauty for the first time in the story displays this fact easily, especially because of the way the scene is retold. The text goes as follows: 

“At last he came to the salon, and when the king beheld Talia, who seemed to be enchanted, he believed that she was asleep, and he called her, but she remained unconscious. Crying aloud, he beheld her charms and felt his blood course hotly through his veins. He lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love. Leaving her on the bed, he returned to his own kingdom, where, in the pressing business of his realm, he for a time thought no more about this incident.” (Basile) 

At first glance, this seems to be a romantic, kind gesture, almost dreamy. However, under closer inspection, one can only describe this scene as disturbing and despicable. In reality, the king that finds her is so entranced by her beauty that lust overtook him and without a second thought, he rapes her and leaves her afterward, forgetting about the whole thing, all while she sleeps. This scene romanticizes a terrible incident through powerful, passionate words like “first fruits of love” and blood coursing “hotly through his veins,” making such an act seem acceptable; glamorous even (Basile). Despite how absurd this scene is, it is important to recognize when this tale was written and by who. Basile, the author lived in a time where women were unfortunately not given the same rights as men were, and because of this, an assault wasn’t as disturbing as we would see it today. Not to mention the fact that Basile was an old white man himself, who likely believed in the same views, as they were the norm. So while we should not excuse the fact that the scene makes this act acceptable, we can still understand that it was acceptable during that time. However, that is not the case in the current age we live in. We have accepted that women deserve just as many rights as men do, and that includes the rights in terms of assault. Therefore, a story with standards like this can’t be presented to our audiences today if we are trying to avoid the thoughts we have worked so hard to prove are unethical. Sure, one may say kings raping princesses is preposterous in this day and age, but being drugged at a party and later assaulted is essentially the same thing that is happening here. We don’t need a judge to tell us how wrong that is or that we need to prevent it from happening, so why should this part in the story be okay in today’s world? That’s exactly it; it’s not.

These standards are so impactful to us that they don’t just stay as a childhood memory, but continue affecting us for years after we’ve finished reading. Author and folklorist Kay Stone had once interviewed women on how fairy tales and affected them. “A twenty-four-year-old told me that she had really expected to bloom one day as Cinderella had done, but she was still waiting” (Stone 49). The story of Cinderella had affected her in such a way that not only did she feel she had to just wait for her fairy tale to come true and be blessed with the gift of beauty, but that she wasn’t beautiful in the first place. That she was just an ugly girl that hadn’t gotten to the state of “beauty” she’s always wanted, instead of accepting the fact that she’s beautiful just the way she is. This, when seen in this light, is sad, but this is the kind of mentality that stems from the standards that these stories portray. 

Some people believe that fairy tales, specifically the Disney film versions, are strictly a form of entertainment. They aren’t meant for education, but simply meant for a good story, so it doesn’t matter if they portray negative standards, like watching an old movie that would be controversial. However, that only works if we can say that entertainment can’t be seen as educational and/or influential, but this isn’t the case. Sesame Street aired only 19 years after the famous 1950 Disney film, Cinderella, their goal is to “educate disadvantaged urban preschool children and put them on an equal intellectual level as their middle-class peers when they entered grade school” (Lee 6). The purpose of Sesame Street was literally to educate children while also entertaining them. The show stays true to its purpose of educating children, just like we expect the morals of fairy tales to educate them. Although, by having a wide array of characters of different body types, skin colors, and similar social classes (usually middle class) over the years of episodes, the series avoids establishing a standard of who is better and who isn’t, unlike Cinderella’s standard of beauty. In the Cinderella film, the movie may not intend to, but it is teaching children who are more favorable and beautiful and who isn’t. Think of her and her sisters. Cinderella, the good character, is shown to be drastically different than her equally “ugly” and equally evil sisters. Her personality and what happens to her is what shows us that she is a good character, not her physical traits. Yet, as we stated earlier, the children associate the looks of Cinderella to be more favorable because of this comparison and what happens to these three characters. Through this, the movie encourages its viewers that those who are kind and look more like Cinderella, are the only girls worthy of being prosperous and beautiful. The children, just by watching the movie, are being taught how they should think, similar to how Sesame Street does, but with more negative connotations sneaking into the kids’ minds. So if shows like Sesame Street can educate children while still being a form of entertainment, then fairy tales aren’t exempt from this possibility; they have the same ability to influence children as any other form of entertainment. 

Reading fairy tales has been a tradition of many families for generations. But it is for this very reason that we need to inspect these stories. If we allow these tales to give the same negative thoughts to our children at such a young age, all our efforts to disprove these outdated beliefs will never be truly accepted by them. Of course, we don’t need to strip our children of fairy tales entirely, as there are some good morals there, like kindness. But perhaps we need to expose them to the other educational tools we have at our disposal and allow them to decide how they want to judge the world for themselves.

 

Works Cited

Basile, Giambattista. “Sun, Moon, And Talia.” The Pentameron of Giambattista Basile,

translated by Richard F. Burton (Privately printed, 1893), day 5, tale 5. Translation revised by D. L. Ashliman. Accessed 6 Nov. 2019

Coulacoglou, Carina. Exploring the Child’s Personality : Developmental, Clinical and

Cross-Cultural Applications of the Fairy Tale Test, Charles C Thomas, 2008. pp. 33. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=446171&site=ehost-live. Accessed 6 Nov. 2019.

Lee, Hye Jin. “No Adults Left Behind: Reality TV Shows as Educational Tools in the Neoliberal

Society.” Conference Papers — International Communication Association, 2008 Annual Meeting 2008, pp. 6. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=36956471&site=ehost-live. Accessed 6 Nov. 2019

Regan, Pamela C. “Cinderella revisited: women’s appearance modification as a function of target

audience sex and attractiveness.” Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, vol. 39, no. 4, 2011, p. 564. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A257434792/OVIC?u=cuny_ccny&sid=OVIC&xid=42d5cc72. Accessed 6 Nov. 2019.

Stone, Kay. “Things Walt Disney Never Told Us.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 88,

49. 347, 1975, pp. 49. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/539184. Accessed 6 Nov. 2019.