Gender Roles in Fairy Tales

Are gender roles truly defined in fairy tales or are we imposing our own personal views about gender?

As we evolve and read tales from long ago we forget that they were written in a different time with different societal rules and expectations.
We must look at these stories with unbiased eyes and see them for what they are or rather what they were, not for what we see in them now. Remember that times then were different, women played the domestic roles, cooking, cleaning, caring for children; while men were men, hunters, providers, protectors and warriors.
These where different times and to think that they imply gender roles would not be wrong, they do, but these are roles that were expected when the stories originated.

In Some Day My Prince Will Come, an article written by Marcia Lieberman (1972), we are shown how fairy tales enforce gender roles. Lieberman writes "Not only do children find out what happens to the various princes and princesses, wood-cutters, witches, and children of their favorite tales, but the also learn behavioral and associated patterns, value systems, and how to predict the consequences of specific acts or circumstances. Among other things, these tales present a picture of sexual roles, behavior, and psychology, an a way of predicting outcome or fate according to sex, which is important because intense interest that children take in 'endings'; they always want to know how things will 'turn out'. From a psychological point of view, I would agree, children do want to know, they want to know everything and these days they can find out everything whether reading fairy tales or surfing the internet. Lieberman goes on to show us the specific roles imposed on these tales; the "meek", "passive", "obedient", and "submissive" girls are usually the beautiful heroines of the these tales. She also states, "Millions of women must surely have formed their psycho-sexual self-concepts, and their ideas of what sort of behavior would be rewarded, and of the nature of reward itself, in part from their favorite fairy tales." I for one am not one of those women, but I don't doubt that many woman have done exactly this.

When we read these stories now; whether to our children or ourselves we must keep these thoughts in mind. If there is such concern for what impressions may be left upon the reader perhaps we should explain that these were different times and today though some may follow these roles they are no longer expected in our society here in the USA.

Snow White

Does Snow White really show gender roles?

The young Snow White must run away to protect herself from her mother's jealousy and finds herself in the home of the seven Dwarfs. They offer to care for her as long as she agrees to take care of them in return by cleaning, cooking, sewing and essentially keeping house; "typical women's chores". OK maybe no longer the woman's chores, but they are typical household chores.
Also, when we read various versions of Snow White we will see a few common factors in relation to beauty: vanity leads to jealousy which leads to hatred of even ones daughter, so much so that the queen wants her daughter dead. Unfortunately, we do sometimes see this in the real world, where a woman of "beauty" has a child and becomes jealous of her child's beauty or popularity. Fortunately, we don't see it to the extent as shown in Snow White where the queen not only wants her daughter dead but want to eat her lungs and liver to ensure her death more than a bit frightening but thankfully just a story.
On the other side of that, Snow White's beauty is so enthralling that her mother can't stand her but men fall deeply in love with her. The seven dwarfs love her so that when they believe Snow White to be dead, they have a glass coffin made so her beauty can be seen. A passing prince falls so deeply in love with her that he needs "dead" body by his side even when he eats and when she awakes he marries her the next day.
Does this shows us that beauty will grant you love and hatred depending on who is looking at you?
Sadly, yes but also as we read Little Snow-White The Grimm Bros. and see beauty not just in the physical sense. Beauty is also portrayed in the behavior of Snow-White, in her innocence and faith that nothing will happen to her. Although naive about the queen, she does show faith in the protection by the Dwarfs that must continuously save her.
What else does this tale tell us? Snow-White was as stubborn as she beautiful, she continuously disobeyed the Dwarfs, which led to her attempted death by the queen, showing us the consequences of our actions could be bad.
Snow-White has many lessons to teach us:

• Be careful what you wish for - The Queen wished for a daughter "as white as snow, as red as blood and as black as ebony wood" (Grimm Bros.). She was granted her wish only to become jealous of her daughter.
• Give and take - Snow-White must clean the house while the Dwarfs work and provide her with all she needs.
• Beauty can be both wonderful and dangerous - While the Queen wants Snow-White dead, the Dwarfs love her as if she was their child and strive to protect her. The prince falls in love with her and takes her away - marries her once she wakes (thanks to the servant's annoyance) and gives her the opportunity to exact revenge on her mother.

Perhaps the biggest lesson is that there is power in beauty and beauty has different effects depending on who is looking.