Fairy Tales... Males and Females

"...Fairy Tales not so happy ever after"

As I kid and like many other children my age, I loved fairy tales. I loved the princesses that were in it, the handsome prince charming, and I felt satisfied in the end when the ugly old witch would be punished in the end. What I loved most about them, was how each tale always had a "happily ever after". However, after reading an article from Purdue University, I realized the significance of these "fairy tales" in our daily lives. Initially, stories from Grimm’s Fairy Tales were written to educate young boys and girls the roles that they should play and how they should act in society in the 1800's. These stories often depicted women to be the beautiful damsel in distress waiting to be "rescued" by a brave charming prince, and then live happily ever after. These stories are projecting messages that lead little girls to believe that one must be beautiful and fair in order to live a "happy life". In turn young boys often believe that it is their duty to be strong and courageous. These stories are still very alive and with us today, as 43% of the tales have been “reproduced in children’s books or movies”. However, I find that any type of fictional story provides the audience with the very same principles and underlying messages from these fairy tales. In Filipino mythology, it is told that two beings were came out of a bamboo tree after a bird had landed on it. These two people were Malakas (the strong one) and Maganda (the beautiful one) and thus the very Filipinos came to be. In this story alone, it seems that any people have always referred to each sex as either strong or beautiful. Even today, the men and women aspire to be Malakas or Maganda.

All of what is displayed in these magical fairy tales effect and support the gender roles that we play in society. It seems that throughout all of history the woman has always been seen as the weaker, more delicate being, and the man was supposed to be the brave provider. These gender roles were glorified especially during the 1950’s as women were seen as “cheery” perfect housewives and were always prepared for their husbands to come home and enjoy the meal that they cooked. Although during the same time, our perception of beauty reflected the roles that women played in society. This made me realize that, the roles that we play in society affect the way wee see and believe beauty to be. Although I don’t believe a beautiful woman to be a “perfect” housewife who is the caregiver of the family, it seems to me that some of the same beliefs and values that were upheld during the 50s and in Ancient Greek for that matter, can still be seen today. Even though we have such wonderful nick-nacks and sophisticated technology, I still wonder if we really advanced. Throughout our thousands of years of existence, has man-kind truly progressed?