Fairy Tales Manipulate Women Heather Metz Russian Fairy Tales.Image.Marked文档.pdfVIP

Fairy Tales Manipulate Women Heather Metz Russian Fairy Tales, Russian 0090 15 April 2003 Heather Metz 1 Fairy tales affect the way our society in general thinks about girls and their role in society. They also affect the way girls feel and interact with each other. As Marcia Lieberman says in her article, “[…] an analysis of those fairy tales that children actually read indicates that they serve to acculturate women to traditional social roles” (185). Because fairy tales are read to children in their impressionable years, they imbed thought into the child that affect the way they think about women and “normal” social roles. Fairy tales can have many harmful effects on the way women act and are perceived. They help to destroy girls’ self-esteem and spur jealousy among the female population. In fairy tales, the heroine is always considered a beautiful person. This is no different from the tale Prince Danila Govorila. The story starts off by describing a princess having two children. A son and daughter “both well built, both handsome” (Afanas’ev 351). The focus will be only on the daughter for this paper. In most other tales the girl is the one who is described as being beautiful this one just adds the brother. The fact that the girl is described as beautiful is important because girls identify with the main character and who wants to read about and identify with an ugly girl? People like to identify with someone beautiful and gorgeous rather than an unattractive person. This is one Heather Metz 2 reason why fairy tales are based on the attractive physical appearances. Lieberman states in her article, “[…] the beautiful single daughter is nearly always noted for her docility, gentleness and good temper” (188). This also sends the message to girls