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- 2. ROWE’S ARGUMENT Fairytales… •Create and reinforce specific roles and behaviours for females. •Reaffirm passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice as essential female attributes for receiving a happy ending. If women do not follow this set ideology, they are defeminized and are considered as “other”, they are punished and they receive no happy ending. Double enchantment, communal rituals, and nuptial climaxes have critical implications for women’s role in society.
- 3. --- Rowe: “…subconsciously women may transfer from fairy tales into real life cultural norms which exalt passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice as a female’s cardinal virtues…fairy tales perpetuate the patriarchal status quo by making female subordination seem a romantically desirable, indeed an inescapable fate.” (325) ---
- 4. DOUBLE ENCHANTMENT The Effects of Double Enchantment: • The belief in miracles, magic and the unnatural rather than in the self. • Undermines feminine self-confidence. • Makes vulnerability, avoidance, and dependency more acceptable. • Reinforces cultural myths about female adolescence and maturity. “Romantic tales thus transmit to young women an alarming prophecy that marriage is an enchantment which will shield her against harsh realities outside the domestic realm and guarantee everlasting happiness.” (337)
- 5. COMMUNAL RITUALS Communal rituals… • Occur twice, usually at the beginning and the end of a tale. • Are used to demonstrate the changes in the status or maturation of the heroine. • Emphasize the importance of the individual’s passage in a communal context. Examples: Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid.
- 6. NUPTIAL CLIMAXES Nuptial Climaxes… • Signify the heroine’s conformity to roles of wife and mother. • Signal her integration into the community. • Display the victory of patriarchal culture. Problem: Fairytales portray marriages as a woman’s only option and limits female visions and preserves a patriarchal status quo. This makes female believe that they should value communal stability, and social and financial security over individual needs.
- 7. CHARACTERISTICS OF A HEROINE • Childlike, passive, dependent, vulnerable, innocent, unconfident. • Unable to act independently, self-assertively. • Relies on external agents for rescue. • Ambitious for marriage (social and financial security), and nursery. Example: In The Beauty and the Beast, Beauty bindsherself first to the father and then the prince.
- 8. OTHER EXAMPLES Cinderella – has to look good for the ball, the prince wouldn’t want to dance with her otherwise. Fairy god mother helps her – Cinderella is very dependent on external agent (fairy god-mother). Snow White – serves 7 male dwarves, passive – prince kisses her, she wakes up, and they get married. The Little Mermaid – sacrifices her voice to be rewarded with legs so she can get married and live happily ever after – loss of identity.
- 9. STRONG FEMALE ROLES Characters in Fairy Tales: • Villains, witches, old women, stepmothers. Characteristics: • Lonely, unhappy, crazy, ugly, rebellious, jealous, evil.
- 10. --- Do you relate to those characters in the fairytales in any way or do you feel that they are completely contrasting reality? ---
- 12. CURRENT REFERENCES IN THE MEDIA Women are still portrayed as inferior and reliant on male heroes in today’s media, although, this idea is no longer as explicit as it used to be. There are more and more strong, independent female characters shown on the media nowadays, yet still, those female characters tend follow the guidelines set by their gender role in one way or another.
Editor's Notes
- explain how traditional folktales portray womenshow examples of how women are affected by the roles and behaviours set by fairytales (e.g. video, summarize another article, etc.)talk about and give examples of whether or not females are still portrayed as inferior and dependent on male heroes in the film and television industry.
- Fairytales were previously directed at adults, but Disney recreated them and directed them at children – the ideas didn’t change and are brainwashing children from a young age.
- A quote expanding on what we just said in the previous slide.
- Reinforces cultural myths about female adolescence and maturity.The heroine simply trades one enchanted condition for another.Subjected in adolescence to anticipatory dreams of rescue and in womanhood to expectations of continuing masculine protection.The Effects of Double Enchantment: Females are made to believe in miracles, magic and the unnatural as the key for release from their troubles. Undermines feminine self-confidence. Makes vulnerability, avoidance, and dependency more acceptable. Reinforces cultural myths about female adolescence and maturity.-----Rowe: “By dramatizing adolescence as an enchanted interlude between childhood and maturity, romantic tales can, however, aggravate the female’s psychic helplessness. Led to believe in fairy godmothers, miraculous awakenings, and magical transformations of beasts into loves, that is, in external powers rather than internal self-initiative as the key which brings release, the reader may feel that maturational traumas will disappear with the wave of a wand or prince’s fortuitous arrival. This symbolic use of enchantment can subtly undermine feminine self-confidence. By portraying dream-drenched inactivity and magical redemptions, enchantment makes vulnerability, avoidance, sublimation, and dependency alluringly virtuous.” (336)“Double enchantment thus reinforces cultural myths about both female adolescence and maturity…Not really disenchanted into reality or self-reliance, the heroine simply trades one enchanted condition for another; she is subjected in adolescence to anticipatory dreams of rescue and in womanhood to expectations of continuing masculine protection.” (337)“Romantic tales thus transmit to young women an alarming prophecy that marriage is an enchantment which will shield her against harsh realities outside the domestic realm and guarantee everlasting happiness.” (337)
- -”Although usually absent from central portions in which the heroine endures her trials en famille or alone, a royal court frequently appears at the tales beginning and end to emphasize the communal context for the individual’s passage.” (337)Communal rituals and rites of passage are used within fairytales in order to demonstrate the maturation of the heroine from one status to another and to emphasize the importance of the indivudal’s passage in a communal context.There are usually two communal rituals that occur – one in the beginnings and one at the end of the tale.For example in Sleeping Beauty:-kingdom gathersat the christening – celebrating the heroine’s birth-the palace prepares a festive ball in honour of the rebirth and subsequent wedding and celebrating her “rebirth” (waking up).Another example in The Little Mermaid: When a mermaid turns 15 she is allowed to swim to the surface of the sea and watch the world above. The marriage on the boat.
- ------Rowe: “Festive nuptials signify the heroine’s conformity to the socially dictated roles of wife and mother and signal her assimilation into the community” (337)Rowe: “But as the culminating event in most folktales and in life, marriage more importantly displays the victory of patriarchal culture itself, since the female receives her reward for tailoring personal behavior to communal norms.” (338)PROBLEM: Rowe: “…fairytale portrayals of matrimony as a woman’s only option limit female visions to the arena of hearth and cradle, thereby perpetuating a patriarchal status quo.” (338)“hence, the comic endings call upon young females to value communal stability over individual needs, because their conformity is the cornerstone for all higher social unities – as moral plaudits and festive celebrations testify.
- Beauty and the Beast – Beauty is reliant on a man, and is willingly giving in to patriarchal values.- Rowe: “Because the heroine adopts conventional female virtues, that is patience, sacrifice, and dependency, and because she submits to patriarchal needs, she consequently receives both the prince and a guarantee of social and financial security through marriage. Status and fortune never result from the female’s self-exertion but from passive assimilation into her husband’s sphere.” (334)------ DISCUSSIONDo you think that female characters are still driven by the same motives?
- Just going over a few other fairytales:Females are driven by love, men don’t need to look good, just have a good personality.Females have to look good all the time, the need for beauty.Beauty is rewarded with a prince & marriage for sacrificing her life (proved she’s a good woman – cares for father).Women have to serve men – rewarded with another men to serve.Disney portrayed Belle (Beauty) as a white, fit, tall, thin lady,Her name makes her very feminized – can allow herself to read books & be intellectual. -Beauty is unusually decisive (by rejecting suitors), yet still dependent on her father - even before she meets Beast, her decisions to stay, to serve, and finally to sacrifice her life for her father shows her willing subservience to paternal needs.
- While the heroines promote passivity, dependency, and vulnerability. Fairytales demote the idea of strong, independent, assertive women by attributing those traits to villains, witches and other evil characters.Also, by punishing those characters, fairytales reassure that any disruptive non-conformity will result in annihilation or exclusion from society, thus being considered “other”.Female villains tend to be strong female characters, so by demonizing women who are alone, driven by self-serving (although usually evil), fairytales are creating a taboo out of women who do not follow their definition of femininity.Fairytales punish any woman who stands alone, acts independently, and refuses self-sacrifice, by making them evil and, of course, ugly.In doing so, fairytales reaffirm the idea that women should be married, passive, and dependent on male heroes.And it sad to see that the closest idea to a strong, independent female role model in fairytales is an evil, ugly, witch.------Rowe: “Because cleverness, willpower, and manipulative skill are allied with vanity, shrewishness, and ugliness, and because of their gruesome fates, odious females hardly recommend themselves as models for young readers” (335)Rowe: “By punishing exhibitions of feminine force, tales admonish, moreover, that any disruptive non-conformity will result in annihilation or social ostracism. While readers dissociate from these portraitures of feminine power, defiance, and/or self-expression, they readily identify with the prettily passive heroine whose submission to commendable roles insures her triumphant happiness.” (335)
- DISCUSSION
- Although, the female ideal has evolved since the time of folktale – the reaffirmation of this ‘ideal woman’ continues. Media work to reinforce these female stereotypes, and representations of women in the media affect the way people who consume them see themselves and other women. Some ideas remain from folktale – even though marriage may not be a glamourized today, a single woman is depicted as ‘other’ or a temporary stage to be changed.As we can see in this video, these images are not what people want – so where do they come from? Representations of women, from as far back as folktale to today, still struggles to be accurate. Who are these images serving? Not women, not people.
- TV; lack of representation of strong female relationships (even in shows that are directed at female audiences, and advertised as such. Ex. Hot in Cleveland). The absence of strong female relationships means the focus on female characters is usually symbolic, and in reference to their relationships with more prevalent male characters – thus, women are still portrayed as relying on male heroes.(Ex. The Office, Pam is one of the only female characters in the show given much attention, personality and story over the seasons – and she has limited, if not bad, relationships with other female characters on the show. Therefore, her role is limited to what she does in relation to the main male characters like Jim, Dwight, and Michael.)Single = unhappy (for women!) – women fall in love very easily.Hot in Cleveland, stars 3 single, age 30+ women, this is something new but the themes are old.Poor relationship between the women on the show (enforces catty, jealous female stereotypes).The main characters are preoccupied with their appearance and finding dates. It is all about finding a male companion.Even when the show stars 3 women, they are somehow reliant on these random male characters that come and go.More TV shows: FILM; any romantic film is usually based on the same theme of a girl falling in love with a guy.Pretty Women (Edward & Vivian) – Vivian is a prostitute, she is taken by Edward who is a business man as his escort for some business dinners until he eventually decides she is of no use to him. After this event and with the money he gave her, she decides that she wants to do something with her life (sign of maturation). Finally, before she leaves her house, he surprises her outside her house, he climbs the fire escape all the way up to her, just like the knight in her fantasy, even though he’s afraid of heights (in which case he becomes the hero) and they finally kiss each other.She sacrificed herself and her body.She was dependent on him for change, without him she would have still been a prostitute.She had a fantasy and waited for her prince charming passively waiting for him to arrive.She relied on him for social and financial security and was unable to act independently, he rescued her. ----- DISCUSSIONDo you feel that the ideology and the beliefs that outline gender roles are still apparent in mainstream media? Is there still a division of gender roles? Do you feel that you are limited by those gender roles set by society?