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Fairy tales begin with conflict because we all begin our lives with conflict. We are all misfit for the world, and
somehow we must fit in, fit in with other people, and thus we must invent or find the means through communication
to satisfy as well as resolve conflicting desires and instincts.
Jack D. Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The
Cultural and Social History of a Genre

People have always had a need to tell fairy tales. Why? There is no law stating that fairy tales
must be told in every household all over the world, and yet fairy tales, regardless of geography,
heroes or heroines, villains, or tricksters, have persisted and thrived for centuries. All fairy tales
share common characteristics in that they impart some central meaning to their listeners. People
often do not place great importance in fairy tales, mistaking them as nothing more than nighttime
tales told to their children. However, they are much more. Fairy tales are memory and lessons,
psychological tools and creations of expression. By analyzing a fairy tale, a person is able to see
what cultures valued during the time in which they were written, what lessons were deemed
important for children to internalize as they assimilated into adulthood. Most notably, womens
roles as depicted in the typical fairy tale is a clear window into a time periods views toward
females, the roles of a woman in society, and outlining the chaos that would result should these
balances be challenged. Today, fairy tales are constantly changing and updating themselves as
they adapt to the changes in modern society, often giving female heroines roles that in previous
eras would never have been accepted.
Whatever a culture values most is often reflected in the fairy tale of the day. For instance, there is
a tale called The Seven Semyons (Counterpart to the German tale The Six that Made Their
Way in The World)., which is a Russian fairy tale written when Soviet Russia still existed
(Asfanasev 410).. This tale portrays life according to the ideas of Soviet Russia, and the moral to
the story is that through the means of collective work a person can accomplish an otherwise
impossible task (Asfanasev, 414).
There are many who have noted the importance of fairy tales and how they relate to society, not
only for gender roles but for what a culture finds valuable at that point in time. Even popular
tales like The Boy Who Cried Wolf impart important values such as Do not tell lies to
children. Zipes argues that fairy tales are crucial for children as these tales help them socialize
(Xii). This is why fairy tales always have children or young adults as main characters. The use of
younger heroes is so the reader will identify with the main character and will impart the lesson
onto their lives. This propensity to reinforce social mores is a double edged sword especially
when looking at gender roles.
Women within original fairy tales are held to rigid roles within the stories, depicting them as
submissive and dependent (Bottigheimer, 115). With the present era many original fairy tales
have been remade. Many current television shows and movies reveal a different role for women,
suggesting a departure in the role of women within fairy tales when compared to the original
fairy tales.
Womens Roles in Traditional Fairy Tales
Despite the fact that women are integral to many plotlines, most depictions of females in
fairytales is less than flattering. Pick up any book of fairy tales and nine times out of ten you will
find the dashing prince racing in to save the princess who appears helpless. Women are

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commonly placed into strict roles where they have little hope for extrication. Rowe, a wellknown author of analysis of fairy tales through a feminists point of view, has pointed out the
importance of fairy tales within culture and makes note of the many short comings of original
fairy tales in relation to women. Rowes article, Fairytales and Feminism makes an interesting
point about how fairy tales and culture are interconnected. She alludes to the idea that fairy tales
are a part of culture in that they help provide stability (Rowe, 210-211). Yet that is not the only
function that these tales serve; they are also tools to help children through various stages in life
in society. However, there is a double standard when it comes to women versus men in fairy
tales.
Double Standards within Fairy Tales
As mentioned by Mendelson, there is a lack of womens collaboration within fairy tales
compared to men, and of the tales featuring womens collaboration, most of them are negative.
For example, most of the female groups within tales are of evil stepmother and step-sisters acting
together to bring the heroine to ruin. In another situation, with the tale The Lettuce Donkey, a
man is robbed by six women (Mendelson, 116). When viewed like this it alludes to the idea that
when women work together it can only result in disastrous and chaotic events. Yet with tales like
the Seven Semyons, all of the workers, who are male, complete a task and are recognized for
their talents. It begs the question of why this double standard is present. Mendelson tentatively
suggests that the absence of a stern father figures within the stories as during the time periods in
which most of the traditional fairy tales were recorded, the fathers word was law and would
easily have settled squabbling between family members (Mendelson, 115). Mendelson finds the
double standards troubling but seemingly prevalent within Grimms version of fairy tales, which
he focused on (Mendelson, 120). However, Mendelson simply notes the imbalance in the number
of tales featuring female collaboration versus males and offers up a question into how German
culture viewed their women (Mendelson, 120).
Silenced Women
Women also do not seem to have a prevalent voice within fairy tales. Bottigheimer explains that
female characters are silenced by male counterparts (120). In many cases female characters are
described rather than given dialogue, whereas the male characters are almost always speaking
within tales. It is this lack of dialogue that leads to an implicit silencing of female characters.
(Bottigheimer, 124). There are a few different ways to view this silencing. One such idea is that
during the time period these tales originated from, women were expected to be submissive and
silent. However, Bottigheimer seems to suggest that a silence within the text which results from
the authors or editors choice in distributing direct and indirect discourse (126). Meaning that
the author may choose the way in which they represent the characters within the story as they tell
it. However, she has noted here that it is a prevalent trend that most tellers of the time described
women in the more passive roles with lexical cues such as cry and answer (Bottigheimer,
128). It is in this way that Bottigheimer, similar to Mendelson, seems to suggest that women
receive the short end of the literary stick when it comes to active and speaking roles.
One or the Other: Sweet and Innocent or Sexualized and Evil
There are only two types of women in fairy tales: innocent and good or sexualized and evil
(Warner, 212). The common theme for multiple fairy tales is that if you are a woman and you are
evil that you are old, but if youre good and innocent youre young. For instance, in the fairy tale

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Cinderella, the evil step mother not only antagonizes Cinderella, but takes every opportunity to
put her other daughters first. There are a few theories of why this is the prevalent trend. Rowe
suggests this is simply a psychological symbolism of a girl transitioning to womanhood. She
states that the evil stepmother is really the embodiment of the time where girls are in conflict
with their mothers and associate negative feelings towards them (Rowe, 214).
Another popular theory by Warner, in regards to why stepmothers, rather than the mothers, are
the antagonists is that this was to protect the ideal image of the archetypical Mother (Warner,
212). There is an assumption associated with natural fairy tale mothers, and it is the idea that
they are perfect, and will never harm their children. With tales such as Cinderella and Snow
White, Mother had to be removed in order to progress the story because natural mothers could
not possibly be evil (Warner, 213). Unfortunately it produces a falsehood in relation to the idea
of a Mother. Some mothers are evil and some step-mothers are quite nurturing. By eliminating
the idea that a mother could be evil, it creates a false representation of womens roles in fairy
tales and that mothers are either saints or devils, there is no common ground between the two.
Social Changes to Spur Changes in Womens Roles
Social changes have led to a dramatic shift in the way women are viewed in society. In the 1960s
second-wave feminism erupted, addressing gender-inequality on multiple aspects (Tavanaa, "The
1960s-70s American Feminist Movement: Breaking Down Barriers for Women."). By the 1990s
third-wave feminism had arrived which focused more on women being able to understand and
frame gender relations (Mann S., Huffman, 56-57). What makes fairy tales truly interesting is
that they change according to who tells them. Two different storytellers can tell the same story
but have discreet differences between the two, even if the main points of the story are the same.
Meaning that fairy tales can constantly update themselves as society continues to evolve.
Angela Smith, in her article, offers two different versions of Rapunzel. One version was written
in the 1960s and the second version in the 1990s (Smith, 425). What is telling is the way in
which both tales approached male-female interactions. The 1993 version depicts a man whose
masculinity is undermined as a masculine female witch threatens him (431). Within the
second version a power shift shows women with considerably more power than previously held
within their traditional roles. Furthermore, the witch in the 1993 version of the tale is a younger
woman rather than the traditional old hag. One possible explanation for this could be the social
shifts happening in the 90s and the shift of power between men and women of the time.
Womens Roles in Modern Fairytale Remakes
Women have stepped out of the passive role in modern remakes of fairy tales. One such
television remake, Once Upon a Time, took the world by storm. It introduced a cast full of
powerful women who often end up saving everyone. This is quite different from the traditional
fairy tales where women do very little.
Comparing Snow White from Once Upon a Time to Traditional Snow White
Snow White, in Disneys version, is a passive character who exhibits the traditional values of a
woman; she cooks, she cleans, she looks pretty and is submissive. She is tricked by her stepmother and is saved by the prince in the end. The Snow White of Once Upon a Time is nothing
like that. The overall story is still there; she does run away to hide from her step-mother who is

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hunting her, but she does not just clean a house and sing with forest creatures. In this adaptation
she becomes a warrior who is ready to forcibly take back her kingdom and solve her own
problems. She has stepped into a more active role and rather than waiting for the prince to take
care of her problems, she does it herself ("Bending and Conforming to Gender Roles: Once
Upon A Time Season 1.").
Turning Traditional Roles on Their Heads
Within Once Upon a Time many traditional roles are presented in a way that modernizes them,
making it relatable for modern audiences. The main character, Emma, is far from a damsel in
distress. She is rough, assumes many masculine roles, and still maintains some feminine roles.
One of the largest feminine gender roles is the idea of having a family. Within Once Upon a
Time, Emma does seek to have a family, but not in the traditional sense (Mann R., "Once Upon a
Time There Were Female Stereotypes."). Mann gives insight into the fact that Emma seeks to
have a good relationship with her son but makes no conscious effort toward adding a husband
into the mix to complete the traditional sense of what a family is (Mann R., "Once Upon a Time
There Were Female Stereotypes.").
Another character who embodies a twist on traditional roles is the Evil Queen. In the traditional
stories, most villainous women were depicted to be decrepit hags wearing rags. However, the
Evil Queen within this retelling is beautiful and powerful, two traits that were not typically
introduced together for villainous women before the 1990s (Mann R.,"Once Upon a Time
There Were Female Stereotypes.").
Childrens Reaction to Gender Roles
In an effort to see how children of the modern era felt about gender roles, Ella Westland
conducted an experiment with approximately 100 children. On the first day, after talking at
length and reading traditional fairy tales like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, she asked the
children to draw their favorite character from either Snow White, Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty.
On the second day Westland talked with children about gender roles associated with princesses
and princes and then became more general with the best and worst things about being male or
female. Afterwards Westland read some
queer stories where traditional roles were
reversed and then asked the children to
write their own fairy tale, either traditional
or an upside-down model (Westland, 3).
The results she gained from the study were
intriguing.
To the left is the data table from Westlands
study. The data would suggest that
traditional gender roles are alarmingly
present within children (Westland, 10).
However, when combined with the stories
of the children, a more interesting result
was found. Of the stories written,
approximately 43 percent of the girls wrote

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about a tomboy princess rather than a traditional one while the boys preferred to stay toward
traditional fairy tale roots (Westland, 10). This was not at all expected, yet shows how young
girls of the times are what Westland refers to as resistant readers, meaning that they are not
only able to identify the gender roles presented to them but prefer to critique those roles and step
outside of them (Westland, 8). Results like this indicate that while culture still predominantly
adheres to traditional roles within fairy tales, that there is a shift beginning to occur in how
females view princesses and heroines.
Perception of Fairy Tales in Modern Times
Zipes argues about how fairy tales aid children with integration into society and he even states
Children are conditioned to assume and accept arbitrary sex roles. These socially conditioned
roles prepare females to become passive, self-denying, obedient, and self-sacrificial, as well as
nurturing, caring, and responsible in personal situations. (Zipes, 3). However, is Zipes correct?
Could that be the reason for fairy tale remakes? When studying Westlands study and noting all
of the scholarly papers critiquing traditional fairy tales it seems women are aware of these
prevalent stereotypes and taking precautions to avoid falling into them. As it is now, it can be
observed that women of modern times do not seem content to stay in the traditional roles
presented to them. Many of the remakes of popular fairy tales now present strong female roles
and place a greater emphasis on stepping away from typical female stereotypes.
Conclusion
Fairy tales are an essential part of culture and have been around for as long as recorded history.
However, fairy tales cannot stay as they are, they must update to reflect the ideals of modern
culture to avoid perpetuation of rigid and unnecessary gender roles, especially in regards to
women. As the years have progressed society has remade many popular fairy tales to reflect the
update of traditional roles within society. The research tends to suggest the idea that even though
these stereotypes are still present in modern day culture, efforts to change them are evolving.
With a greater emphasis being placed upon autonomy rather than dependence, it could be
suggested that women of modern times are rejecting these traditional fairy tales in favor of rewriting them to better reflect the current image of women. The data from Westlands study was
done in 1993, compared to the 13-year gap from then to now, it would be reasonable to suggest
that in light of the advances of womens rights and equality, that the remakes of popular fairy
tales were created in an effort to explore the new values present in society. Ignoring the problem
will not make it go away; it is important to introduce children to these traditional fairy tales but
also to show them the remakes and expose them to these updated roles. While not every rigid
role has been overturned, it is a progressive, collective effort that can only progress forward so
long as necessary steps are taken, and effective modelling is offered.

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6
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