An interlude in Disney-land.

[catsidhe]

I get home last night to discover that the girls are still watching Disney's Sleeping Beauty.

I've not seen it before myself, but it does look cute, especially in the remastered widescreen version.

When it finished, mimdancer looked slightly disgusted and pointed out that Sleeping Beauty (she is given a name, but no-one remembers what it is) doesn't do anything. I pointed out that she is not the protagonist, she's the prize... her purpose is to be fought over, and given to the winner. This is, of course, not a new observation, but still, we wondered about the message soaking into our daughters' brains.

I shouldn't have worried. Miss S came up to me immediately afterwards and stood with her face inches from mine and said very solemnly, but with an underlying thrill of excitement, that “Daddy: I fought a dragon and I killed a dragon. In the park. Mummy took me to a park today and I killed a dragon.”

Fairy Tales don't teach girls to be passive and submissive, they get enough of that from prime-time TV.

And Fairy Tales don't teach children that monsters exist: this is already well understood.

Fairy Tales teach children that monsters can be fought, and monsters can be defeated.

The biggest problem that I can see is that they also teach children that you will always know a monster when you see one...

Comments

[celsa.livejournal.com]

I usually identified with either the monster or the hero. Playing the Princess is the least favourite role when my girls are reenacting a traditional fairytale. In fact, to get anyone to play the princess, they usually have to give her a light saber and telepathy to jazz up the role...

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

I'm a firm believer that stereotypes in fairy tales affect girls and boys in one way or another. While the role of princess might not inhibit your girl from slaying dragons, millions of girls look at Aurora's slender waist and appearance and think that's what you're suppose to be, in order to get true love.

Also: isn't it a bit depressing that the only role that's looked down upon in these old tales are nowadays the roles of the passive women?

There is nothing cool in being peaceful, only a sword (or some such) can be cool. We surely do give mixed signals about our world.

I don't believe that these classics are bad per se, but I do believe they send messages to kids on deeper levels than you'd think. Your girl identifies with the prince, as do many other (as did I), and in time she'll ask herself why she identifies with the character that isn't a girl, and other things will come from that.

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

That there is nothing cool in being peaceful is not restricted to fairy tale movies, but is, as far as I can tell, something common to all action movies. The point is the action, and anyone who tries to dissuade the action hero from acting against what is (by definition) evil must, therefore pacifists are suspect and potential fifth columns until and unless they see the light and join the slaughter.

How do you mean ‘depressing’: are you sad that women are looked down upon for passivity, or that there are other roles which should be looked down upon as much or more?

I am not worried that my girls will be, or not be feminine enough. I would be more worried if they took the stereotypes presented at face value. I would far prefer that they do question things like this, and do so informedly. They aren't going to escape the influence, but they can be educated about it, and taught that they don't have to accept it wholesale.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

I think there are good things in a "traditional" female stereotype, but that these things/traits are seldom or never presented in a good way. In the analysis of Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, she isn't even a human, mainly a prize. And i agree with the analysis, that's how the story presents her. But it is really really sad to me.

Regardless of your girls (who seem to be doing just fine), I do worry, in general, about how women view other women and themselves.

[mimdancer.livejournal.com]

I also play St Trinians at them. They enjoy dressing up as princesses & fairies but more as an exercise in imagination...

[enrobso.livejournal.com]

It is an old truism that the importance of fairy tales is not to teach children that monsters exist, but to teach them that monsters can be defeated.

Miss S. has obviously learned that lesson and long may she keep killing dragons, even when they look like windmills sometimes.