need to find research material on gender discrimination in childrens literature such as fairytales?

Question

fairytales, you read or were read to as a young child being unaware stereotyping which was so obviously shown in the text, do you concider that this could cause a damaging effect on how you see society.

Answer 1

I read most fairytales when I was a child. Mainly the Grimm and Asbjørnsen and Moe (Grimms Norwegian equivilent). I wasn't aware of the gender thing untill we studied fairytales in high school and discovered that there really weren't that many heroines. Even the fairytales which have female leads tend to have a male hero who steps in at the last minute.

However I don't think growing up with these stories has coloured my view of society. If anything it has made me research the origins of fairytales and the meanings of them. I grew up in Norway which has one of the highest levels of equality in the world (during the 1980's we had a female prime minister as well as a government which consisted of 50% women) which ment that I was never under the impression that there were things girls should leave to the boys. I played with Barbie-dolls and my favourite color was pink, but I was also the neighbourhood champion in ski-jumping.

Answer 2

Watch The Little Mermaid. My favorite part is where she is supposed to come out of a clam. Is she supposed to be a prized pearl or something?

I think Peter Pan has some too. Wendy is the mother because she is a girl.

Old, unmarried women are almost always evil. (Step mothers with dead husbands in particular.) Fairytales are almost always about some girl in distress that get rescued then married by some guy thats only personality is his desire for the girl and his royal heritage.

Just some general ideas I guess.

Answer 3

I think they are most certainly damaging. Telling a young girl that prince charming will find her and she'll live happily ever after is definitely setting up the little girl for many disappointments in her adult life. Being a damzel in distress is also a bad role model for young girls to aspire to. The pressure to be beautiful and desirable is implanted into little girls from a very young age. Instead kiddies' tales should focus on doing well, achieving good results at school and, later, at work. It is also important to teach kids about tolerance and accepting other people.

Answer 4

Children are not stupid. They know it is only stories. Give them back their childhood, and let their imagination run wild. They grow up too soon nowadays. Some of the stories are old fashioned by today's standards, but they were written in a different era, we have a world media now, and more awareness.

There are too many as well who cannot read properly, so being read to at bedtime, and being able read for themselves is part of their education.

Answer 5

If it incredibly is the way the job runs then workers might desire to word of this and ones that for sure won't be able to do the job should not be employed. i don't think of something became undesirable in asserting this, I think of the worker that have been given mad is disenchanted over the replace or in worry for her job. It would not exclude all women folk inevitably, heck, some women folk are far greater suitable than fairly some adult adult males. i'm undecided how reliable you will possibly elect to be with the mechanical kit you stated besides the shown fact that it would be interior the corporate's superb activity to make it so a averagely reliable man or woman might desire to do the job and not basically the super reliable.

Answer 6

Go to your nearest Library. they will have what you are looking for and if not they will be able to tell you where you can find it. The smart thing would just be to find a few children's book from fifty years ago. The Brothers Gimme, Mother Goose any old stories. Females were always gentle sweet things that had to rescued by a handsome prince. Good Luck

Answer 7

are u doing a phd or something?
all fairytales were written when unfortunately there was no such thing as the concept of gender discrimination. so you must remember that it was a male dominated society where women would only be allowed to have the roles of damsels, witches wicked stepmother etc. youll have to read up on hans christian/grimm brothers etc to see what their upbringing was like
maybe they grew up in matriarchal families and resented it . i personally think theyre innocent stories designed just to entertain children. but saying that........i recall as kids (mean kids) we would refer to the wrinkly old ladies living alone, in the neighbourhood as, witches, i dont mean in the derogatory sense but, we actually thought these old "crones" actually were witches and delighted in being terrified of them.

Answer 8

For not exactly discriminiation in fairytales, more of a study of stereotyping , try
From the beast to the blonde by marina warner
and no go the bogeyman by the same author.

Answer 9

1. POLYGAMY: Cinderella, Snowhite, Sleeping Beauty... they were all married to the same man, Prince Charming.

2. From a feminist point of view: Why is it that the strong female characters are all evil? The rest need the guy to save them, wake them, etc. Please refer to Sleeping Beauty and Snow White (who had to be awakened), Cinderella (who had to be saved from her life of labour).

Expounding on number two, fairytale princesses are deemed to be incomplete without their prince. Happily ever after only comes after the prince comes riding in on his big white horse.

These images only reinforce heterosexuality, and dictates the "norm" that girls are little princesses and boys should be little princes. This "ideal" mould was forced on me and (as I'm sure) many other children. I didn't want a pink wardrobe and petticoats and frilly skirts growing up. I just wanted to wear my jeans and climb trees!

Answer 10

Not another PC , its about time every one jack of you is sacked from any position of authority, you see evil in everything around you and taint everything that you think others will thank you for and look up to . our country have been decimated by the rubbish spouted off in the name of being politicly correct . we are being told to be ashamed of what we are , in fact you all leave no stone unturned in your quest to find more thinks to ban, its a pity the world does not ban this black blotch on history forever. and bury it in its own muck that it has created