Why Are Women Usually the Villain in Folk and Fairy tales?

Question

for socails. we need to ask around why it is so common for the woman to be the bad character in folk and fairy tales ( such as the witch )

Answer 1

Cultural gender bias. Men are "strong", women are "weak". Most religions that cast women in a weak, flawed, "need to be guided by a man" role can be looked upon as the mindset for these stories.

Answer 2

Of the fairy tales we know in the US today, the majority are based on the versions written by the Brothers Grimm. Before them, there were actually a few other major compilers of folk tales, many of whose stories the Grimms adapted. While the other writers' attitudes toward women varied, the Grimms had a pretty negative view of women. The roles of women in their tales are much narrower than those of women in tales written centuries before, even though you'd expect attitudes to have progressed by that point.

There are a few different reasons for this. First, the Grimms were catering to a different audience than the other writers. While the previous authors of fairy tales were French and Italian, the Grimms were German, and therefore of a very different cultural background. Also, collections of fairy tales by the other authors were marketed as morality tales for young women, whereas the Grimms' were directed at entire families.

The second (and probably more interesting) reason is the Grimms' own family life. Their father died when they were still young, leaving their mother to run the household. Because of their subsequent financial struggles, Jacob and Wilhelm probably viewed their mother as weak, and they resented the extra responsibility they were forced to shoulder - especially Jacob, who was the oldest child. Critics think that this resentment is directly related to the way in which father figures are not often held accountable for problems in the Grimm tales, while mothers (especially stepmothers) are. Hansel and Gretel is one of the most obvious examples. The story existed before the Grimms' version, but the Grimms focused heavily on the evil of the mother and witch, while dismissing the responsibility of the father. Jacob in particular pushed for revisions to the tale that shifted the blame from being distributed almost equally among both parents to falling entirely on the mother-figure. The exeption to their portrayl of women as villains are young women - such as Gretel - but this is likely because they had the example of their sister upon which to base younger females.

Answer 3

I don't have children yet, but when I do there will probably be a wide range of tales that I can tell them where heroines aren't passive scared little girls/young women. As far as my own childhood is concerned, I wasn't big on fairytales, but I really liked this story about two monkeys (male, I think, not that it mattered at the time) who traveled and had adventures in a fantasy land where they would eat clouds of pink cotton-candy and other very weird stuff (which is probably where I got my over-active imagination from-which I now put to use in my own writing). I also remember cartoons about a young swordswoman who was on some kind of pirate ship, battling the enemy. I distinctly remember wanting to be a swordswoman. As a tomboy, I would identify mostly with heroes that were active, so in tales where the young man goes on adventures and fights monsters I was always the young man, not the princess waiting passively at home. I would also make up role-playing games with my childhood friends and travel all sorts of fantastic lands. So I think children are all right as long as they get to choose which fairytales (if any) they want to hear. This way, they can choose whatever is closer to their nature. As somebody said, some girls really are the passive girl (not because she is afraid, it's just her nature) and I believe that that's all right, too. Everybody has his/her own nature to begin with and I think education only adds to that. I would not force my daughter to be an adventurer if that is not what she wants.

Answer 4

devil is portrayed as a man, big bad wolf was male although a lot of them were female. I expect fairy tales were made for women so the male role was to be the knight in shining amour (prince charming for example).

Answer 5

Cuz women are evil, arent we?

Cuz the main character is often a woman, so they can have a cat fight with the villain. It just kinda works out...

Answer 6

Men are usually the authors. Wake up guys!

Answer 7

Because they were written by men.

Answer 8

men wrote them

Answer 9

Only in folk lore? lol

Answer 10

Fantasy mimics reality