Cinderella Stereotypes

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Fairy tales contain fantastic worlds of fairies, princes, dwarfs, elves, giants, talking animals and witches, which support children's development of imagination and creativity. However, the mystified adult relationships with stereotypical gender distinctions presented in fairy tales have a profound impact on young minds and establish the social psyche of a generation. Therefore, one can claim that fairy tales have propagated and promoted stereotypical gender roles through a representation of socially suitable male-female relationships. Fairy tales give the stereotypical idea of the males being active, and female being passive. In Cinderella, Cinderella plays a passive role in the story. After she leaves her glass slipper behind at the ball, she has nothing more to do than staying home and waiting Even after she knows that the prince was madly searching for the owner of the glass slipper, she just quietly waits at home. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty also wait patiently, and rather unconsciously, to be "saved" by men. Therefore, "waiting" is the privilege of female. Also, only the good girls who wait patiently get rewarded. Most rewards for a female are dating or marriage, which establish her worth in society with men around her. This supports a model for …show more content…
They let her stay there if she “keeps house for [them], and cooks, makes the beds, wash, sews, knits, and keeps everything neat and tidy” (Tatar 85). Doing all the chores, "Snow White is a housekeeping angel in a tiny house [conveying] the story's attitude toward "woman's world and woman's work": the realm of domesticity is a miniaturized kingdom in which the best of women is not only like a dwarf but like a dwarf's servant" (Tatar 295). Thus, Snow White depicts the female role as housekeeper, and wife. Men are the food providers while women stay at home and take care of the house and the

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