“Cinderella” and “Rapunzel” are two of the most popular fairy tales that are being told to children even today. Disney has made their own movie version of Rapunzel called Tangled, which is what I will be using for this paper. In this paper, I will be analyzing the lessons of feminism that are taught by these two fairy tales but are overlooked when we hear them as children. To be feminist is to support the idea “that women are and should be treated as potential intellectual equals and social equals to men” (Urban Dictionary). Brothers Grimm’s “Cinderella” and Disney’s Tangled are both anti-feminist fairy tales that depict women as being more powerful when a man is involved and vulnerable when another woman is involved. Cinderella could not
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This goes back to the lesson I mentioned when children must listen to their parents until a certain age. She was told a lie for 18 years and believed an evil old woman was her mother. She looked nothing like Rapunzel but then again she probably wouldn’t remember the face of her father. This evil mother figure must have been a really good liar. Mother Gothel, the name of the evil woman, tells Rapunzel, “The outside world is a dangerous place filled with horrible selfish people. You must stay here where you are safe. Do you understand flower?”(Tangled). Ironically, she is the one who is selfishly using Rapunzel for the magical powers of her hair. Rapunzel is gullible and believes everything her mother tells her until a strange man appears in her tower. She has had no contact with the world so the fact that she is able to defend herself gives her the impression that she is ready for the outside world. When being told a story, children probably do not think how realistic they could be. It is when children are older that they start to realize that the world is not perfect. This is also apparent in Tangled where everything is going fine until she gets older and becomes …show more content…
Before leaving the tower, Rapunzel is able to tie up Eugene with her hair and demands to be taken to the floating lights in exchange for the crown. It is not always the case for beauty to be a weapon but in fairy tales such as “Cinderella”, the most beautiful girl usually ends up winning. Another interesting and repetitive scenario in Tangled is that Rapunzel is always saving Eugene. She saves him from evil men trying to catch him, from a horse trying to turn him in, from drowning, and even from dying when he is stabbed by Mother Gothel (Tangled). In all but the last scenario,Disney finds a way to make what could be a feminist scene appear as an anti-feminist scene. Her actions are brave but the words are not so feminist. In the movie, Rapunzel stands up to big, scary looking men by saying “I don’t know where I am and I need him to take me to see the lanterns because I’ve been dreaming about them my entire life. Find your humanity! Haven’t any of you ever had a dream?” (Tangled). This could be a simple lesson of following your dream but there is an even deeper message being sent. The way Disney sets this up is basically putting women in a position where their power is strong but limited. Both she and Eugene are on the journey together to get what they want.Without the possession of the crown that Eugene stole,
This goes back to the lesson I mentioned when children must listen to their parents until a certain age. She was told a lie for 18 years and believed an evil old woman was her mother. She looked nothing like Rapunzel but then again she probably wouldn’t remember the face of her father. This evil mother figure must have been a really good liar. Mother Gothel, the name of the evil woman, tells Rapunzel, “The outside world is a dangerous place filled with horrible selfish people. You must stay here where you are safe. Do you understand flower?”(Tangled). Ironically, she is the one who is selfishly using Rapunzel for the magical powers of her hair. Rapunzel is gullible and believes everything her mother tells her until a strange man appears in her tower. She has had no contact with the world so the fact that she is able to defend herself gives her the impression that she is ready for the outside world. When being told a story, children probably do not think how realistic they could be. It is when children are older that they start to realize that the world is not perfect. This is also apparent in Tangled where everything is going fine until she gets older and becomes …show more content…
Before leaving the tower, Rapunzel is able to tie up Eugene with her hair and demands to be taken to the floating lights in exchange for the crown. It is not always the case for beauty to be a weapon but in fairy tales such as “Cinderella”, the most beautiful girl usually ends up winning. Another interesting and repetitive scenario in Tangled is that Rapunzel is always saving Eugene. She saves him from evil men trying to catch him, from a horse trying to turn him in, from drowning, and even from dying when he is stabbed by Mother Gothel (Tangled). In all but the last scenario,Disney finds a way to make what could be a feminist scene appear as an anti-feminist scene. Her actions are brave but the words are not so feminist. In the movie, Rapunzel stands up to big, scary looking men by saying “I don’t know where I am and I need him to take me to see the lanterns because I’ve been dreaming about them my entire life. Find your humanity! Haven’t any of you ever had a dream?” (Tangled). This could be a simple lesson of following your dream but there is an even deeper message being sent. The way Disney sets this up is basically putting women in a position where their power is strong but limited. Both she and Eugene are on the journey together to get what they want.Without the possession of the crown that Eugene stole,