Be a Princess at all times...

In her essay “Some Day My Prince Will Come: Female Acculturation through Fairy Tale” Marcia R. Lieberman argues that the effects that classic fairytales have on young children is nothing short of acculturation.
Through a review of The Blue Fairy Book, she cites powerful examples of the connotations and messages children receive about the social hierarchy, gender specific roles and behavioral patterns as well as an understanding of both what behavior has rewards and what behavior has negative consequences.

Lieberman examines whether traits that have been characterized as feminine have a biological or cultural basis. Many fairytales present very common themes including the designation of domesticated roles to women and hunter-gatherer roles to men and the assertion that youth and beauty are the most important features worthy of the highest rewards.

Many of the fairytales Lieberman discuss associate beauty with being inherently good and promote the idea that beauty trumps resourcefulness or intelligence and that all women need to be in order to be valued, rewarded and accepted is beautiful as nothing else will be required of them. These notions also promote jealously and rivalries in young women and teach them to be distrustful of anyone who is not physically attractive.

Lieberman also shows a correlation between women in any powerful role in fairytales and descriptions of them as ‘evil’, ‘ill tempered’ and ‘mean’. While words like ‘strong’, and ‘determined’ take on a completely different meaning when used to describe a woman than they do when used to describe a man.  In fairytales, being powerful is frequently associated with being unwomanly.

Lieberman even points out that of the few examples of powerful female do-gooders in The Blue Fairy Book, nearly all of them are fairies (mythical, magical creatures that are not human) and therefore not easily relatable to young children as role models.

Persecution is considered attractive; as submissive, passive and docile behavior is clearly suggested which corrupts young girls with the belief that their role is that of a perpetual victim and that women in distress will always invoke the most interest and attract the most attention.

There are also very clear messages in fairytales about the importance of marriage as a woman’s life goal and they show negative consequences to women who refuse to accept this idea as their life’s purpose.

Ultimately, folktales help to socialize young girls into believing that they are (and should act as) the weaker and submissive sex, and that suffering of any kind is a part of their cross to bear. It also teaches that beauty is more important than brains or ambition and that a woman should expect to suffer at the hands of someone or something in the hopes that her reward for this suffering will one day appear.  

Works Cited:

Lieberman, Marcia R.

  "Some Day My Prince Will Come." College English, Vol. 34, No. 3 (December, 1972): 383-395.