Oppression Of Women In Grimm's Snow White And Cinderella

hroughout all of human history social standings have been determined by a hierarchy. John Steinbeck examines the social hierarchy in his novella, Of Mice and Men . The story is set on a ranch in the 1930’s and follows two migrant workers named George and Lennie, who work on a ranch in Salinas, California. There is a hierarchy among the residents on the ranch, and each individual’s ranking is determined by social status. Using the character of Curley’s wife, the only woman on the ranch, Steinbeck reveals how women are segregated from society furthering his argument that the social hierarchy is determined by factors created by society.

How does this all relate to modern day issues? While the aforementioned essay within her book was not necessarily written all too long ago, feminism has changed and adapted to fit in with younger generations. As of right now feminism is currently quite the hot topic throughout the media in both western regions as well as more conservative regions. Oppression continues to remain hidden within “chivalrous” behaviors and ideals as presented by male dominated institutions that attempt to make decisions on behalf of women. Take for example, the war on Planned Parenthood and female healthcare. Currently, the women’s healthcare organization, Planned Parenthood has been within the eye of the media and the talk of the politicians for its practices, mainly concerning abortions procedures performed within these facilities.

The 2013 reboot of the Rogers and Hammerstein classic, Cinderella, has captured audiences with its beautiful costumes, classic score, and a revised book with a couple of twists. Their performance at the Tennessee Theatre went spectacularly well. Their amazing cast brought the timeless tale to life and left the audience in awe of the amazing spectacle.

Throughout history, the equality of women to men has been regarded as a social taboo. It was a universal understanding that women were always subordinate to their dominant males. Pre Modern Greece expressed these views through their social expectations, hierarchical structures and general lack of acceptance. This ubiquitous truth for this society was challenged in Homer’s The Odyssey, with his strongly developed and diverse female cast. Each female character possesses a unique personality and faced internal as well as external struggles that rivals the complexity of the male characters. Despite the inequity that these females face, they overcome it by showing themselves to be strong in the face of adversity and work to be unmoved by even the

For decade women have been discriminated by society, all around the world. In many countries women are still treated as the inferior sex. “daily life for women in the early 1800s in Europe(Britain), was that of many obligations and few choices. Some even compare the conditions of women in time as a form of slavery.” (Smith, Kelley. "Lives of Women in the Early 1800s." Lives of Women in the Early 1800s. N.p., 2002.) Women have always been expected to find a husband, get marry and have children and nothing less was expected of them. Women during decades ago and even today in 2017, many women live by the norm that if you don’t get marry you’re a dishonor/disgrace to the family. Many men treated women as objects and without a doubt not as equals.

Disney as a brand has reinforced the binary view of gender. The gender binary view is “the belief that there are only two sexes based off of the biological aspect of gender, which in turn generates stereotypes and expectations based off of this binary” (Palczewski & DeFrancisco, 2014, 13). The Disney Princess films reinforce the binary view towards gender by upholding gendered expectations. This line started out as a marketing campaign for young girls to identify with the characters and purchase the associated products, but an unanticipated byproduct of this marketing strategy created a consumer market called “girlhood” (England, Descartes &Collier-Meek, 2011, p.556). Disney’s girlhood is arguably one of the biggest influences on young girls

Today’s society is overrun by media, therefor one of the easiest ways to capture a young person’s attention is through the television. Movies provide a powerful audio-visual experience for its audience. Exposing children to media at a young age has a giant impact on them when teaching basic beliefs and values of the society that they live in. Many children’s films portray real life dilemmas and common themes in our culture. This exposes young kids to relatable characters, problems, and stories. Because children are still developing cognitively and socially, they are extremely sensitive to these types of messages that are reflected in films. Most films portray their characters more enhanced and “perfect” than what

Cinderella and Shrek both display gender expectations through fairy tale conventions, but in different contexts. The traditional version of Cinderella was written by the Brothers Grimm in the early 1800s, whereas Shrek, a film by DreamWorks, was released in 2001. Cultural and social values from both time periods are used in both films, through several techniques and conventions.

“The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.” -Roseanne Barr. Throughout literature and time, women have been degraded and are seen as dependent on males through different writings. This is because of the ancient idea that men are stronger and more useful than women. The way that women are described in stories, whether through appearances or way of life, have helped further male dominance in societies and gender stratification.

Controversy has surrounded the American political motif well before the establishment of our Democratic practices laid down by our founding fathers. Perhaps no greater a hushed concept than that of our seemingly endless practice of misogyny in our grander political landscape. Misogyny is defined as the “hatred, dislike, or mistrust

“Cinderella”, the original fairytale, is found in a collection of stories created by the Grimm brothers. The story of “Cinderella” is used in order to display and teach children and adults a way of living. This fairytale reflects values such as perseverance and determination. Cinderella, the protagonist, is an outcast her family, as her father is her only blood relative. She is forced to do housework and is not allowed to take part fun activities or share luxuries with her stepsisters. The stepsisters are greedy and do whatever they can to gain their mother’s approval. They believe they are worthy of becoming the prince’s wife. The prince holds a ball to get to know possible brides to be, and he instantly is attracted

Prostitution may also be looked at as a form of male dominance towards women, because men may feel entitled to sex because of repeated images and scenarios on TV shows. They see these constant images of a sexual nature and behaviour in which the man is rewarded with sex and it seems to come easy, and example of this may be the American Pie movies where sex is highly regarded and sought after by young males. When the same casual sex does not happen in real life where a man is constantly told no, he starts feeling as if sex is what he deserves and forcefully has sex with a women without her consent. It is however also thought that men do not typically rape because they do not have access to sexual partners (DeClue, 2005).

In the list of the world’s most watched fairy tales, Cinderella is of no exception. Over the years, seven hundred versions of Cinderella have been created all over the world in different languages (Kelley, 1994). In the 19th century, the first written form of the story was published in China. However, a modern version of Cinderella collated in France in 1697 by Charles Perrault (Williams, 2016) has become very popular in the United States (Kelley, 1994). Based on Perrault’s version, Walt Disney created a full-length animation of Cinderella in 1950 (History.com Staff, 2009).

Fairy tales are read to children at a very young age. In today society, many children believe fairy tales are real which reflects negatively on children. The story of Cinderella is widely known across the world with many different versions of this folktale, which portrays gender stereotype throughout the tale. When reading The Cinderella, it shows how unattractive looks can lead to mistreatment by society. As children would grow up, physical appearance would be valued more over inner beauty causing bullying in schools and discriminating among others with low socioeconomic status. In addition, the story provides unequal freedom between men and women where women are trained to become good housewife and to please a man through her looks, and following with marriage. As oppose to men who make their own choices on life-partner, marriage and other important life-changing decisions. Throughout the story, the character of Cinderella is portrayed as a passive, vulnerable, and

With sex trafficking being on a rise, along with different kind of princess stories who do not wander into the woods, I felt it would be appropriate to use a classic tale and modernize Snow White with a common issue today. Princess fairy tales are known for key morals and values for children to understand at an early age. Often these stories would include stories of a princess upset and courageous who begin to leave their home, finding their prince charming just by luck, and living happily ever after without any consequences of their actions. In the real world however, this does kind of luck does not happen. Not every runaway story ends with only a wolf bothering a young female, and not every male stranger that a girl runs across is going to be a good guy, or destined to be their prince charming.