Although I've enjoyed taking my daughter to see the Disney movies and
giving her books to read, I too have grown tired of the portrayal of
female characters in a lot of our fairy tales. It is true that some of
the older versions weren't so dismissive. But in our present culture,
which is what our children grow up with, it really becomes
discouraging. You've got your young, spunky heroine with the
Frederick's of Holywood outfit, a handsome, kindly father, and no
mother. If it is a Disney movie, she will almost certainly have a few
kindly, quirky male friends. Rarely any female friends (though there
may be rivals, "ugly" stepsisters, or fade-into-the-background girls her
own age). If an older woman appears in the tale, she is usually either
ineffectual or evil. Our children's tales are full of evil stepmothers,
cruel witches, Ursula the Squids (or whatever she was), and so on.
There are exceptions. In the Disney version of Pocohontas, Poco does
have a best friend who acts in what she sees as Poco's best interest.
Also Poco doesn't marry the hero in the end (though I suspect that may
in part be due to the fact that if they bent history any farther in the
Disney version, it would have broken. <g> If I remember correctly, the
real Poco was just a kid when she met Smith, and married someone
completely different, going to England to live with him).
Not that I have any objection to a good love story; I'm a sucker for
them. And contrary to many, I do like the handsome prince being the
reward for the heroine. Why shouldn't the girl get a gorgeous charming
guy? We fill up our stories with male characters winning beauteous,
loving women but criticize stories where the girl wins the loving hunk.
What bothers me is when the whole reason for the heroine's existence
becomes the hero. I mean, for crying out loud, Snow White sleeps and
sweeps her way through life. So does Sleeping Beauty. Mr. Charming
comes along, kisses them, and they are rescued. How exciting.
I think Disney is getting better, at least with the portrayal of the
heroine. One Disney version I was more impressed with was Beauty and
the Beast. For one thing, Belle likes to read and does it despite
criticism from her peers. For another, she rescues her Dad. Also, Mrs.
Teapot, one of the "quirky" side-kick friends, is an older woman and a
loving mother to Chip, her son. In Pocohontas, the daughter is the one
with the wisdom that eventually saves her people.
But where is Belle's mother? Where is the Little Mermaid's mother?
Where is Poco's mother? Where is Jasmine's mother? Where is Dorthy's
mother? Rapunzel's mother? Cinderella's mother?
This isn't to say that positive female characters don't appear in our
fairy tales. Also, often when I have this conversation with people,
someone gives counter examples of male villains and says, "Really, there
are just as many as there are evil-older-woman types." The problem is
the percentages. Suppose we have 100 characters in several fairy tales,
with 5 evil guys and 5 evil gals. The numbers are equal. But chances
are there will be something like 80 male characters total and 20 female
characters, and at least half those female characters will be passive,
ineffectual, jealous, or whatever. What does that leave? Let's say 70
positive male characters and 10 positive female characters. So 50% of
the women in the stories are evil, with many of the other female
characters as girls being rescued. For male characters, we might have
on the order of 14% positive characters. The percentages get even more
discouraging when you look at the ages of the male and female
characters.
What message does that give our kids?
The beauty=good and ugly=bad thing also discourages me. Had the
Hunchback of ND been female instead of male, would she have been
portrayed in such a sympathetic manner?
We have a lot of stories where the heroine is beautiful and the evil
witch is either ugly or beautiful. We also have stories where the bad
guy is handsome. But how many stories do we have where the heroine is
plain and the hero is gorgeous?
Best regards
Catherine
http://www.sff.net/people/asaro/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:42 PDT