Sleeping Beauty And Gender Stereotypes In Prince Charming

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Fairytales are a common part of a young girl’s life; they are able to dream about what it would be like to meet their prince charming. However the women and girls in these stories are always depicted in similar ways; and girls who read these stories will grow up thinking that this is the way it is meant to be. These stories have the power the impact and influence upon a young child’s sense of self (insert). Within fairytales gender dichotomies are always prevalent. Most fairytales have a beautiful princess who must overcome a trial, but this can only be done through the help of ‘Prince Charming’. One of the most well-known fairytales is Sleeping Beauty. The heroine Aurora was cast into a sleep where only the kiss of a man could wake her against…show more content…
Throughout the story the queen is only mentioned a few times and when she is; she is just addressed as ‘queen’ and she has no name. Because this book was written so long ago it has no concept of feminism or concern for the women included. The main stereotypes that existed in this movie are beauty, the way evil and good are presented and gender. Gender in fairytales is always an issue, especially in Disney. They like to portray their princesses in a way that they are beautiful, distressed and the handsome young prince comes to the…show more content…
Throughout the book it is obvious that everything revolves around beauty, the first gift given by the fairies to Aurora was, ‘the gift of beauty’ which means that she could not have been beautiful on her own. Later on she was described as, ‘a lovely young woman’. Not one of the fairies gave Aurora the gift of knowledge or wisdom which means that they do not think she needs to be intelligent. The second gift she obtained was the gift of ‘song’ by which Prince Charming heard in the forest and came to know Aurora. This means that sleeping beauty views beauty as the most important trait a girl should have to be loved and respected by others. There are the typical good verses evil in this fairytale. Maleficent is the evil witch, she was represented ugly in appearance, dressed in black clothes. This stereotyping make children believe that people who are not considered ‘beautiful’ are evil and people like Aurora are innocent and good people. This can cause children to become judgmental and will evaluate people based on their physical

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