More ideas for lit x

I have now completed my first two books for my Lit x paper. The latest book I have read is a nonfiction book titled From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film Gender and Culture. This book is a collection of scholarly essays, criticizing and commenting on the Grimm Brothers and Disney Fairytales. After reading these two books, in my mind it is evident that Fairytales are the main source of recognizing a nuclear family, with strictly defined gender roles as perfection.
Today, if many people were asked to describe their perfect family it would include a couple of children, a stay at home Mom, and a working Dad. The Mother would be in charge of managing the household, as well as the cleaning and the cooking, and the Father would be the person on whom the family is financially dependent. This idea pertains in actuality to only a small population in America. So where does this vision of the perfect family, and stereotyped gender roles come from?
This vision has been accepted by so many people largely due to the influence of fairytales. Fairytales define strict gender roles for men and women to follow, and depict those who do not follow these gender roles in a negative light. The gender roles portrayed in these fairytales then set the stage for the roles which men and women will occupy in a perfect family. Since fairytales always have a happy ending children are given the thought at an early age that they can achieve their own “happy ending” by carrying out the responsibility of their gender.
The female gender stereotypes present in Fairytales stereotype not only what a beautiful woman looks like, but also what role she should fill in society. Women in fairytales are portrayed as being domesticated, and are constantly shown cleaning the house or cooking for their family (Zipes 37). These young women appear to be “natural born happy homemakers who lie in a state of suspended animation until a man gives them life” (Maio 1). Women in the Grimm brother’s fairytales base their entire existence and happiness off of marrying a man. They have no career of their own, and seem to be put on the planet solely to have children, care for them, and fulfill men’s desires.
Fairytales also represent males as the protective figure, and leader of their family. Men are often encouraged to participate in violent acts in order to woo a fair maiden, or protect the people they love. However women are encouraged to stand off to the side and watch as the men violently fight each other. Men are also depicted as leaders in all fairytales. Most of these stories represent a patriarchal society in which males hold power over the other characters. These rigid gender roles, which fairytales model for young children to follow, do have an effect on them. Giroux, the Waterbury Chair of Education at Pennsylvania State, has stated that they “possess at least as much cultural authority and legitimacy for teaching roles, values and ideas…as public schools, religious institutions and the family” (Giroux, The Mouse 84). Children are an especially impressionable audience, and the gender stereotyping demonstrated in fairytales definitely affects how they view societal gender roles.