Grimm's Fairytales Day 1, Question 2 - Gender Roles

2. The gender roles in Grimm’s are not simplistic in nature. I decided to break down gender roles into two categories/hierarchies:
a. “Classic” Fairytale: Submissive, weak, damsel in distress is beautiful and in desperate need of a strong, handsome Prince to save her.
b. Subverted (More modern/radical) Fairytale: Strong female character upholds fundamental values and truth in society; comes to the rescue of male characters.
There is also the issue of the Dichotomy of the female character in fairytales:
c. Dichotomy of Female Persona: In most fairytales, the female character is generally one of two things; she is either a beautiful damsel in distress, or an evil witch/step mother.


(a) When I think of classic fairytale, being of the “Disney generation,” I think of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and Cinderella. In each of these stories, the female character is extremely beautiful, submissive and undoubtedly at the center of conflict in need of rescuing. These female characters are true to their time; women did not have a lot of power and were valued based on their beauty, homemaking skills, and ability to bear children. These stories also reflect a woman’s “need” for a man, which represents strength, wisdom, agility and wealth. This is an example of the typical hierarchy of “classic” fairytales: Men have more power than women, women need men to save them, and women are always submissive and beautiful.
In regards to what we read this week, The Princess Frog is a good example of this “classic fairytale.” Even though the Princess was resilient to follow through on her promises to the ugly frog, her father, The (wise, rich, male, handsome) King ordered her to do so. In submitting to the wills of the male frog and obeying her father, the Princess is “rewarded” with a handsome Prince who carries her away with him on his fine chariot with white horses. Despite the fact that the Princess did not have much say in the matter, everything is all well and good because “they live happily ever after.”

(b) I hadn’t really thought about gender role in Grimm’s Fairytales until this point, but all of these stories definitely do not align with “classical fairytale” gender roles. In The Twelve Brothers, we first see this subversion with the mother who is brave enough (through her tears) to tell her youngest son that the King plans to kill him and all his brothers if she bears a daughter. The mother tells her son to go into the woods with his eleven brothers and have one watch the castle from a tree; she will hang a white flag if a son is born, and red flag if a daughter is born. In doing this, she disobeys the will of her husband in order to save her children, which presents her as a stronger female figure than the classical fairytale female character.
Benjamin, the youngest son (“classically” the weakest son) defies his familial hierarchy and leads his brothers into the woods to save him and all of them. Years later, when the daughter of the King and Queen learns of her twelve brothers, she goes into the woods and vows to find them. “I am the King’s daughter, and am seeking my twelve brothers, and will go as far as heaven is blue until I find them,”(page 40). She is reunited happily with her brothers in the woods, and helped them live comfortably and united in the cottage in the woods.
Later, when the sister picks the twelve lilies to give to her brothers, they turn into crows and the old woman says there is only one way in the whole world to save them, she undertakes this seemingly impossible task to remain dumb without a word or laughter for seven years in order to save her brothers. She is tied up to a stake and flames lit beneath her dress to be burned to death because a wicked woman convinced her betrothed that she was a common beggar girl – but she still did not speak to save herself. “And now she was bound to the stake, and the fire began to lick her clothing with its red tongues; - and just at that time the last moment of the seven years expired,”(page 42). Her brothers then untied her from the stake so I suppose it “appears” as though the men “saved her,” but she was courageous and valued her family so much that she was willing to die for the lives of her brothers, and did not tremble even in the face of death.

© Finally, there is the issue of women being portrayed as either a wicked witch/step-mother, or as a beautiful damsel in distress. In Hansel and Grethel, the stepmother is wicked and unloving; willing to sacrifice her stepchildren for her own welfare. This story completely turns the moral/loving family structure on its head and paints the stepmother as evil and wicked – this is a common theme in fairytales and Disney movies, which have definitely contributed to stepmothers having a “bad wrap” in our society today. There is also the evil old witch who eats little children who come to her sugar-cottage in the woods. There was also the evil witch who turned the handsome prince into a frog in The Princess Frog, and the old woman who turned the Twelve Brothers into crows. These “wretched women” are a reflection of superstitions, but also of the lack of power that women had in society. The “evil witch” would never be an “evil wizard” in one of Grimm’s Fairytales – just as the woman is also portrayed as a beautiful damsel in distress. This beauty is so critical to the character that it practically defines her – all the beautiful princesses could be summed up in blond-haired blue-eyes, busty beauty that is need of a handsome prince. Either way, these two portrayals are weak characters – good and evil.



The story of The Twelve Brothers really struck a cord with me because I have two younger brothers. My parents always reinforced the importance of being close with each other, not fighting, and loving each other no matter what. I am aware that the relationship I have with my seventeen and fourteen year old brothers are not typical, but I am extremely grateful for how close we are and how much I appreciate each of them for the young men they are. During this story, I found myself, as a modern young woman, identifying with the sister who said: “I will willingly die if I can, by that means release my twelve brothers,”(page 40). There are not many things that I would die for at nineteen years old, but I would risk my own life for lives of my brothers. I think that my ability to identify with this fairytale is proof of the timelessness and “universality” of these stories – selfless love for my brothers, my family, brings good things in life.