Fairy Tales Women VS Modern Women

Most children of the current society are expose to fairytales like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Cinderalla”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Rapunzel”, and “Little Mermaid”. These stories often involve princes and princesses, and modern versions usually have a happy ending, which always end with and they lived happily ever after.

Let’s take a look at some of the female lead in the above mentioned stories… Snow White ate the poisonous apple and fell “dead” till the handsome prince awakens her. Cinderalla lost her glass shoe at the palace’s ball and returned home when the clock hit twelve. The prince returned with the lost glass shoe looking for her. Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger and fallen asleep for 100 years till the prince come to awaken her. Rapunzel trapped in the tall tower and her beautiful singing captured a prince’s attention and came to her rescue.

There is a common feature. Women are passive. They simply waited for thing to happen. They waited for their true one to appear to them and bring them happiness. You may disagree that Cinderalla isn’t passive as she went to the ball. Yes, point taken BUT please do take note. She DESIRED to go to the ball but she didn’t make any effort. She managed to go to the ball with all thanks to Fairy Godmother. Sleeping Beauty happily slept for 100 years to wait for her true one… This is definitely passive. Rapunzel made no attempt to escape and again, the prince came to her rescue.

Through such fairy tales, more and more women, at least little girls, in the current society develop a mentality that women should be passive. Considering the point we are in the Asian society, which make women more passive as in equality gender equality in modern Asian society is pretty unbalance. Most women are treated as a “second class” employee and often subject to more humiliation as compared to men.

On the other hand, women who are pro-active in fairy tales are often the villains. Less mentioning the Fairy Godmother, as she is not really consider a human and she is pro-active to something that is not beneficial to herself. Let’s take a look at Little Mermaid… She is the only pro-active character I recalled in the fairy tales I read. She exchanged her beautiful voice in exchange for a pair of legs so that she could get near to the male lead.

There is a scary common feature in some of the famous fairy tales. Stepmothers always ill-treated their stepchildren. This may create a mentality that all stepmother are evil and scheming. This will definitely stop the enhancement of the relationship if the child have this fear in her or him.

Personal view, I truly believe in gender equality and I hope I can practise it in times to come. Women should make their stand, challenge the men, lead a group of people and have their voice be heard. We can’t just wait for things to happen. We must make thing happen. I think modern women need to be more passive active and seek for what they desire. We are no longer living in the generation which women stay at home to cook and take care of house chores. So, Women!! Stand Up!!!!

PS: These article was written for fun… no offence, guys!