From: dwp@cactus.org (Deborah Platt)
Subject: Fairy Tales and female passivity (was: Re: How to get daughter more career-minded?)
Organization: Capital Area Central Texas UNIX Society, Austin, Tx
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 19:09:22 GMT

In article <4803@crl.LABS.TEK.COM> sjk@strl.labs.tek.com (Steven King) writes:
>In article <1992Sep29.124932.20994@nynexst.com>, clare@nynexst.com (Clare Chu) writes:
	[Clare argues that movies and fairy tales encourage girls
	 to be passive, dependent, and overly preoccuppied about their
	 appearance by portraying the good female characters as
	 helpless and beautiful.  In contrast, the female characters
	 who actually do try to exert an influence over their unfolding
	 lives are portrayed as witches, evil step-mothers, and bitches.
	 It goes without saying that the latter are unappealing to men.

	 Meanwhile the same movies and fairy tales portray both
	 the good and evil male charaters as actively pursuing
	 their own agenda, instead of waiting around for someone
	 else to take the decisive action in their lives.]

Steve writes:
>You over generalize.  The great men in society are typically not the loud,
>brash, abrasive ones.  Sure, men are probably more easily forgiven if they
>exhibit this behavior -- but the most powerful men I know are able to get
>the job done and make it a win-win proposition, instead of pounding their
>shoes on the table and yelling "We will bury you!"  :^)  

I don't think that Clare was saying that the male heros and villains
were loud, brash, and abrasive, or that this was held up as being the ideal.  
Nor was she saying that women should be loud, brash, and abrasive.
What she was saying was that men, whether depicted in an appealing
or unappealing way, were at least trying to control their lives by
grappling with challenges, and creating opportunites for themselves,
whereas females who do the same things in fairy tales and in movies
are usually portrayed as being unappealing.  The female heros in these 
stories don't know what to do, and can only hope to be beautiful enough 
to inspire some man to go to the trouble of saving them.

Steve also writes:
>I don't think that women have to totally reject their feminine
>qualities to assert the masculine qualities - and vice-versa.  They should
>honor BOTH qualities, and teach BOTH qualities to BOTH sexes.

For the life of me, I don't know why passivity is regarded as
a feminine trait.  I certainly don't regard it as such.  And it
has such negative repercussions that I wouldn't want to wish
it on males or females.  It's of course wonderful whenever someone
comes to the aid of another, but to "depend on the kindness of
strangers" as a way of life is to lead a hellish existence.

IMHO the fact that girls disproportionately suffer from anorexia
and other eating disorders, the fact that girls increasing have
begun to think of themselves as unattractive, the fact that
girls worry that if they do well in math that boys won't like 
them, to name just a few, is more than enough reason to 
worry about what kind of negative messages we are sending girls 
through traditional fairy tales, modern movies, and soap operas.

I also think that the portrayal of men as doers and women as
helpless is so pervasive that it is hardly noticeable.
-- 

========================================================================
Deb Platt
dwp@cactus.org		cs.utexas.edu!cactus.org!dwp
Newsgroups: misc.kids