The Emergence Of Feminist Re-Writing Of Fairy Tales

Women in literature
The emergence of the genre of feminist rewrites of fairy tales that began in the 1970s with particular attention to the impact of the women’s movement on the development of the genre. The rallying shot that galvanized the debate was the assertion by Lurie in her 1970 “Fairy Tale Liberation” and 1971 “Witches and Fairies” that strong female characters could be found in fairy tales (Haase 1). Why those feminist scholars emerge to rewrite the fairy tales, and how meaningful is it? From my perspective I’m going to argue that Feminists re-writing of fairy tales have identified problematic themes of unrealistic standards for women, female passivity, and restriction of roles for women to marriage and motherhood, which has challenged
In the U.S. many states mandate the study of fables, folktales, and fairy tales in their curricula (for example, the statewide curricula of North Carolina, California, and Rhode Island emphasize this for third grade), preschools often include fairytales in their curricula, and preschool also use folktales and fairytales programs aimed at developing early literacy habits. These tales, which are many years old, are a basic part of the intricate layering of stories and influences that perpetuate and inform the cultural norms surrounding the world the child lives in (Parsons 135). The cultural norms represented in fairy tales play a large part in the socialization processes of the children who read them. The shared beliefs about gender roles held by the child’s society contained within these cultural norms. The development of a gender identity is integral to a child’s self-perception. Even more problematic was the realization that these common cultural metaphors and repetitive models of female passivity were being imprinted on the child’s mind while very young. Ruth Bottigheimer’s 1980-1985 study showed how Grimm’s revisions “weakened once strong female characters, demonized male power, imposed a male perspective on stories voicing women’s discontents, and rendered heroines powerless by depriving them of speech, all in accord
Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar have a substantial and sophisticated analysis of classic fairy tales by the stand of feminism. To illustrate what they mean, they provide a fascinating version of re-writing on the Grimms ' Snow White. “The Queen’s Looking Glass” is the first chapter of The Madwomen in the Attic, which is the most influential literary criticism text of the 1970s. The text begins the discussion of women’s literary potential. The authors begin their discussion of women writers in 19th century by providing the historical context for them. They assert an argument that female writers faced discrimination in treatment and attitudes as they began to write seriously. Gilbert and Gubar’s argument also begins to answer the question that why there were no female equivalents of Aristotle, Homer, Chaucer, and Shakespeare throughout documented