Gender Roles In The Paper Bag Princess

From the Deprivation to Liberation of Gender Roles The common fairytale portrays the stereotypical “damsel in distress,” who is helpless until her male savior typically rescues her. Many fairytales address the theme of gender roles as well as many others. The female character takes on the feeble, desolate role, while the male character takes on the strong, hero role similar to the stories of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. However, Elizabeth, the protagonist of The Paper Bag Princess defies typical gender roles as a female character and becomes the hero of the story. Cinderella and The Paper Bag Princess share many qualities, but have major differences as well. Cinderella is an example of a woman who occupies traditional, domestic roles, but she does not portray the modern, liberated woman Elizabeth exhibits.
The first thing Robert Munsch, author of The Paper Bag Princess, states is, “Elizabeth was a beautiful princess. She lived in a castle and had expensive princess clothes” (Munsch). Unlike Cinderella, Elizabeth is already in the position of princess and has expensive clothes, which princesses normally possess. Lang mentions later on that Cinderella’s clothes were changed to newer and richer garment than any she had before (Lang 70). Physical features are an important characteristic to fairytales because they are one of the first details the author mentions. According to Dr. Silima Nanda’s “The Portrayal of Women in the Fairy Tales,” she highlights, “Beauty is highly revered in fairy tales being associated with intelligence, ability, kindness, worthiness and morality and this can be well perceived from the Grimms fairy tales” (Nanda 248). This particular trait is universal. Ugliness usually associates with evil characters, while beauty and princesses go hand in hand. Beauty separates the royals from the rest of the characters. They are typically beautiful and have expensive