Phan 1

Tramy Phan
Professor Lewis
English 114B
May 11, 2014
Stereotypes in Fairy Tales
Classic fairy tales written by renowned storytellers, such as the Brothers Grimm, tend to
portray the stereotypes that women are inferior to men. Fairy tales often propagate that women
are domesticated creatures; they are nothing more than prizes that men acquired through their
courageous fights against monsters and witches. Over the past decades, some adaptations were
created in order to challenge the way societys stereotype of womens inferiority to men, while
some remained the same. For example, Disneys adaptation of classic fairy tale such as
Cinderella, that has a typical plot similar to the original story, while Tangled was created with a
more revolutionary plot that went against the original stereotype. This paper will focus on the
perpetuation of stereotypes, generated by the older works such as The Red Cap compare to
how stereotypes are changing by the more modern creations like Hoodwinked! Stereotypes live
on through fairy tales; however, more modern works were created in order to override these
stereotypes.
In the Little Red Cap by the Brothers Grimm, Little Red and Grandma were portrayed
as weak and could not defend themselves from the Big Bad Wolf. It was only when the
Huntsman passed by Grandmas house in the wood that they were saved. If one were to look at
the wooden illustrations by Gustave Dore that go along with Charles Perraults version
(SurLaLune), they would see the differences that the arts held compared to the original story with
Phan 2

no illustrations. (Lewis). Perrault rewrote the classic Little Red Cap and called it Little Red
Riding Hood. In his version, the fairy tale ended with Grandma and Little Red got eaten by the
Big Bad Wolf and the huntsman never appear. Gustave Dores illustrations goes along with the
Perrault version and revealed a total different story compare to the original story. In the
illustrations, there was no huntsman who could save Little Red and Grandma from the Big Bad
Wolf, death was the only option for both of them; while the original story include a huntsman
who appeared out of the wood to save them. This proves that in a time period where Wilhelm
and Jacob Grimm were from, women were part of an inferior gender in a male dominated
society. It was normal for women to be domestic and stay home while the men are out making a
living, which depicted in most fairy tales that princesses were damsels in distress, waiting for
their knights in shining armor to come rescue them, hence the name Prince Charming. These
fairy tales were written as a way to teach children, especially young girls, to follow the way that
society has engraved them to be. If they want to be like a princess and meet their Prince
Charming one day, they need to behave and act like how a princess would act. Any rebellious
ideas or intentions were not welcome.
Another way to show how stereotypes were being used in childrens cartoons and stories
is comparing the adaptations of Cinderella and Rapunzel to the Disneys versions of
Cinderella and Tangled. As the majority of us know, Cinderella and Tangled were drastically
different from each other yet still have the same element of weak princesses waiting for their
Prince to come. While the classic Cinderella by the Brothers Grimm and the adapted version of
Cinderella by Disney still resembles each other, the differences were that the Disneys
Cinderella was less gruesome and were more magical compared to the original Brothers
Grimms Cinderella. In the Brothers Grimms version, the step sisters took drastic measures by
Phan 3

cutting parts of their feet In Cinderella by in order to fit into the slippers, showing children the
realistic and ugly side of greed. After all, there is a saying no pain no gain. However, in the
Disneys version, there were no gruesome scenes like the original, yet the plot was still
practically identical. Disney made it so that it would be a magical fairy tale for children to look
up to, not to frighten them. In contrast, Rapunzel also by the Brothers Grimm and Tangled was
completely different on so many levels.
Rapunzel was a helpless maiden who got locked in a tower by a Witch whom she thought
was her real mother. She could not escape by herself without the Princes help. That same
concept still appeared in Tangled, however, the twist was that Rapunzels personality and
characteristics were different from the Rapunzel in the fairy tales. For instance, Rapunzel had a
dream to leave the castle and explore the world, especially to find the meaning behind the lights
that she saw on the night sky from the tower every year on her birthday. In comparison, the
Rapunzel in fairy tale was more docile and never had the goal of leaving the tower until she met
the Prince. By creating a strong-willed Rapunzel, Disney took a revolutionary step in challenging
the stereotype that women are inferior to men. The most impactful fact that made the adapted
Cinderella different from Tangled was the difference in time period.
The Disney version of Cinderella was created in 1950, a time period where inequality
between genders were present and clear. At that time, women were still considered inferior to
men in society. However, women of this time have gained their rights, know their rights in
society, and are considered equal to men, most of the time, which is why Tangled was created
with a different time aspect compared to the old Disney princesses movies. The stereotype of
womens inferiority still exists in society, however, adaptations like Tangled and Hoodwinked!
overrides and challenges this existing stereotype and creates a more equal society.
Phan 4

Stereotypes were displayed throughout the whole movie Hoodwinked! When reading
Little Red Cap, Grandma and Little Red were two helpless women who could not protect
themselves without the Huntsmans help, however, the role got reversed in Hoodwinked! When
Granny was telling Red not to come to her house through the phone while she was knitting,
viewers got the impression that she is the typical grandmother who knows how to knit and bake.
By displaying such scenes, the directors established the stereotype that old people are not active
and could only sit around, thus integrating the audience into being a part of that stereotype.
However, when the movie progressed to Grannys story, her character was not calm and serene
like a grandma; instead, she loves extreme sports and is very adventurous. The movie shows
Granny Puckett skiing with just one ski and using a cupcake pan as a tool to ride on the rope at
the end of the movie. By giving Granny an adventurous personality, the directors challenged the
stereotype that not all old people are weak and cannot move around. In fact, there are grandpas
and grandmas who are healthier and more active than teenagers these days.
As for Red, she was not as helpless as previously thought because she was actually
stronger than Wolf in physical skill. In the beginning of Reds story, she start out as an innocent
little girl, riding on her bike while singing and talking to the animals in the forest. This scene
perpetuates that all heroines from fairy tales are innocent, gentle, and can talk to animals. When
watching this scene, many of us were reminded of the different fairy tales that we have watched
as a child and the similarity it displayed in all of the older works. This moment established the
stereotype of how the heroine must be gentle and innocent, it was then challenged by a strong
and willful Red when she encountered the Wolf in the forest. Unlike the typical heroines who
know nothing about self-defense, Red proved that not all heroines are weak and helpless in
situations where they need to protect themselves by learning martial arts and used it to defends
Phan 5

herself against Wolf. Red was able to break away from the typical image that was created of her
through The Little Red Cap, she was able to showcased her strong image by defeating Wolf
with her combat skill.
Another stereotype that exists in the movie was comparing the contradicting roles
between the Wolf and the bunny, Boingo. When Wolf first appeared in the movie, pretending to
be Granny, he was immediately put under the stereotype of dangerous animals being the villain.
From the original fairy tale, the audience knows Wolfs character as the villain whom tricked ate
both Grandma and Little Red. Wolf was already placed in the stereotype the moment he
appeared in Hoodwinked! while Boingo appeared to be innocent and could not possibly do any
harm to anyone. Being in the stereotype that small animals are not only sweet but too weak and
helpless to defend themselves against bigger animals. The way the directors integrated the bunny
into the movie showed the audience that he is going to be the typical animal comrade for the
heroines. That was how the stereotype of each animal was created. However, the stereotype of
how large animals are the villains and the small animals are the victims got reversed as the
movie progressed. Wolf turned out to be an investigator, trying to solve the robbery crime while
the Bunny was actually the villain that has been the cause of the robbery by stealing recipes. As
it turns out, everything is not as it seems. In the end, the audience got hoodwinked by the
directors.
While Little Red Hood had the huntsman, Hoodwinked! had Kirk the woodsman. In the
original fairy tale, the huntsman was portrayed as a strong, smart, and dependable man. He came
up with a plan to trick the Wolf and was able to get Grandma and Little Red out of the Wolfs
stomach. He had the quality of a Prince Charming who saved the day. On the other hand, Kirk
the woodsman had a huge built, he looked strong and brave. That was the stereotype that the
Phan 6

audience had when they first saw Kirks appearance in the animation. However, his appearance
did not match his personality. Turn out, Kirk was an ice cream truck owner, he had a dream to
become a part of the yodel crew, and he had no experience in being a woodsman. Kirk was
weaker than our expectations. But, our expectations sprung out from our stereotype about
appearances. When we see someone big, we automatically assumed that he/she is a strong and
capable person, however, we failed to realize that we put our own expectations on them without
knowing how they really are. Stereotyping leads us to have such expectations of people we only
see but never talk with.
Overall, by comparing these different works from different creators, stereotypes were
constantly portrayed in fairy tales. Society integrates these stereotypes into different fairy tales
and through it, passed it on to the future generations. In the world where we live in, it is not easy
to overthrow what has already established for years, centuries, or even decades. Stereotypes that
had established over the years are even harder to change. Sometimes, we never realize that we
have been stereotyping until someone point it out. Since stereotypes become a part of our lives,
some of the more modern works actually threw off these stereotypes and add in different twists
to create a more defying plot against stereotypes.





Phan 7

Works Cited
Cinderella. Dir. Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske. Perf. Ilene Woods, Eleanor
Audley, and Verna Felton. RKO Radio Pictures. 1950. DVD.
Dore, Gustave. Little Red Riding Hood. Illus. 1867. Illustrations of Little Red Riding Hood.
SurLaLune Fairy Tales. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Grimm Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. Cinderella. Grimms Complete Fairy Tales. Wordsmith,
1999. 80-86. Print.
---. The Little Red Cap. SurLaLune Fairy Tales. Ed. Heidi Anne Heiner. 2007. Web. 26 Jan.
2014.
---. Rapunzel. SurLaLune Fairy Tales. Ed. Heidi Anne Heiner. 2007. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
Hoodwinked! Dir. Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, and Tony Leech. Perf. Anne Hathaway, Glen
Close, and James Belushi. Weinstein Company. 2005. DVD.
Lewis, Kimberly. Lecture. California State University Northridge, CA. 30 Jan. 2014.
Tangled. Dir. Nathan Greno, Byron Howard. Perf. Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, and Donna
Murphy. Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures. 2010. DVD.