The Muted Group Theory As Applied To Fairy Tales: The Normative, And Its

Deconstruction

VARSHA DINESH
Roll No: 20140121158
PGP-1 Section B

A childs first foray into literature and the world of stories is often through the medium of a
fairy tale, quite frequently a Brothers Grimm or Perrault tale. The traditional framework of
the fairy tale is something that is quite familiar to anyone: there is a damsel, young and of
exaggerated virginal purity, who is incessantly tormented in some manner by another, older
woman, and the prize at the end of all the damsels troubles is marriage to the charming
young prince. Most fairy tales thus become the fight of a femme fragile against a femme
fatale, with the accepted social roles being the heroines ultimate reward.
Karen E. Rowe in her essay Feminism and Fairy Tales (Dont Bet on the Prince, Ruletidge,
1986) remarks that traditional fairy tales fuse morality with romantic fantasy in order to
portray cultural ideals for human relationships. So is it observed in most Grimm and Perrault
fairy tales that women adhere to what is expected of them, and that those who dont are
portrayed to be wicked or unjust. Even the so-called happily ever-afters that are so inherent
to our conception of a fairy tale happens when the heroine is finally set to achieve the
accepted social mores of marital bliss and consummation. Leading from this psychology,
another interesting observation to make is that Grimm often refers to females in his works in
two different ways: there is the it, a woman who is young, unsexed, beautiful and virtuous
(quite often the heroine, or the femme fragile) and then there is the she, a woman who is
older, sexed, ugly and evil (usually the nefarious tormenter, or the femme fatale). As such, it
is observed that she, the feminine pronoun, is characterized by her sexual experience.
Andrea Dworkin (New York, 1976) summarizes this as follows:
There are two definitions of woman [in fairy tales]. There is the good woman. She is a
victim. There is the bad woman. She must be destroyed...[the ending of these tales]
tells us that happiness for a woman is to be passive, victimized, destroyed, or asleep.
But why so? A careful re-examination of the original Grimm and Perrault stories bring to my
mind rather shocking evidence of muting of women.
Consider for example feminine agency. Curiosity in women has been punished since the
dawn of time, literally. Just consider the examples of Pandora and Eve. This same philosophy
extends itself to fairy-tales as well. Regarded by most patriarchal societies as a taboo, asking
questions, taking decisions or being inquisitive generally come at a great price for Grimm and
Perraults women. There are the wives of Bluebeard, murdered brutally for being curious

enough to look into their husbands secret chamber. In the original version of Rapunzel, she
is blinded for getting pregnant. In yet another tale, The Girl without Hands, the heroine loses
both her hands after saying no to her fathers sexual advances towards her. And there are
still a million other examples, including The Red Shoes, and the original Red Riding Hood,
where curiosity and agency in women are punished. Yet, this is not so true for malesJack in
Jack and the Beanstalk is rewarded for his curiosity, and so is the boy in the Boy Who
Learned How to Shiver. What is even more shocking is how Grimm literally applies muting
to his women: being silent, and enduring in silence, is a trademark way of Grimms heroines
to do penance or achieve something. Notable examples are Elisa in The Six Swans and The
Little Mermaid. Mute women have a remarkable presence in Grimms tales, and he associates
silence and suffering with good and prudent women.
Another interesting point Ive noticed through careful reading of fairy-tales is what film
theorist Laura Mulvey sums up as the male gaze. Most often, there is the worthy man,
who is portrayed as dominant, capable and intellectual. I noted, however, that there is no
requisite for such a man to be handsome. There is Tom Thumb who, although being of a tiny
stature, still goes on to do great things in his fairy-tale existence. There is the Beast, whom
Beauty begins to love before he is ever turned back into a handsome prince. There is also
Bluebeard, who, despite being domineering and intellectually superlative, is not very pleasant
to look at. However, women are most often than not Beauty. They are Belle, or Rose, or
Aurora, which are pretty names for pretty girls. This is in accordance with the male vision of
the ideal woman being good and beautiful. Laura Mulvey illustrates this brilliantly by saying
that the primary vision of women in a patriarchal society is that of an exhibitionist, and that
of man is a voyeur, applicable to both fairy tales and films of an older age. What is
interesting though is that what is called the male gaze has, through the years and through
repeated telling of these stories and all its underlying themes and virtues, also percolated into
society to become what is now the accepted gaze. A great number of women have formed
their social perceptions and concepts about what they should and could achieve, the rewards
associated with these accomplishments, and the so-called constructs of right behaviour
through their repeated exposure to fairy tales. Thus, the silence, subjugation, objectification
and lack of agency of the gross majority of female protagonists in fairytales have become the
norm accepted by both men and women.
A criticism of Cheris Kramaraes Muted Group Theory, which has its predominant focus on
the muting of women is that the theory is losing its relevance as the male and female
professional and personal spheres of interest intersect more and more. Keeping in mind this
criticism, I would now draw attention to the deconstruction of the normative in fairy-tales, or
what I like to call the new fairy-tales. It has been proven time and again by feminist scholars
that merely employing a role reversal in fairy-tales will not cause a change in the mindset of
the readers. In fact, a fairytale in which the princess rescued and then chose not to marry the
prince, thus employing agency, actually led to negative sentiments among several readers.
The emphasis should not be on mere role-reversal or substitution of strong characters in place
of weak characters, but a change from the very framework of what a traditional fairy-tale
should be.

Donna Jo Napoli and Angela Carter are two of the fairy-tale re-spinners, as we can call
them, who have successfully managed to un-mute women in their retelling of age-old tales.
Napoli revisions Belle and the Beast by writing it from the Beasts first person perspective,
having him be sensitive, sweet and gentlethus shying from the usual violent male vision.
She also equips Belle with the power of language and intellect, thus eschewing from the
traditional andro-centric method of devaluing women on the basis of education.
Angela Carter, in her powerful The Bloody Chamber, re-imagines the tale of Bluebeard by
turning the curiosity of the wife who enters the husbands secret chamber into an act of
transgression against the dominating nature of the man. This breaking of rules set by the dark,
dominating husband comes almost as liberation to the young wife in the tale. Another
revision that Carter brings about in the story is through re-defining what a worthy man or a
charming prince should be. Not a man who subjugates what he perceives to be his
woman, but a simple piano tuner, blind yet perceptive, embodying both masculine and
feminine values, yet co-existing harmoniously with Carters new and liberated woman.
I can quote further examples of new or old authors reworking fairy-tales to cater to the
sensibilities of today, and to further emphasize how important it is to reconsider the
economy of the violent male gaze (Savyer, 2013). The reworking of fairy-tales also applies
to un-muting of other muted groups, such as what Malinda Lo does in Ash, her queer retelling
of Cinderella, or what Catherynne Valente does in Bones like Black Sugar, a different look at
Hansel and Gretel. Fairy tales can hence become a powerful medium of not only storytelling, but impression-forming.
Children often form their ideas of cultural norms through the medium of the stories told to
them at an impressionable age. Identifying these cultural norms dictate their reactions to it
further in the future. As such, fairy-tales are extremely important to any society at any point
of time. Rowe asks, in the closing sentences of her essay, if we have the courageous vision
and energy to cultivate...fairy tales for human beings in the future? I believe that we do.
Fairy-tales can be powerful cultural agents, creating conceptions of gender-roles and
expected gender-behaviour, and it is from here that we can make a change.

Works Cited
Dworkin, A. (1976). Woman Hating. New York: Dutton.
Rowe, K. E. (1986). Feminism and Fairy Tales. In J. Zipes, Don't Bet on the Prince. New
York: Ruletidge.
Savyer, C. (2013). Gender Forum, Issue 44.
Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema