Blog Post

Week 8

Hyperlinks

“Flawed Fairytales and Toys”

            What fairytales mean to young child is far different than what an adult sees behind the glitz and glam. A young girl would conclude from a fairytale that if you dream to the fullest, your desires automatically come true. Which is stating that you are destined to find your “prince” or “princess” by simply waiting around. For example the tale of Cinderella, a story we all know where she loses her mother. Her father marries a vile women, who treat Cinderella as a servant the moment her father dies. She continues to suffer from her evil stepsisters. Then appears her fairy godmother, which builds up Cinderella’s confidence to attend the ball. Cinderella is sent off in a pumpkin carriage in a beautiful blue gown. She dances with the prince but as the clock strikes midnight she must be home so her stepmother will not know she snuck out. Later she realizes that she lost her sliver shoe. 43% of marriages will not makeit to their 50th anniversary. Cinderella also shows that wearing beautiful clothing and eating just enough so you can “look” appealing to the opposite sex is suppose to make your life worthwhile.

The prince remembered her by the glass slipper. In my opinion I would rather not be remembered by a shoe because what is the likelihood that a prince would find you. Then Cinderella lives happily ever after with prince. I would much rather be remembered by my personality or my laugh, something real not superficial. This story brainwashes young girls to think that life is all about finding your true love. Many marriages barely last a year, the idea of happily ever after is rare to find. My parents are one of the few parents I know that have been married well over 20 years.

These fairy tales such as Disney’s Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White have a much deeper significance. However we do not pick up on the “secret education” of these fairytale movies until we are past our childhood.

            The Disney Princesses continue to show young girls to think with only your heart but not with your heart and head. All of the princesses were at a very young age. Cinderella was 19 years old, Belle was 17, Aurora was only 16, and Ariel was 16 years old when they meet their prince charming. Ariel gave up her voice to Ursula because she saw a handsome man and could not control her emotions. She risked her chance of speaking simply because she wanted to marry someone she barely knew.

The only thing the handsome man knew about Ariel was that she could sing beautifully.  This could imply that you should be married young or be in a committed relationship in your teen years. Yet this implication is not true because there is not rule that states all girls should be dating or married when you are only a teenager. This is time where you figure out yourself and figure out what you want out of life.

            While movies such as Disney distort our reality, some toys have the same affect.

For example, Barbie, who was given the so called “perfect height”, perfect weight” and she always wears stylish clothes. Barbie always fashions her bright blue sparkly eye makeup. However Barbie is anything but perfect, she is made of plastic. Barbie comprised of very impractical body measurements, for example her neck is twice as long and six inches thinner than the average women as a result she would not be able to lift her head. Her waist is 16 inches, which is smaller than her head.

Barbie’s leg are 50% longer than her arms, the average women’s legs are only 20% longer than their arms. The world needs to be more realistic in the toys and movies that produced because it has such an affect on young girls. From these kind of pressures it causes so many issues for young girls. For example society believes that women are meant to look one way. Which consists of having long legs, long blonde hair and weight 125 pounds. When we do not look these way women criticize themselves  including girls as young as 10 and 11 years old and even myself.  Instead we should be seeing that there are many kinds of beauty and that it is beneath the skin as well.