Fairy-tale and stereotypes

Almost every girl child we come across, her childhood dreams are more or less based upon a fairy tale character. We ourselves had many-a-times played the role of various fairy tale characters in plays and fancy dress competition. Starting from the beautiful Cinderella with her glass slippers to the rosy cheeked and sweet Snow-white, it was very hard to imagine how else could have we spent our childhood or how the future children would spent their free time. Dressing up, reading the fairy-tales over and over again; this was, is and will be bound to be in a child's daily routine. It's true. 

But, the question that arises here is that is fairy-tales creating a kind of stereotypical image in the minds of the people? Although it might not have been occurred at our minds in our childhood, fairy tales truly seems to make an outline of stereotypes at our minds. Say for instance, in a purposive sample of two English and two IsiXhosa fairy tales were selected for intensive analysis among the popular fairy tales. The discourse analysis was used to analyze and deconstruct the texts with regard to how female and male characters were portrayed. The results indicated that both genders were frequently presented in stereotypical terms. The females were portrayed as submissive and dependent on men to rescue them. On the other hand, boys were portrayed as having power, bravery, strength and wit. This has implication for teaching reading in the Foundation Phase as this portrayal is stereotypical and not likely to be an accurate representation of many women today in the New South Africa. Similarly, if we reverse the pattern of thinking or if we think of another fairy tale such as Mulan, we find that the theme of this tale was completely opposite to the first example. Here, Mulan was shown as brave, strong and daring while the men were shown to follow her footsteps.

From this point of view, it becomes clear that certain aspects of fairy-tales thus seem to have a background of stereotype but it does not apply to all. So, whaddya say, let's grab a story book and enjoy the moment; but wait! don't get too serious on the conflicting facts....