Andrea Dworking's Onceuponatime: The Roles

Have you ever read a fairy tale? Who were the protagonist and antagonist? Did any of these women contribute to the happy ending? I didn’t think so. Fairy tales and many similar animated motion pictures display the unimportance of women in society. Andrea Dworking, a radical female feminist explains this sufficiently in her essay, “Onceuponatime: The Roles.” Her point is validated through the use of her evidence and helps use sneeze the mucus and muck of our past that have been right under our noses. It is unfortunate that many of individuals’ values are derived from fairy tales, but it is the ugly truth that we have not discovered. Fairy tales act as a blueprint that corrupts gender roles and teach children, females are subservient.

Good females

are subservient. Great females are passive. Outstanding females are dead. Even though society relies heavily dependent on females along with their roles, fairy tales represent important females as dead and/or misfortunate. It is because of this parallel to society, that women are found to be subordinate to males and less recognized. Dworking states, “—the only good woman is a dead woman. They [authors] define for us the female character and delineate its existential possibilities.” Therefore, women have no real purpose, but to be unfortunate. It is inevitable that in almost all of these fairy tales, the main character, a woman, is victimized by another woman who deserves to be killed. To continue, the FOIL of the victimized character, also a woman, wants to eliminate her competition; this inadvertently represents all women’s lack of pride and self confidence. Dworking writes, “[The queen] ordered a huntsman to take Snow White to the forest, kill her, and bring back her heart [to eat it].” Why would the queen in Snow’s White’s story be so jealous of Snow White? Why does her jealousy make her the antagonist?

“Good female figures are victims; horrifying female victims must be destroyed.” This falls into place when gender roles are forced upon us through this medium (Disney, Dreamworks) and it is never questioned.

Furthermore, when Cinderella asked the 7 dwarves to board with them, they accepted her offer. However, she had to clean and perform domestic work. Not only was she in danger, but the fact that she was forced to do “typical work” for a female is degrading to all women. It also sends the wrong message to children and force them to unconsciously treat females as such. It eventually becomes the norm to males in society and influences their values as they increase in age. Moreover, Cinderella’s stepmother, who is a female, treated Cinderella, a female, horribly. Dworking writes, “Cinderella, meanwhile, was forced to do heavy domestic work, and when he work was done her stepmother would throw lentils into the ashes and make Cinderella separate the lentils from the ashes. Cinderella was a real threat to her.” It’s discerning to visualize a kindhearted young female to be treated horribly and it’s what America’s young children are seeing, role-playing and being influenced. Unfortunately, there isn’t any evidence of the male playing the antagonist. Dworking is satisfying this point by explaining this trend across all other fairy tales that parents and guardians allow their parents to watch and read. She mentions that a similar plot occurs in the fairy tales about Snow White and

Rapunzel where the stepmother or FOIL of the character is a woman and tries to benefit herself. This is evidently malicious and skews children’s moral values.
Social groups may believe that men are women are equal; however, fairy tales depict the opposite. Yes, the protagonists who are females are depicted as beautiful, shown envy to and are saved by someone a male. They can be seen as more valuable than men because they are too beautiful and genuine enough to not be buried in the ground (Snow White). Yes, they can be seen as more valuable than men because they win the prince (Cinderella). Yes, they can be seen as more valuable beings for the simple fact that they have luscious long hair. However, they are not seen as equals to men, Dworking implies. Females in these fairy tales are either victimized or are wanted
dead.

They are never seen rescuing their male counterparts in the fairy tales Dworking cites and mentions. Is it this a coincidence?

In end, it is unfortunate that fairy tales stories skew and degrade the moral standards and values of youth in this day in age. Pushing for change of these stories will ultimately cause uproar. People will fear the criticism they will get for being nonconformists and be criticized for changing stories that exist. It is unfair for feminists and people who believe that equality is important in society. For the fact that gender roles are not interchanged in these stories are unfortunate evidence that gender inequality exists today and is being taught to children even until this day. Dworking says,

“…happiness for a woman is to be passive, victimized, destroyed, or asleep. It tells us that happiness is for the woman who is good – iner, victimized – and that a good woman is a happy woman. It tells us that the happy ending is when we are ended, when we live without our lives or not at

all.”
Let us not forget that both men are women are important. However, females are deemed subservient and are instilled in our children during their very important and sponge-like stages in life. Even though there is no true definition for what good woman characteristics, it is definitely not what Walt Disney Animation Pictures, Dreamworks, and Pixar depicts to vulnerable children.