Andrea Dworkin's Onceuponatime

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In her essay, “Onceuponatime” feminist writer Andrea Dworkin emphasizes the detrimental impact that fairy tales have on society and how they reduce males and females to one dimensional characters: “Fairy tales are the primary information of the culture. They delineate the roles, interactions, and values which are available to us. They are our childhood models, and their fearful, dreadful content terrorizes us into submission - if we do not become good, then evil will destroy us; if we do not achieve the happy ending, then we will drown in the chaos.” By asserting that fairy tales are the bedrock for which males and females are built upon in society she is essentially blaming fairy tales for creating false expectations and realities that will never come true. Through her lens, she sees that these fairy tales teach us lessons that stay with us for life and are basically a curse placed upon human existence. Furthermore, Dworkin emphasizes her point in the fairy tale, Snow White, in saying that women must be passive, pious, beautiful, and innocent in order to be framed as the “good” characters. In the text, it mentions that Snow White is …show more content…

“He is handsome and heroic. He is a prince, that is, he is powerful, noble, and good. He rides a horse. He travels far and wide. He has a mission, a purpose. Inevitably he fulfills it. He is a person of worth and a worthwhile person. He is strong and true.” Nonetheless, he is not real. Males in society constantly try to live up to these expectations that a typical male should capture. Through this process, they end up suffering and getting hurt trying to become the “noble prince.” Dworkin suggests that both males and females end up harming themselves trying to be like these characters in fairy tales. They diminish their humanity and who they are in order to fit these stereotypes, that in reality, hold no truth to how society really is and

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