Some Day My Prince Will Come

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Recommended: How fairy tales affect gender roles

While some scholars believe traditional fairy and folk tales portray a message of female and male equality, Marcia Lieberman argues against this frame of mind. Lieberman suggests the portrayal of male and female characters in fairy tales result in the prevalent negative sexual stereotypes associated with the role of men and women in society. These sexual stereotypes act a limit to the extent a certain sex can achieve and succeed. In relation to the process in which “children are socialized or culturally conditioned by movies and television programs” (Paragraph 3), Lieberman explains the similar effect of fairy tales: these fairy tales “have been been made the repositories of the dreams, hopes, and fantasies of generations of girls” (Paragraph 4). The author introduce her argument by upbraiding the association of certain character traits with appearances. She believes this “acts to promote jealousness and divisiveness” (Paragraph 6) among children. The boys who win are always bold, active and lucky, while the girls who win are the fairest of them all. For girls, this focus on beau...

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