S4:E2 | Sexism in the Grimm Fairy Tales

Le Salon Literary Discussions

From women storytellers to male writers, hear how sexism and the patriarchy were woven into the Grimm fairy tales. In this second episode in the series, we’ll trace how the brothers Grimm crafted competition between female protagonists and antagonists (centered on beauty and youth) and made physical labour around the home a way to show marriageability to princes and kings.

And these 19th century Grimm fairy tales aren’t entirely dated. You’ll hear about a study from the 1990s that demonstrate gender bias in these types of stories and we’ll examine the evolution of Disney’s take on the fairy tale princess—from Cinderella to Aladdin, Mulan to Brave.

[4:38] “…telling these stories among women, in spaces that were mostly exclusively female, was a way to offer caution around subjects that still to this day make victims feel shame.”

[6:29] “These edits not only wiped out the female experience we can infer from the original oral tale, but also begins to pit woman-versus-woman and demonstrate ‘desired’ female traits.”

[13:24] “Based on this, female readers come to understand that they must remain industrious to get and keep a husband—there is no room for laziness or complaints.”

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