A Cautionary Tale, Not a Fairy Tale

Like many girls, I grew up hearing a lot of fairy tales and watching a lot of Disney princess movies. I was taught to want the charming prince and the fairy tale romance. And like many girls, I still love my Disney and still want those things. However, I also see the ways in which fairy tales, wonderful as they seem, are a form of oppression for women. They encourage dependence on a man and perpetuate stereotypes about how a woman should be. Somehow, many girls and women seem not to notice these things, or perhaps they're willfully ignoring them because they don't want to lose the sweetness these stories held when they were children. My purpose in this blog is to shine a light on the undertones in fairy tales in an attempt to make them harder to ignore. This blog is a cautionary tale, not a fairy tale.