Sexuality in Specific Fairy Tales Analysis

Sexuality in Specific Fairy Tales Analysis

The issue of sexuality in Disney cartoons has been controversial for a long time. The present paper has the purpose of describing and analyzing the specific sexuality in three Disney stories. These are: Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, the Little Mermaid.

It is true that adults watch cartoons as well, but the main target is represented by children. For them cartoons- filmic realizations of fairy tales- are full of truths. From this point-of-view it can be considered that fairy tales teach young children a lot of things, influencing their values as future adults. Their importance is more than obvious. The most famous cartoons include girls and boys as main characters. It is normal for them to be using stereotypes, but to what extent can the gender stereotypes become harmful? Let us take a look at three Disney cartoons representing three universally famous fairy tales.

The first story that comes to mind is "The little mermaid." The story was written by Hans Christian Andersen and it tells us about the life of a young mermaid who is willing to make huge sacrifices in order to be loved by a human prince. In the original story the mermaid falls in love with a human prince she saves from drowning. In order to become human and take her chance with the prince she makes a deal with a witch who gives her a potion that allows her to have a human body. The transformation is very painful. The price that the mermaid pays is her own voice. However the prince is not aware that she was the one who recued him and ends up marrying someone else. The mermaid does not die, but becomes an air creature thanks to her immense sacrifice, Disney however could not present a tragic ending so he changed it.

We have an attractive young lady, the daughter of a king. Here we may recognize a metaphor according to which every girl is a princess for their father. Since she must give up her family in order to be with the prince, the communicated idea is that the reaching of sexual maturity and the creation of your own family implies a break up with the birth family. This is partially true in reality. The sexual dimension of the mermaid is pretty strong. Not only does she have long hair, red lips, perfect eyes, perfect curves, but she wears nothing but a tank top. She represents a beauty ideal in which revealing parts of your own body is an important aspect.

Beauty however, nor kindness are enough in order to deserve somebody's love. Not only does she save the prince's life, but she must change her own identity paying with her voice in order to stand a chance of being loved. What are the hidden implications here? Love is seen as something that must be conquered by females through sacrifices which include a change of identity.

This change is both physical (not only do you have to be perfect like Ariel, but you have to respect the man's standards- after all it is a fairy tale, why could not the prince have loved a mermaid?), but also psychological (you must become someone else in order to be loved). It can be considered that getting legs is a metaphor for reaching a more developed state of sexuality- a process which is physically painful.

The man is rather passive, while she abandons her family, changes her body and also gives up her voice (in other words she will not be able to express herself ). The prince wants to marry her because she saved his life. The role that makes the woman love- worthy is therefore the one of life saver. It is perhaps a way too heavy responsibility in real life. Self sacrifice and silence seem to be the ideal behaviour for women.

"beauty and the Beast" is another interesting fairy tale from this point-of-view. The prince is transformed into a Beast. We have physical ugliness as a mask which prevents people from seeing the real person. At the same time, this ugliness is a punishment for the vanity of the young who think they have absolute power and will continue to be young forever. He is ugly and she is beautiful and these are the coordinates which define them best. After all, she is called Belle.

Once again we have Disney teaching girls that beauty is what must define a woman. But this time it is just as important for men. The beast becomes depressed and has poor self-esteem after he looses his physical beauty. Sex and relationships are closely connected with looks. O the one hand, there is the beast who would like to change back to his old look . He learns about the difference between form and substance. But so does she because she is able to penetrate behind the looks and understand there is seething more to discover.

Once more the role of the woman is that of saving the man. The beast returns to the state of the prince after they are wed. It is important to understand that the man can be attractive and love worthy even in the absence of a good looking aspect. The woman on the other side is the Beauty par excellence, Belle. The development of their sexualities is different. She becomes more and more aware of his and of her own while he tries to dominate his animal side. Perhaps the beast is a way of saying that man and animal are somehow synonymous. Just lie Ariel, Belle needs to abandon her father and her family, but in the Beast's home she will be treated like a queen, having the occasion to occupy her time with reading and other meaningful activities. From this we understand that she is appreciated as a person as well and that brains are important as well.

In the case of the Little Red Riding Hood there might be perhaps a bigger quantity of relevant sexual symbols. First and foremost it must be underlined that she does not have a real name. she is defined by the hood that she is wearing and by the action of riding (searching). The hood is red and in this colour we may have connotations ranging from passion, love, sex to blood and despair. Nevertheless she is considered to be innocent and naive. The riding towards the grandmother's house is a journey of initiation. The wolf on the other hand is the symbol of male desire.