The influence of gender stereotypes in famous fairy tales on Taiwanese female college students perception oflove
Introduction
Many people have a romanticized view of love, especially for women. They believe that people fall in love at the first sight, experience the unwavering love, and live happily ever after. This kind of romantic plot happens in fairy tales, which are the basic literature to the children. In many famous fairy tales, the prettiest girl who has good temper is always the heroine, waiting for being chosen by a handsome prince and get married in the end. Fairy tales play a major role in reinforcing gender stereotypes as well as transmitting society’s expectations to children (Patricia, 2012, p.74). The gender stereotypes inside the fairy tales can influence the children on their basic values and behavior toward the gender roles and go further to influence their perception of love in one relationship as they grow up. Fowler and McCormick (cited in O’Brien, 1996, p. 177) argue that the introduction of fairy tales at an age when the distinction between “fantasy and reality is blurry leads readers to accept the stereotypical conventions of fairy tales”: princesses are mistreated, women in power are evil, and everyone lives happily ever after.
Bigelow, D. (2007) points out that many women are brought up to believe that the one way to happiness lies in finding the right man, they put their energies into a man and find themselves resentful and disillusioned in midlife. This phenomenon can be seen in many women’s marriage nowadays. Due to their illusion of fairy tales, women easily consider themselves the beautiful heroine when they are looking for their spouse. This conception will lead them into the unrealistic expectation and fantasy in one intimate relationship, and end up leave lots of disappointment and misunderstanding.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether the gender stereotype of famous fairy tales influenced females’ perception of love, and, to what extent does it impact? It will focus on the three famous tales: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. Gender and love in these fairy tales will also be examined together as they are connected with each other. The questionnaires will be aimed at the female college students in Taiwan, whom will have more experiences of relationship, through analyzes their answers; people can realize how fairy tales impact females’ ideas toward love and find out the way to prevent people, especially women, from getting into a bad and frustrated relationship once and again.