Gender Stereotyping

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Gender Stereotypes in Rapunzel
Rapunzel is a German fairy tale published by the Grimm Brothers and dates back to the 1800s. The story revolves around a female character known as Rapunzel. She was born to a woman and a man who sold her to an enchantress after making a deal in exchange for a rampion flower (Authorama). This old tale highlights the theme of love through the main character Rapunzel and a prince. However, through a more critical analysis of the story, there are several hints of gender stratification that is brought on by culture. This essay aims to explore cultural issues such as gender stereotypes.
This story is a good representation of how children tales have incorporated the ideology of gender stratification. The main character is female. However, she is depicted as a damsel in distress. Consequently, a prince is expected to be the hero and rescue her. Blair et al. (133) argue that culture contributes significantly to the meaning audiences attach to gender. This argument holds true in the Rapunzel fairytale since because of culture, a female is expected to weak and utterly dependent on a male. According to the fairy tale, the man and woman give away their child to the evil enchantress who locks her up in a tower. The author writes that “Rapunzel, in her solitude passed time by letting her sweet voice resound” (Authorama). In this case, the author makes it seem like Rapunzel was incapable of finding a way to escape the tower. In fact, her only hope of freedom came when a prince noticed her in the tower and fell in love with her.

The audience, in this case, the children, learn that girls are weak and not able to help themselves while the boys are brave and need to save the girls.
In the article Crosscurrents, Blair et al. (137) also write that “images seek to persuade us to feel, think, buy or act.” In this case, writings also have the same effect. In other words, stories have the power to sell a specific ideology to readers and listeners. At the beginning of the fairy tale, a woman, Rapunzel’s mother, is standing at a window and notices beautiful flowers known as rampions. She gains a desire to eat this flowers which leads her to nag her husband to get them at whatever cost. Firstly, this may communicate to the children that women are not able to control their urges and must have whatever they desire at all costs. The woman knew that these flowers belonged to the evil enchantress who was feared by all and yet insisted on having them. Secondly, the boys may have the impression that it is alright for them to do anything a girl wants to please them. This ideology is not accurate because love should not drive men to engage in illegal activities to satisfy their women. In fact, according to the tale, obtaining those flowers cost the man and woman their first child, Rapunzel.
Also, the fairy tale seems to sell the idea of female and male image based on culture. The author writes that “grew into the most beautiful child under the sun” (Authorama). The story depicts the female main character as beautiful, having long golden hair, singing and very soft. The tale also exhibits the prince as clever and heroic. These traits may be true. However, the author has created the impression that males and females can only be this way. This ideology is incorrect because a woman or girl can be heroic, clever, brave, and all other traits attributed to men or boys. On the other hand, boys can be emotional and able to show and communicate those emotions. Furthermore, the young girls may believe that looks and image is an important factor in their lives. They may end up thinking that beauty is all that a man goes after which might make them overly concerned about their image. The boys may also end up looking for their partners based on an image instead of important traits such as intelligence, personality, and character. Culture has played a big part in portraying women as objects of desire. Blair et al. (139) state that authors use “emotional appeals, ethos, to strike emotions to the readers.” This explains why the author of this fairy tale makes use of the standard ideology of heroic men saving helpless women.
Conclusively, the Rapunzel fairy tale is a depiction of some of the challenges in the article, Crosscurrents. These problems are selling gender and cultural influence in gender biases. In many classic fairy tales, the main character is too often, a female who is in danger and needs to be rescued by a male. While this scenario not wrong, it creates an impression that women cannot save themselves which is untrue.

Works Cited
Authorama. Fairy Tales: By Grimm Brothers. Retrieved on: January 27, 2018. Retrieved from: http://www.authorama.com/grimms-fairy-tales-16.html
Blair, Kristine., Almjeld, Jen., Murphy, Robin. Crosscurrents: Cultures, Communities,
technologies. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, (2014): 129-140.