Fairytales The mother sets her daughter and her son to bed, and fits their blankets smugly

around their tiny bodies. They are seven and six years of age, respectively. The mother stares at her children with a loving gleam to her eyes, and sits in between their beds on a rocking chair, with a book on her lap. The title reads One Tale a Night, and she opens it where they left out the night before, on the beginning of Cinderella. For half an hour she reads the tale to them, and when she is done, they stare at her with expectant eyes. She kisses them in the forehead and leaves, the sensation of completed duty filling her body. However, the question remains: is her duty truly complete? As a mother, reading fairytales is the best option to fill many of society's expectations regarding her role? The fact remains that tis is a common scenario on the standard American home. In fact, Danilewitz found that most parents read fairytales to their children (Salvas 8). Fairytales have been found to have an affect upon children's behavior, by means of forcing them into an introspective thinking state that soothes them (p. 9). Throughout the years fairytales have received credit for many things: showing good role models to children, creating in them good moral standings and coping strategies; instigating good feelings and sensations in children, soothing them; creating a secure attachment between children and their parents. Although, in fact, most of these statements are true, the fact that fairytales also have a negative effects upon children cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, it is first necessary to determine what is a fairytale. Danilewitz determined that a fairytale is a biography told for the purpose of educating (Salvas 8). However, fairytales can be found in countless forms: they can be written and read to kids; they can be recorded on CDs or tapes; they can be found in drawings; they can be seen as movies or plays. The array of options in which fairytales can be found is only akin to the array of negative spectrum in which they can affect children's psyches. Fairytales produce two main types of damage: short-term and long-term damage. Short-term effects generate immediate response in children, that can either be physical or psychological, and also mid-term effects, that can be seen throughout childhood, or within the next few days or weeks after the

children was exposed to the fairytale. Long-term effects, on the other hand, are those that only show up later on in life, having created deep-rooted damage that cannot be recognized until it starts crippling emotional and psychological development in teenage and early adulthood years. In the range of short-term negative effects of fairytales, some are more well-known, and some are a bit more veiled. Amongst the best known bad effects of fairytales, there is the creation of nightmares and hyperactive behavior. Although this fact seems to contradict almost completely the idea presented above that fairytales are soothing for children, it does not. Some fairytales can be soothing; they put children in a thoughtful instance, and that thoughtfulness can be easily deterred as soothing. This thoughtfulness, however, can also generate a negative effect upon children, bringing them into having apparently unexplained nightmares (related to feelings of guilt that might be brought upon children from the comparison of their regular behavior to that of the idealized one of the story's hero, or even by the scary images depicted in the stories, such as those of evil witches, dragons, monsters, losing one's family and being lost), that can slowly lead them to a fear of sleeping, and night-time hyperactivity. Fairytales also have immediate psychological effects. The representation of elderly people and of stepfamilies as villains creates a stereotype that should be avoided at all costs nowadays. In a society where divorce rates are of 50%, and one out of four children will live with stepfamilies (Ashford et al. 374), blended families need all the help they can get. The negative image of stepmothers, stepfathers, and stepsiblings depicted by fairytales has been of no help. Ashford, also explained that the early impact of divorce in younger children is harder than in older children, that have learned more and better coping techniques, as well as having more resources to help them than younger children. Resting their faith in the moral roles of fairytales, younger children tend to create illusions about divorce and stepfamilies that can generate difficulties in the blending of families. Also, considering that our society is composed of 12.4% of elderly (p. 570), building up negative stereotypes against this group will only worsen even further the prejudices and discriminations against this already socially crippled age. The

fact that these stories are usually being read to the children by their parents teaches them that their progenitors agree with or approve of the points of view expressed in these stories, excusing them into acting in ways that will eventually not be considered socially acceptable anymore. In the immediate reactions caused by fairytales, we also have an overall exposure to subliminal messages - contained, for example, in countless Disney versions of fairytales, such as The Little Mermaid, Cinderella and Snow White - and the crippling of the child's autonomy caused by traumas from the stories they read such as Brother Grimm's Hansel and Grethel, that can prevent a child from wanting to venture further away from home, securing within itself a sense of independence. Short-term effects, however damaging, usually can be overcome by the families if they are willing to put in the effort. Although short-term effects are the most visible and are the first ones to be noticed on children, the long-term effects are the most worrisome of them. Their deep roots in the psyche of children, and the subjective way in which they influence peoples behaviors are what make the long-term damaging effects of fairytales such a hazard to the general population. Fairytales, as the most popular method of life metaphor, and also as the most common ethicsteaching tools in society, are highly overlooked on their psychological impact. They are believed, as aforementioned, to be the perpetrators of good role models for kids, and also to be teachers of coping techniques for difficult situations (with the hero always defeating the plights in his way), but the negative things they perpetrate are never mentioned. The fact that racism, sexism, ageism, and homophobia are reinforced through fairytales seems to be forgotten amidst the rampant about their supposed positive effects on children. Racism appears in many ways in these tales, such as the disturbing original lyrics of Alladin: Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place Where the caravan camels roam Where they cut off your ear If they don't like your face

It's barbaric, but hey, it's home1 Also, minorities are portrayed as poor, unintelligent or not portrayed at all (in fact, the first African-American Disney Princess only came to life in the 21 st Century). People in the third age, as aforementioned, are more often than not negatively portrayed as evil witches, as in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Hansel and Grethel, creating a relative fear of old age and of older people in children. Homophobia is instigated through a closeting of possible homosexuals in stories, and through the stereotyping of them every time they show up (characters with homosexual personality traits are always tailors in more classical fairytales, and, in a most recent development, Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series was only discovered to be homosexual in a direct interview with J. K. Rowling, the author of the series; the fact was so well-veiled in the books, that none of the readers believed the author when she told them the truth). Finally, the most critical of all hidden hazards in fairytales lives on in the form of the sexist portrait of women in them. The negative portrait of women in fairytales is historically connected to the very origins of fairytales, as pieces of cheap amusement created in French Salons in the 1600s - the first readers of fairytales being therefore adults, and not children. The first people to direct fairytales at children were Brothers Grimm, in the 1800s (National Geographic Society, 1999), and, later on, allowing them to be accessible to children everywhere, at any age, came Walt Disney. The fact that the core of all of the most popular fairytales of nowadays was written in the 1800s is often forgotten, and even Walt Disneys stories have been tinted by the image of ideal women from back then. In fairytales, women are portrayed as submissive, indecisive, stupid housekeepers, whose only role is to look pretty while waiting for their Prince Charming and every time a woman deviates from the role of lady-inwaiting, she gets into trouble, or makes extremely bad and unwise decision. This statement can be easily backed up by a series of stories: in Hansel and Grethel, for example, their mother not only is the one to decide that they should be left in the woods, as Grethel is
1

Lyrics by Ashman, Howard.

the first one to choose to trust the evil witch; in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Snow White dismisses the dwarfs advice, and trusts the old lady that gives her an apple, and thus is poisoned into sleep; in Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy is often seen trusting people she should not trust, and Susan is portrayed as a traitor for not trusting her siblings when her smarts told her they were wrong. Of all people that are psychologically damaged in the long-term sense by fairytales, women are, therefore, those who suffer the most. Exposure to fairytales can make a woman constantly compare herself to the images of princesses portrayed in fairytales, and try to live up to the beauty is good stereotype that is shown in them. In a deep-rooted level, women believe that if they are not as beautiful, as good, and as perfect as a princess in one of those fairytales, they will never get their prince, and will be forever alone (Gordon). The stereotyping of relationships also has a terribly negative effect upon women of all ages. The fairytale love or fairytale ending seems to be on the top of the list of priorities of most women. They dream of a love that will come as swiftly as a gush of wind, and will sweep them away an unrealistic perspective of love in a world where one night stands and hook ups compose the vast majority of male preference of relationships. According to Towle, Our earliest memories of romantic love are from childhood fairy tales. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White are all rescued by a handsome prince and live happily ever after. Cultural programming leads us to believe we need to find that one perfect person to be happy, so we can live happily ever after. [] Many couples are walking down the aisle with unrealistic and impossible expectations (p. 2). Finally, it is necessary to say that not all positive effects of fairytale are as positive as thought before, when looked upon a new light. For example, the utilization of fairytales as metaphors to teach children coping techniques and moral is a bad idea, for the simple fact that the cognitive development of children is not yet complete. At any time before 11 years of age, according to Jean Piaget's studies, children have not yet reached the formal operational period (Ashford et al., p. 83), where they can have abstract thoughts and fully develop empathy. Without this capacity, the human mind is incapable,

physiologically, of understanding metaphors, and a large part of the teachings found in fairytales goes to waste. Although some may debate that this is also applicable to the exposure of children to subliminal messages found in many reproductions of fairytales, the point remains: whilst subliminal messages work as a seed planted inside a child's mind, that slowly grows to reach its full potential later in life, the metaphors in the stories are throughly more explicit, and have a more immediate effect on children. The exposure to sword fights, and to the showing of old and ugly people as evil, all end up having direct effects immediately upon children's behaviors, that become more active, aggressive and ageist. Therefore, instead of producing good role models for children, and calming and teaching them, fairytales can lead them to be confused, agitated and ignorant. So, in the end, has the mother in the first example in this paper really fulfilled her role? Has she cared and nurtured for her children, and bonded with them while teaching them good coping techniques and giving them good role models for future behavior? The answer becomes clear: no. Reading fairytales is far from being the best bonding experience; on the contrary, fairytales can be psychologically damaging, confusing and traumatizing. Thus, after further study on how damaging fairytales are, society should look upon a revision of its teaching methods of moral to children.

Works Cited

Ashford, Jos B., et al. Human Behavior in the Social Environment. Belmont: Thomson Brooks/Cole, 2006. Print. Ashman, Howard. Arabian Nights. Alladin- Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Walt Disney Records, 1992. CD. Gordon, Serena. Beauty Can Be a Beast: Girls may pick up damaging messages from fairytales. Maimonides Medical Center. Scout News LLC, 2004. Web. 1 Nov. 2009. Heiner, Heidi A. The Quest for the Earliest Fairy Tales: Searching for the Earliest Versions of European Fairy Tales with Commentary on English Translations. SurLaLune Fairytales. N.p., 9 Sep. 2009. Web. 21 Oct. 2009. Salvas, Collete M. Fairy tales: Influences on children's perception of physical attractiveness as displayed through social perceptions and social preferences. Saint Anselm Psychology Department Senior Theses. Saint Anselm College, Spring 2003. Web. 19 Oct. 2009. Towle, Debbie. Marriage,Fairy Tales and Elephants. evolution within. Wordpress, 16 Apr. 2007. Web. 1 Nov. 2009.

http://www.fpx.de/fp/Disney/Lyrics/Aladdin.html

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/index2.html http://www.maimonidesmed.org/111597.cfm http://evolutionwithin.com/blog/?p=13 http://www.anselm.edu/internet/psych/theses/sr2003/salvas/Thesis.htm