Folklore and Gender Roles

I'm minoring in folklore (yes, folklore), and last week in my "Forms of Folklore" class my professor brought up an interesting point. Fairy tales like the ones we know from Disney movies today used to change very often. Since they were told orally, the stories morphed over generations as the gender roles themselves changed. Once people started writing down the stories the idea of what it was to be "female" and "male" was solidified. The stories could no longer be altered as they were passed down through the generations. Disney dealt the final blow by making many into movies, and therefore solidifying the idea of a princess being rescued by a prince. In that way the growth of what it is to be male or female has been stunted by the halt in the development of folklore.

In many ways this makes an extreme amount of sense. People are constantly blaming the disney princesses for creating this idea of the woman needing to be rescued by the man. If these stories had not been recorded, they could have kept changing to more better fit the gender roles that exist today. Children are still watching the disney movies at young ages and are therefore still accepting the roles that they see in them. A few months ago Disney re-released Beauty and the Beast, further promoting the princess ideal. When I think about the stories that my mom used to tell me before I fell asleep she would create new ones every night, tailoring them to what was going on in my life. Movies can't do that, so in that way they are holding back the progression of gender roles in today's society.

-Elle Callahan