Prevalence of Gender Discrimination, Sexism, and Hypermasculinity in Fairy Tales

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Gender Discrimination, Sexism, and Hyper-Masculinity in Fairy Tales
Fairy tales are short stories for children that deal with the magical and wonderful world of imaginary and idealized beings. They reflect society's cultural values and norms and are used effectively to inculcate cultural values in children. However, the idealization of feminist beauty, gender discrimination, and sexuality has been the most prominent themes of fairy tales. For the same reason, fairy tales have been a subject of controversy and discussion for feminist scholars worldwide.
In fairy tales, the female protagonist is represented as an emblem of feminine beauty; these tales project female beauty and passivity as ideal for females. Likewise, males are represented as stereotype portraits of masculine vigor, aggressiveness, and dominance. These prominently outlined and specified roles of both genders make fairy tales a subject of great controversy and interest for scholars. For instance, in "The Indian Cinderella," this gender demarcation is more evident as both male and female protagonists embody typical masculine and feminine traits, respectively. Moreover, the passivity of female characters and their craving for masculine protection further elaborates on the themes of sexuality in this fairy tale.
Similarly, many studies verify that stress on feminist beauty and passivity and hyper-masculinity has been an integral part of the plot of approximately all fairy tales throughout history. This trend has gained popularity in the last two centuries. These studies pinpoint and criticize the highly sexist approach of these stories in handling gender roles in society. Thus, it is safe to assume that sexuality and gender discrimination have been an integral part of fairy tales throughout their past and recent history. The trend is still running unabated.
Cyrus MacMillan's "The Indian Cinderella" is a typical fairy tale since it portrays stereotypical male and female figures and projects a typical view of masculine dominance over females. Many aspects of the story endorse this fact; for instance, the male protagonist's character is a typical embodiment of a dominant, aggressive, and mighty man. First of all, people call him "Strong Wind"; this name reveals much about the impression of a man that the writer wants to create upon the reader (Macmillan 16). As his name indicates, he is a man of great courage and valor. Since he was a great helper of a heroic figure named "Glooskap," his background record reflects his heroic and enterprising personality(Macmillan 116).
He is a brawny and strong man with the incredible power of becoming invisible. Indeed he is an idealistic male figure to whom all women want to get married. All his character traits place him in the bracket of a specific masculine character who is strong, aggressive, and dominant. He wants to dominate females by using his power of invisibility and puts them to the test before selecting one of them for marriage (Macmillan 116). In doing so, he represents himself as a typical masculine figure of traditional society. The dynamics of his personality imperceptibly instill the stereotypical image of a man in the reader's mind and makes him biased towards gender equal...