Nicholas Dy

Lynda Haas
Writing 39B
16 February 2016
Changing Gender Roles Throughout History:
An Up Close Analysis of Fairy Tales of Past and Present
Fairy tales are a genre of literature that has withstood the test of both time and
culture. Despite the fact that fairy tales originally were told orally centuries ago, stories,
such as Snow White and The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, are still popular today
because of their portrayal through Disney. For example, Disney made a movie based on
Little Snow-White, a tale written by the Brothers Grimm telling a story of a nave and
innocent woman who is tricked and deceived by her stepmother who is envious of her
youth and beauty. Disney is not the only modern re-teller of fairy tales in the 21st
century; authors such as Neil Gaiman have also used the genre, putting a more
modernized twist combining some of the key elements from Little Snow-White and
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood to create his own adaptation of the tale, The Sleeper
and the Spindle. As Gaiman said in an interview, "I have to go to the cupboard and take
one ounce of Snow White and two ounces of Sleeping Beauty, it's kind of like fusion
cuisine. It tastes like both of them but it's actually a new dish" (Wood). The Sleeper and
the Spindle is about a young queen who abandons her upcoming wedding to save her
kingdom from a sleeping curse that is coming to inflict damage on her kingdom. Even
though the former and latter versions of the tales differ, they both share common
conventions such as the character of the hero and the villain. Although The Sleeper and

The Spindle shares these conventions with the original version of Little Snow-White, it
has been adapted to reflect gender roles and the view of beauty of the 21st century, thus
making it more entertaining and relevant to Gaiman's audience.
In most fairy tales, there is an archetypal character of a hero who is presented and
exhibits growth in some sort of way. In both of the tales, the hero, Snow White, is
portrayed as two completely different individuals even though the former inspired the
latter character in The Sleeper and the Spindle. In fact there are some key points that
Gaiman sneaks into the story to show us that indeed the Queen is Snow White. For
example, the young protagonist is described as beautiful " like a crimson rose in fallen
snow" which shares its origin to the original tale by the Grimms mentioning Snow White
"as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony wood" (Gaiman 41, Grimms).
These similarities are too specific to negate the fact that Snow White inspired the new
hero that Gaiman imagined. Snow White is first introduced in the Grimm's tale as a
nave girl who "let's herself be deceived" three separate times and is useless without the
help of the prince and dwarfs. Despite the warnings of the dwarfs, she foolishly allows
her disguised stepmother into the house so that she could buy lace and get it "pulled so
quickly and so hard that Snow-White could not breathe" (Grimms). This point may be
emphasized with the knowledge of women not wanting to be called a "blue-stocking, the
name given to women who devoted themselves too enthusiastically to intellectual
pursuits" (Gender Roles in the 19th Century). The way society was at the time, people,
especially men, frowned upon educated women because it threatened the "natural'
intellectual superiority" of men (Gender Roles in the 19th Century). This is why women
stayed away from being intelligent and acted in a more ignorant way. As Henal Patel

stated, "Although Snow White is nave, if not downright stupid, she is, also beautiful and
kind" (Patel). This is also important to note because Snow White is portrayed as a woman
who watched over the house of the dwarfs. In Germany during the 1800's the home
became a symbol of "virtue and the proper life for women" (Woman in the Middle Class).
Women would be responsible for watching over the house and this is the agreement the
dwarves make with Snow White so she can stay with them. During this time period, the
idea of "separate spheres" was a popular ideology separating women to the domestic
sphere because they "were considered physically weaker yet morally superior to men"
(Gender Roles in the 19th Century).
This is completely different from the modern character that Gaiman created. The
Queen in The Sleeper and the Spindle is a "very wise" character who is able to spot out
that even though the spell was cast seventy years ago, it had not affected anyone despite
the passage of time (26). Snow White upon realizing this is willing to drop everything
and postpone her wedding to go on a quest to save her own kingdom. She is ambitious
and takes action when her kingdom is in danger and she has nowhere else to turn to. This
new "Snow White" is independent and creates her own destiny realizing at the end of the
tale that "There are choices There are always choices" (60). Gaiman's new character
represents a new outlook on women as we see them in today's society, a society that "has
embraced total role changes" (Traditional Gender Roles). This is represented in the
Queen, a character that represents Gaiman's views, someone who "doesn't have a lot of
patience for stories in which women are rescued by men" (Wood). She is brave,
independent, and is willing to take on challenges that are presented in front of her. The
queen is able to solve problems, such as utilizing a tinder box so that she could burn

through the thorns to get to the castle (Gaiman 46). In a society that is becoming more
aware of gender equality, the queen in The Sleeper and the Spindle represents the results
of tests showing that women can focus on more than one problem at one time and
frequently prefer to solve problems through multiple activities at a time, being able to
solve problem easier than men who heavily rely on their left brain to solve one problem
one step at a time (Conner). The queen is able to solve this seventy-year-old problem
that has been taking the lives of hundreds of individuals who tried to go before her and
save the sleeping princess. There is no mention of a clich true love's kiss or talk of a
prince in shining armor coming to the rescue in the story. It empowers women, showing
them that it isn't always necessary to have a man come to the rescue and that they can do
it themselves.
Similarly with the presence of a hero, usually a villain exists to present a struggle
for the hero. In both of these tales, the villain shares the common vice of yearning to be
the most beautiful. However, the presentation of each villain helps to explain the
rhetorical situation of the tale. The conflict of the story of Snow White arises with the
introduction of a villain, Snow White's step mother, who is "proud and arrogant, and
could not stand it if anyone might surpass her in beauty" (Grimms). The stepmother
"took fright and turned yellow and green with envy" every time she heard that she was
not the "fairest of all" (Grimms). In Germany at this time, women were "perceived as
over-sexed and the cause of men's moral shortcomings"(Women in the Middle Class).
Beauty was viewed as an important asset to women and was valued over things such as
intelligence. Women had to deal with the "heavy freight of moral baggage attached to
beauty" and the pressure to always appear beautiful (Shilling). In fact, it is evident in a lot

of old fairy tales that "attractiveness is the most important attribute to possess" (Neikirk).
In almost every case of a female villain, their vice is wanting to be the "fairest of them
all." The power of women is seen through the amount of beauty they posses, yet when
they try to obtain more beauty it is often viewed as a villainous act.
Gaiman also creates an updated representation of the villain. He introduces the
villain with dialogue by the Queen who is talking to her and says, "It's always the same
with your kind. You need youth and you need beauty. You used your own up so long ago,
and now you find ever more complex ways of obtaining them. And you always want
power'" (56). Gaiman still incorporates the idea of being young and beautiful, associating
those attributes with power. In today's culture, the media has created "extremely rigid and
uniform standards of beauty", most of which are almost impossible to obtain (Mirror,
Mirror). However it is not the only thing that is associated with women's importance,
which is also seen when Gaiman also makes his villain cunning and intelligent. As a
report by the Pew Research Centre, women "are perceived as indistinguishable from their
male peers when it comes to leadership qualities such as intelligence" (What's Holding
Women Back?). It is also shown by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that "women now earn
sixty percent of master's degrees, about half of all law and medical degrees, and forty-two
percent of M.B.A.s" (Gender Shift). This reflects the different attitudes of women, who
are now not afraid to pursue higher education to make a life of their own and avoid
relying on men. For example, this evil queen is able to make a curse, making everyone in
the kingdom fall asleep. Gaiman also shows the power the evil witch has when she says
"I like them asleep. They are more biddable'" (56). This shows that she is
manipulative and is able to control all of these people, creating a personal army to do her

evil actions. The power that the evil witch has can be seen in modern society as more
women get into political positions. For example women for the first time in history hold
more than 100 seats in Congress, with 20 in the Senate and 84 in the House (Stolberg).
This fact is evidence showing that todays society is more accepting of having women in
power, making key decisions that govern the way people should act.
Through these simple stories, both the Grimms and Gaiman are able to effectively
write about their time period and cultural context, thus capturing the attitudes and values
of the society of the time. Through just the discussion of gender roles, it is clear that there
is a difference in both the historical and cultural context of the time period the story came
from. While the Grimms wrote tales that were intended for the middle class families in
Germany, there is clear evidence of the subjective thoughts they had on women and how
it was common in the day to suppress women. Snow White is an accurate representation
of the nave, yet beautiful image young German girls would have aimed to be like. Also
in similar ways, Gaiman writes his own version of this tale, instead empowering women
of this generation to not be afraid to take action and pave their own future. In an
interview he stated, "You don't need princes to save you" and he effectively relays this
message through his unique twist on a fairy tale we have all come to love and know
(Wood). In both cases, it is clear that Snow White and The Sleeper and the Spindle were
written to reflect different beliefs and attitudes of their day and age, capturing what these
were and representing them in a simple fairy tale.

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