My thesis statement is the belief that a woman’s value is correlated with her physical attractiveness is reinforced by fairy tales, which also uphold traditional gender roles and beauty standards.
List A, “Experts Say Fairy Tales Not So Happy Ever After” by Liz Grauerholtz stood out for its discussion on how fairy tales shape children’s perceptions of beauty and morality. Grauerholtz emphasizes how these stories associate physical attractiveness with goodness and success while linking unattractiveness with evil, creating harmful stereotypes. This resonates with the challenges young girls face in balancing societal beauty pressures with modern ideals of independence and confidence.
List B, “The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children’s Fairy Tales” by Lori Baker-Sperry and Liz Grauerholtz was fascinating for its analysis of how fairy tales like “Cinderella” and “Snow White”was intriguing because it examined how beauty is emphasized as being essential to a woman’s worth in fairy tales like “Cinderella” and “Snow White.” By placing more value on beauty than other attributes, this emphasis limits women’s prospects and upholds patriarchal systems.
