Sofia Blandon
Professor Hoehne
Fairytales and Rewritings
7 October 2019

Consent? I Think Not
Nothing is more impressionable than the mind of a child. The movies that they watch and the stories that they read greatly impact their beliefs in the future. When you think of fairy tales, ideas of sexism and non consensual behavior do not naturally come to your mind. These themes are discreetly woven into the frame of these seemingly innocent and harmless stories that parents read to their children at night. For many years, society had introduced these stories to children without realizing the significant consequences behind them. The fairy tales that we have read and admired throughout our childhood do not address these elements and therefore pose a serious threat to the mental development of the younger generations. In fairytales mutual consent is completely disregarded, which can negatively influence young readers by giving them the wrong ideas of love, consent, and how women behave and should be better addressed so as to promote change.
Within the different fairy tales, especially the older and more traditional ones like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, consent is nowhere to be found. The women in the stories never actually approve what is being done to them, it is implied and portrayed that the princesses are happy and do not mind the fact that they are being taken advantage of without their permission. In the story of “Sun, Moon, and Talia” by Giambattista Basile the king performs the actions of, “Crying aloud, he beheld her charms and felt his blood course hotly through his veins. He lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love.” (Basile) which indicates that intercourse occurred, but not to the knowledge or approval of Talia, as she was asleep and was never asked beforehand if that was okay. Figure 1- The Prince has just come across Sleeping Beauty and is mesmerized by her beauty. Sleeping Beauty’s character was portrayed as a passive woman who spent most of the story asleep, and was therefore not awake to give proper consent on being kissed or touched. This image was taken from The Complete Fairy Tales by Charles Perrault, and illustrates how the prince came across Sleeping Beauty in the Wood and decided because of her beauty that it was okay to kiss her (Perrault 89). This in turn gives off a negative message to readers who think this would be okay to do in real life, which it would not be, but because they are seeing this on the big screen or reading it in a book they will have the impression that these actions are right. In further analyzing the idea that women are portrayed a certain way and taken advantage of by the male characters, an article written by Jeana Jorgensen states, “… in fairy tales, “men act on women’s bodies,” intruding “their bodies into the private space of terrified girls or women.” (Jorgensen). This explains the idea that women’s bodies are constantly being referred to and are usually described as small and petite so as to attract a mate with not only their passive personalities but their looks as well. Women are portrayed differently than men in stories whose bodies are rarely seen or spoken of. This continues to show how these stories provide the wrong message to people about how women should look and be treated.
More and more people are noticing and taking into account the ideas of non consensual aspects in fairytales as well as the sexist portrayals of female characters. However, not everyone is on board with this idea and unfortunately continue to accept these common tropes, therefore not providing the proper awareness to promote change, “The saddest part of this is that women themselves seem to be unaware of this gross injustice done to their image.” (Harischandra). This explains that women have turned a blind eye on the ideas behind these stories and carry on with praising them along with the rest of the world. The idea that women are depicted as the quiet, weak damsels in distress should be a red flag to all, as women are actually strong, intelligent and outspoken. In an effort to showcase this strength Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber was evaluated in an article by Merja Makinen to explain how it contains feminist ideas that act as a way to deter peoples minds from continuously assuming that women are passive and weak, and instead can also be outspoken and fiery, “The focus is on mocking and exploding the constructive cultural stereotypes and in celebrating the sheer ability of the female protagonists to survive, unscathed by the sexist ideologies.”(Makinen 3). This is one way a woman worked to address how these stories were relaying the wrong messages about women and their behaviors to which she created her own versions on how most women really are, which can in turn promote change and allow for more recognition of the problem with fairy tales.
Although I hold these beliefs others may disagree and argue that these stories are not inappropriate, especially since they have been condensed and sprinkled with sugar to be kid friendly and the modern versions promote more feminine heroines and strength. People feel that fairytales are harmless and should be seen as silly interpretations of fictional characters and storylines. In an article written by Insa Hartel she evaluates the ideas of both points of views on the matter of consent in fairy tales, specifically Sleeping Beauty, and how some people believe that there are actually hints of consent within the story, “ … the reader understands that the prince’s penetration of the sleeping beauty is consensual” (Nicks 2008, p. 94). As if the hedges opened only for this selected prince; Thus, the opening briers and hedges would symbolize maturity and consent.” (Hartel). This explains that people can interpret the story in different ways, in this case it is believed that the hedges opening for the prince can be considered consent. Even though these ideas are true, the underlying messages of the stories that were written way before the disney versions still stand and although overlooked, can have a negative effect on young girls who look up to these stories and developing teens who are just learning about relationships and sexual encounters. There are ways to create stories that delve deep into the imagination and provide entertainment without degrading women and portraying them as meek characters, as well as not having them verbally consent to certain activities taking place.
Overall, it may be said that fairy tales do not contain the ideas of mutual consent, and portray women in ways that are unrealistic to actual women’s behavior which can influence young readers in a negative way and should be better addressed in an effort to promote change. Even though people feel that these stories should continue to be seen as forms of entertainment, the ideas within the stories should be brought up and discussed so that the younger generations can understand that the underlying messages hidden in them are not the best and should not be acted upon. Today, there are more modern versions of these stories being made where the protagonists are strong women and do not need a man which is a step in the right direction, but there is always room for improvement.

Works Cited
Basile, Giambattista. The Pentameron of Giambattista Basile, translated by Richard F. Burton (Privately printed, 1893), day 5, tale 5. Translation revised by D. L. Ashliman.
Harischandra, Neshantha. “Fairy Tales and the concept of femininity.” Nivedini-A Sri Lankan Feminist Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, 2001, p. 58+. Gale OneFile: Contemporary Women’s Issues, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A83761800/CWI?u=cuny_ccny&sid=CWI&xid=e5b1efc0. Accessed 25 Sept. 2019.
Härtel, Insa. “Sexuality as Failure: Psychoanalytic Concepts, Cultural Perspectives.” Sexuality & Culture, vol. 23, no. 1, Mar. 2019, pp. 236–253. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s12119-018-9552-0.iu
Jorgensen, Jeana. “The Most Beautiful of All: A Quantitative Approach to Fairy-Tale Femininity.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 132, no. 523, 2019, pp. 36–60. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jamerfolk.132.523.0036.
Makinen, Merja. “Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’ and the Decolonization of Feminine Sexuality.” Feminist Review, no. 42, 1992, pp. 2–15. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1395125.
Perrault, Charles, and C. J. Betts. The Complete Fairy Tales. OUP Oxford, 2009. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=302377&site=ehost-live.

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