Fairy tales lure children with their simple and easy to understand style and magic in the story.
The common character in any fairy tale is an imaginary being with magical powers. For
Example, in “the Cinderella” story, the protagonist, Cinderella gets gold dress and jewelry out of
the blue from the fairy godmother in one version or the tree near her mother’s grave in another
version of the story. These supernatural powers do not represent the real world. Inculcating this
false view of the world through fictional fantasy in children, who are very impressionable in the
young ages, causes insidious harm to them. Instead of fostering spirit of scientific thinking, they
are doing the exact opposite by exposing them to the useless fairy tales. It is not only the
unrealistic Fairy characters, but also the way the tales are narrated with simplistic situations,
black and white depiction of good and evil, gender and beauty myths, etc. that make the Fairy
tales harmful to the development of the children.
On the surface Fairy stories appear to be funny and harmless, but impress on youngsters with
distorted views of love, female and male roles, hero and villain concepts. Love at first sight,
pretty looks and good dresses lead to love are the false ideas, girls have to submit to the bullies
like step mother, step sisters and wait to be rescued by some prince are the wrong notions
conveyed in The Cinderella story.
Because of these girls expect husbands like princes, disappointment if not achieved, worrying
about not being beautiful and with an outlook away from reality are the likely problems. Pretty
girls waiting for princes, not so pretty and ugly girls getting depressed are the consequences of
such fairy tales. In this article Taragraetzel discusses the Negative influence of Fairy Tales and
also explains why they don’t teach the right lessons. One can see those points in the Cinderella
story. Two other web sources which take the Cinderella story itself to discuss the harmful effects
of Fairy Tales reinforce those points.
The hero and heroine of any fairy tale love each other at first sight.All Fairy stories are like this.
The same happens in Cinderella story.
In any Fairy tale, the prince does some heroic act, the girls falls for him they decide to marry
with pompous wedding ceremony and they enjoy their marital life without any problems.
In Cinderella story also the same happens. The so called princess (Cinderella)
appears with her gold dress and Jewelry (She is portrayed as very pretty of course). The prince
falls for her looks and dress, and love at first sight occurs between the two. There is some more
ridiculous story before they get married and they live happily ever after.
Alexandra Dalusio points out the scene in the Cinderella where the prince likes the girl because
of her gold dress and jewelry and shoes. Such scenes create bad self image for the young female
readers. As rightly pointed out, the Cinderella story instills bad self image for young girls who
The Cinderella Effect author opines that the girls have distorted visions of Romance because of
the pretty girl and great prince stories. They dream of the time of their growing up and having
such marriage. No doubt the story creates false romantic visions among young girls.
Taragraetzel talks about typical female roles in those stories. The girl will be in some great
difficulty like poverty, a harassing step mother or being locked in a remote place. In Cinderella
story, it is the evil step mother.
Also not happy with their situations, they wish everyday for a hero to come and solve their
problems. They don’t try to improve the situation on their own. In Cinderella story, the young
woman being bullied by her step mother and step sisters continuously remains unassertive and
doesn’t stand for her rights. She simply waits for some divine source to make her attractive by
dresses, shoes, jewelry etc., to be liked by the prince. What image such a spineless character can
give to the young readers of the story is obvious.
Alexandra Dalusio also opines that the character of Cinderella implies that girls are meant for
house hold duties and what she does is the girl’s job. That is how the character is portrayed.
She also says that the Cinderella movie gives the impression that girls are not for standing up for
their rights. Cinderella doesn’t utilize the chances that are available throughout the film. This
TheCinderella Effect author also says that the girl in difficult situation saved by the great hero
and they enjoy their life ever is how the story goes. The Cinderella story is a representative of the
fairy tales for this.
She also asks the parents to give the message to their children that they should think of
succeeding on their own and not wait to be saved by some hero. This is more attractive than
helplessness. Parents need to radically change the brainwashing of the children by the
fairy tales.
She continues to say that an equally great hero will come for a successful girl. The problem with
the Fairy Tales is that the characters rely on rescuing rather than being on their own. They depict
helplessness as a virtue which convey wrong message to the young minds.
Alexandra Dalusio says two typical things of the Cinderella story. Love at first sight will
solve every problem and some Fairy will come and give whatever is desired. These are the
typical ideas in the Cinderella story which obviously are far from realistic.
She also says step girl is to be ill treated unlike actual family members is the message conveyed
putting things in black and white with complete absence of Empathy.
The children who are in such typical situations get this wrong impression. Here the author points
out the wrong notions those are being carried to the young minds through the Cinderella story.
The same holds good for many a fairy tale.
“Children imagine stepmothers to be evil people. They don’t see the possibility that stepmoms
can be good too. The Cindrella Fairy Tale created this mindset.” (The Cinderella Effect). Step
mothers and Step sisters are definitely bad is the wrong notion given by many fairy tales of
which the Cinderella is one.
In The Cinderella story goodness and beauty are for one character (Cinderella) and wickedness
and ugliness were for other characters (step sisters). This impresses the young readers to judge
people based on their outward appearances. Children may get the habit of Judging others based
on their looks by reading such fairy tales.
The Cinderella Effect author says many investigators consider “the Cinderella” as one of the
most harmful book ever written The Cinderella is a typical representative of Fairy Tale Books
and hence the statement applies to Fairy Tales in general.
Taragraetzel advised parents to educate their children about the imaginary nature of characters
in fairy tales and not to be carried away by their influence. So the conclusion is parents have to
rectify the effects of the Fairy Tale books on their children.
He also opined that old fairy tales need to be improved and advised writers to write them
close to reality and with improved morals. Film producers also should note this point. So Fairy
Tales as they are useless and harmful and need improvement.
Thus there is synthesis of ideas of the authors from the three resources to conclude that Fairy
Tales are not only useless but also harmful in the development of children and parents have to
watch out the effect of the Fairy Tales on their children.
Works Cited
Alexandra Daluisio “disney cinderella bad lessons.” teen. 16 July.2014. Web. 11 June. 2016.
< http://www.teen.com/2014/07/16/movies/disney-cinderella-bad-lessons/ >
Taragraetzel. “The Negative Effects of Fairy Tales.” Storify. 2015. Web. 11 June. 2016.
< https://storify.com/taragraetzel/the-negative-effects-of-fairy-tales >
“The Cinderella Effect.” Indiaparenting. 2010. Web. 11 June. 2016.
< http://www.indiaparenting.com/confident-child/43_1099/the-cinderella-effect.html >
