Feminism has developed into a conversational piece throughout the past decade. When checking internet sites such as Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, Buzfeed, etc., you'll almost immediately be hit with a headline regarding feminism, both positive and negative.  A common misconception regarding feminism is that it is a newly risen issue. Feminism has been dated back (all the way) to the late 19th century specifically called "first-wave feminism".  This was oriented around the station of middle or upper-class white women and the discussion of suffrage and political equality. Feminism can now be defined as a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women. In simplest of terms, a feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women.  This current wave of feminism, although successful, is not paying enough attention to sexist issues dating as far back as the 16th century.  Feminists and those alike need to look back and recognize what brought up first-wave feminism in the first place and work from there.  This is exemplified in an analysis of works such as "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" by Charles Perrault, and "There Once Was" by Margaret Atwood.

Although both works of literature focus on two different sides of the same spectrum, there are many similarities between "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" and "There Once Was".  Despite the fact that both pieces were written approximately 295 years apart, both deal with an important subject: the role of women in fairytales and fables.  Even though their positions differ, they relate to each other exceptionally.  It is commonplace that women in these works are depicted as objects and not people. Their roles include looking pretty and caring for children until their offspring are old enough to do so.  In "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood", after the princess is born, the youngest fairy starts off by giving her the gift that "she should be the most beautiful person in the world;" (296,297). This alone illustrates the stress and importance of beauty for a woman.  The young fairy's age illustrates that young women at this time were taught that looks are the utmost important characteristic/feature to have.  The rest of the gifts given to the Princess all revolve around appearance and few were desired personality traits.  This is one of the first examples in history that emphasizes the importance of appearance for women. The Princess was not granted excellent smarts, or the ability to do math alarmingly fast, she was given grace, the ability to sing beautifully, dance beautifully, and play all kinds of music to perfection.  We see a consistent repetition of the words "beautiful" and "perfect" in not only this fairytale, but in virtually all others.  In the story "There Once Was", although poking fun at fairytales, the author recognizes the constant strain on looks for women as well.  "There once was a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good" before the first sentence is completed, beauty is mentioned.  She then makes fun of the common stereotype later on by saying: "-Stop right there. I think we can cut out the beautiful, don't you? Women these days 		have to deal wit too many intimidating physical role models as it is, what with those 		bimbos in the ads.  Can't you make her, well, more average?" (Atwood 305). Although both authors touch on the same topics, they approach them with opposing views.

Another similarity between both works regards the role of women in fairytales and fables.  The title of "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" foreshadows the role of the princess throughout more than half of the fairytale.  The Princess is almost unnecessary to the storyline in that she is sleeping for over 100 years.  Her only arguable accomplishment is having children; and that being said, it probably would not have been an accomplishment at all if the Princess did not have a son.  The names of her children illustrate perfectly the importance of the gender of the two.  The daughter's name is "Morning" and the son is named "Day" which could lead to the argument that despite morning coming first, daytime is more pleasurable.  The daytime is much longer, filled with more activity, etc.  It is also important that the author mentions Day to be "a great deal handsomer and more beautiful than his sister"(Perrault 300) because the author, again, stresses the importance of looks. The sexist role of women is also shown in moral of "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood", when the author states "Many a girl has waited long, for a husband great and strong...". This summarizes the fact that in the story the Princesses' role is to sit there and wait for a man to come rescue her.  In "There Once Was" author Margaret Atwood recognizes gender roles as issue, but takes a somewhat different approach to it.  She focuses mainly on the fact that the evil people in these fairytales are almost always women by stating: "But I am so tired of negative female images! And stepmothers- they always get it in the neck! Change it to stepfather, why don't you?"  In "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" the oldest fairy would be considered the evil woman in the fable.  She is rude, mutters threats, and gives the Princess the curse that makes her fall into the deep sleep.  It makes sense that this tactic is used in writing fairytales because it's a perfect gateway to illustrate how men are the superior sex and are able to defeat the evil woman.

While there are many simularities between the two works of literature, there are also many differences.  Before describing them, there are background details regarding both authors that cannot be ignored.  The most important fact is that "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" was written in the year 1697, which was centuries before the feminist wave began.  Also, the author was a man (different writing approach) who's main focus in writing was simply "courtly love".  This is the complete opposite of the author of the second piece, "Once There Was".  Author Margaret Atwood, a woman, not only wrote the piece around the year 1992, but she specialized in feminist retellings of traditional fairytales.  Atwood also wrote about hard-hitting subjects such as corporate dictatorship, sex slavery, genetic engineering, catastrophic effects of science, and many more topics.  This alone illustrates how each author could not be any more different from one another in their time periods and how/what they wrote.  It also cannot be ignored that the gender of the author influences the feel the literary piece. The piece regarding the more male dominated world is written by a man and the piece stating women are much more than objects, is written by a woman.  Another major difference in both stories is the tone.  The tone in "Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" although fictional, is told in a serious manor, while the tone in "There Once Was" is very sarcastic. Although the second work of literature is sarcastic, the snide tone works perfectly with the feeling the piece is trying to evoke.  This is an important parallel to present-day feminism because there is a great deal of sarcasm tied to the issue.  Atwood sets up a conversation between a man and a woman where the man is trying to tell the sexist fairytale and the woman is criticizing it from an arguable feminist point of view.  She seems to purposely go overboard when she states to the man that everything is about him (in a sarcastic tone) which goes along with the  generalization that she believes all men think everything is about them.  She even goes as far as stating: "Change it to the stepfather,why don't you? That would make more sense anyway, 		considering the bad behavior you're about to describe.  And throw in some whips and 		chains.  We all know what those twisted, repressed, middle-aged men are like." Despite the fact that these utterances are short and snide, they are of extreme importance in the strength of the work because it touches on an important aspect of feminism without even mentioning it: man-hating.  Many believe feminists hate men in general, therefore they try to lessen their argument by saying they're just being equally as discriminatory.

In "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" and "There Once Was"  there are endless examples of feminist roles in early centuries, whether they are being criticized, or stated. "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" seemed to pave the writing of Margaret Atwood in "There Once Was" by giving her a piece to go off of.  Although on different sides of the gender role spectrum, both works had many similarities and differences through the stories.  Feminism has dated back as far as the early 19th century and has been going strong since.  Being that feminism is not a new issue, feminists and those alike need to start looking prior to the 16th century in order to understand why feminism originated in the first place.  If there is one thing to learn by the comparison of "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" and "There Once Was", it is that people everywhere have been exposed to unfair gender associations since the beginning of time and that ignoring these issues that arose prior to the first-wave of feminism will only lead to an unsuccessful fight.
