Taylor Faust

Professor Smith

English 101 – 029

8 December 2016

Essay 4

Body image and physical beauty are two major ways that people, and women in particular, see their worth and their desirability. The view many women have of their own attractiveness comes from how they think they are perceived on the outside by others. Humans are not innately born with this form of self-hate. Media cultivates much of this destructive culture and starts to have an effect on a person’s view of who they should be at a very early age. One of the biggest proponents of media or literature that cultivates this culture of self-hate for young women is the fairytale genre. As a genre, fairytales idolize a perfect life of happiness that all begins with the female lead herself being perfect in every way. This idealistic view of the perfection a woman should have has a great impact on younger, more impressionable women and even older females who turn to treatments such as plastic surgery in hopes of maintaining the youthful beauty that they have been told is most attractive in the media.

Beginning at an unbelievably young age, girls are told how they should look and act in order to achieve perfection. One of the main sources of this pristine image comes from the fairytales that they are read from day one. Although there are some outliers, most fairytales follow the basic storyline of a beautiful and flawless princess being saved from some sort of distress by her prince charming, while he falls in love with her because he is overcome by her beauty. Though some aspects of a princess’ description can be beneficial to value such as bravery and strength, these noble qualities are not usually emphasized as being the most important and are often rooted in the princess’ beauty and perfection. By looking at fairytales, flawlessness and beauty are seen as two of the most distinguishing characteristics of women. In “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” by Charles Perrault, he mentions that “the princess had all the perfections imaginable” (503). For the entire first four paragraphs, having such perfections is the only way that the princess is described. This makes it seem as though all a girl needs going for her is beauty. 

Both Perrault’s “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” and Margaret Atwood’s “There Was Once” belong in the fairytale genre of literature and both comment on beauty and perfection in fairytales; however, they take different stances on what that beauty should be and the message that a fairytale should be aiming to convey. In “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, great length is given to the description of the wonderful gifts that the princess was given by the fairies that made her essentially seem like the most perfect human. Perrault wrote that the young princess was given the gift that “she would be the most beautiful person in the world…have the whit of an angel…have wonderful grace in everything she did…should dance perfectly well…sing like a nightingale…play all kinds of music to the utmost perfection” (504). These types of unrealistic standards are what are hurting young girls and the initial view they form on what a woman should be. 

In Atwood’s work, she breaks down the stereotypes of typical fairytales like “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” and discusses that fairytales like this tend to break idealize women’s perfections and are destructive to the women who see them as role models. Atwood writes, “I think we can cut the beautiful, don’t you? Women these days have to deal with too many intimidating physical role models as it is, what with those bimbos in the ads. Can’t you make her, well, more average” (512). She is attempting to make the point that describing these women as beautiful and perfect is oppressive to the genre and the reader. The two fairytales both mention beauty but in very different lights. Perrault is highlighting beauty, whereas Atwood makes the point that the beauty of the princess should not be what makes the fairytale and emphasizing the importance of it makes it seem like girls need to be more mainstream.

The images of the importance of beauty and grace presented in fairytales such as Perrault’s have a major affect on the way that young girls begin to view themselves. The pressure of achieving this perfection at such a young age can contribute to future body image issues and young girls objectifying themselves. As described by Bailey in The American Journal of Psychology, “According to the objectification theory, experiences of sexual objectification socialize young girls and women to behave as though their bodies are objects to be evaluated solely by their appearance…occurs when a woman’s body is separated from her as an individual, as if her body’s parts alone may be representative of her” (2). The ideal beauty that is described in fairytales fosters the beginnings of this objectification theory in young girls’ lives. 

This type of sexual objectification that is introduced in fairytales in a very PG version is what can eventually lead to self-objectification and lower self-esteem. These are two things that can ultimately have psychological consequences and could potentially cause anxiety, depression, shame, and other mental health problems. Although it may seem like relating all of these issues about mental health all the way back to fairytales that girls learned at around age four is a little farfetched in terms of the timeline, humans learn basic ways to function in society at a very young age and are most impressionable around that time. Evidence that these goals for perfection can continue to affect women into adulthood can be seen in the popularity of the plastic surgery business. As an industry centered on changing what a person does not like about themselves, plastic surgery is a way to alter someone’s appearance to better align with what they view as perfect or what makes them insecure.

The next obvious question is what makes people think that they need to change something about themselves or that something is wrong with their body the way that it is? The media and a person’s preconceived notions of what perfection and beauty are supposed to be are what can influence their decisions. Many of these preconceived notions come from stories in the fairytale genre that are seen as the ideal life. Princesses are never portrayed as heavyset, curvy, or having a big nose. In Perrault’s work the princess is seen as the epitome of what a perfect person is. Society as a whole is also impacted by these preconceptions of what beauty should be. In an article on the actress, Jamie Lee Curtis, Melissa Ostrow writes about Curtis’ own experience with body image while being in the limelight of fame. She writes, “While Curtis is okay with her flaws now, she previously felt captive to society’s demand for perfection, using Botox, liposuction, and plastic surgery… she explained that the pokes and snips did not help her feel any better abut herself” (7). In most cases, plastic surgery is for people to change what they do not like about their appearance. For women, the standards that they try to reach are often set by society as to what is beautiful and what the perfect person looks like.

The idealized view of beauty in fairytales is something that has become very destructive to young girls’ minds. It gives them a false sense of what makes them important and worthy of care because the prince comes and saves the princess and is always overcome by her beauty as if that was all he needed to love her. Perrault and Atwood’s works approached the genre of fairytale very differently and both ended up portraying a different image for the relevance of beauty in the genre. These differences show that though many fairytales highlight the perfection of the female lead, defining a character by one characteristic is oppressive to the storyline. The genre of fairytale as a whole can have a great impact on young women and the way that they view themselves even into adulthood.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. “There Was Once” from Good Bones and Simple Murders by Margaret Atwood, copyright © 1983, 1992, 1994 by O.W. Toad Ltd. Used by permission of Nan A. Talese, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Bailey, K. Alysse et al. “Self-Objectification and the Use of Body Image Coping Strategies: The Role of Shame in Highly Physically Active Women.” The American Journal of Psychology, vol. 129, no. 1, 2016, pp. 81–90. www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/amerjpsyc.129.1.0081.

Ostrow, Melissa. “Jamie Lee Curtis: No Barbie Doll.” Off Our Backs, vol. 33, no. 3/4, 2003, pp. 7–7. www.jstor.org/stable/20837774.

Perrault, Charles. “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.” Histories ou contes du temps passé. (1697).