Maya De La Torre

Email: mayadlt@roadrunner.com

The True Essence of Being a Woman

Day after day women are mistreated and taken advantage of. We are told that we are not

good enough, we should stay at home and take care of our children, we are more emotional than

men, and many more insults that are just the face of misogyny. Women are faced with the daily

struggles of being catcalled, competing to be “just as good” as men, and being sexualized for

things that they can not control. As women, we should feel like we have control over our own

bodies and feel as though we can make decisions for ourselves without facing the consequences

of actions from other people. Around two or three years ago during COVID, my mom wanted to

get out of the house and suggested that we go for a run around the streets close to our home. I

had told her that I wasn’t really in the mood as especially during that time I wasn’t feeling the

most confident about myself. She insisted that I go with her and well, I eventually said yes and

we got started on the run. Keep in mind that during this time I was roughly fifteen to sixteen

years old going for a run with my mom. Being two women going on a run is scary enough so I

was and always have been very vigilant of my surroundings. Due to this, I stayed behind my

mom while she was able to stay in the lead and set the pace for the both of us. During this run, I

was catcalled three times by three different men as a fifteen-year-old. The first man honked the

horn of his truck at me and waved, the second man whistled at me and smiled, and the third man

winked at me and blew me a kiss as a fifteen-year-old. After this, I never went on a run like that

again and I never told my mom as I did not want her to worry. However, these things happen to

women who are any age and should not even be happening in the first place. Ironically enough,

most female characters in fairytales are around fifteen years old as well when their fate of being
a female character is sealed. Throughout multiple stories, the reader can see that these female

characters are taken advantage of and used. This brings us to examine the readings of “Brier

Rose” by the Grimm brothers and “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” by Perrault. When

examining Perrault’s mindset of women being used solely for reproduction and how it affects the

characters in “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, the readers can better comprehend that the

story “Brier Rose” by Grimms’, is also able to encapsulate the true essence of a story on how

fate is inevitable for the female characters of belonging to men.

Perrault’s focus on physical beauty parallels that of the brothers Grimm as both texts put

forth the idea of women as objects of beauty with the only purpose of reproduction. In these

fairytales, women are often used for this sole purpose and walked upon. They are meant to obey

these men and let them do as they please especially when it comes to sexual advances. In

Perrault, the man “did not cease from continuing his way” with her which is a grotesque

comment on how he only used her for his sexual desires (26). This was not uncommon for a man

to do as it was something that they felt as though they had control over. In the story by the

Grimms’, the prince also kissed the princess while she was in a deep sleep because she needed a

kiss of “true love”. In the eyes of the reader, this is seen as a deeper meaning of an unconsented

kiss as this is something that she never stated she wanted. These types of actions from the men

show that women are often treated as something only used to please a man. It is easy for the

reader to tell that men do not value women at all and do as they please. This is because men are

typically shown as the heroes of every story which is why they can get away with these types of

things. “The Cinderella Test” by Vera Maass is also another example of how men use their

power over women to use them for their sexual desires. Maass states that these fairy tales “have

been used to render girls silent and powerless” which goes to show how these men do this
through their sexual desires (19). It makes one think about what kind of message these fairytales

are sending to the children who are reading these books. It makes it seem like it is ok for men to

be doing this and then they will get their “happily ever after”. In reality, it goes to show that

these women are just an object to men and can be used however they want.

Leading into the next point, Perrault's focus on a prince who doesn’t give up and

Grimms’ focus on an overprotective father both point to the idea that women belong as an object

to men. In the story by Perrault, it focuses on the fact that the men are meant to be the “husband

brave or strong” which is your typical stereotype for most any fairytale (60). This is because men

are typically there to “protect” the women from any unknown evil that somehow always appears

for these “helpless” women. In each fairytale, the men are always the saviors there for the

women, and when saved/rescued, the women then seem extremely grateful for their actions and

in return marry the man who saved their life. Not only are these women controlled and

objectified by these men but also their fathers. This occurs within the story by the Grimms’ as it

focuses on the story of Sleeping Beauty and how she is put a curse on her as a child and how she

will prick her finger on a spindle. In the story, her father became controlling to the point where

he got rid of every spindle in the kingdom except for one. He went to great lengths for all this

time and when it was stated that the curse would occur he and his wife left leaving the princess

alone which in the end cost her to prick her finger on a spindle. Due to the negligence of her

father, she seems to have to “rely” on the prince to be her savior even though this was a curse

that was known by many and was put on her as an infant. This however should not be the case

for these princesses in fairy tales as they should be the deciders in their future. Women need to

be able to stand up for themselves in these stories but not many have been written. This is why

when talking about these types of topics it brings up topics such as feminism. In the book
“Waking Sleeping Beauty” by Roberta Trites, she explains how“feminism relies on a belief in

the worth of all individuals” which is why it is important to include this topic in these fairytales.

Women are often seen as objects and not individuals which is why it so desperately needs to be

changed. This book can focus on the role of female characters in children’s literature which was

something that was not very often written about in older fairytales and even fairytales today.

Readers need to notice that in fairy tales, women are never seen as equal to men which is why it

is so important to talk about feminism and why it is relevant to have in these fairytales. This

never-ending cycle of the same ending for the fairytales needs to change for the betterment of

women and what they stand for.

All in all, Perrault and the Grimms’ focus their fairy tales around women and the freedom

that they do not have. The women in these stories are based around having zero freedom as they

only have the sole purpose of being an object for these men. When looking at the bigger picture,

readers can see the changes that need to be made to future stories for the sake of women. As a

society, it is important to do better and give these fairytales the true endings they deserve.
 Works Cited

Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. Brier Rose.

Maass, Vera Sonja. The Cinderella Test: Would You Want the Shoe to Fit?: Subtle Ways

Women Are Seduced and Socialized into Servitude and Stereotypes. Praeger, 2009.

Perrault, Charles. The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood. Blackie, 1965.

Trites, Roberta Seelinger. Waking Sleeping Beauty: Feminist Voices in Children's Novels.

University of Iowa Press, 1997.