Are fairy tales bad for children?
By Marjorie Kehe | 01.05.09
Are stories like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, and Rapunzel harmful to children? According to a piece in today’s Telegraph, some British parents think so. A poll of 3,000 British parents showed that a quarter of mothers today reject some classic fairy tales.
According to the Telegraph: “A third of parents refused to read Little Red Riding Hood because she walks through woods alone and finds her grandmother eaten by a wolf.
One in 10 said Snow White should be re-named because ‘the dwarf reference is not PC.’ Rapunzel was considered ‘too dark’ and Cinderella has been dumped amid fears she is treated like a slave and forced to do all the housework. ”
In the US, there are experts who agree. Liz Grauerholz, an associate professor of sociology at Purdue University and Lori Baker-Sperry, an assistant professor of women’s studies at Western Illinois University have also flagged concerns about the gender and beauty myths perpetuated by many fairy tales in which beautiful princesses are more likely to be popular and unattractive people are more likely to be evil.
Is this all just silly – or eminently sensible?
A book written today in which a little girl’s grandmother is eaten by a wild animal would probably find many detractors and few fans. But fairy tales do have tradition on their side. Most of us adults grew up reading them – so they don’t surprise us.
Fairy tales are imaginative, insist their advocates. “Fairy tales are magical. They may provide a window to another world, a chance to look beyond the mundane,” writes one blogger, who concludes that, “Fairy tales can make good children stories.”
However, I must admit, a few months ago my husband and I went to the opera to see a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Hansel und Gretel.” Maybe it was the very convincing costumes and sets but we had to admit that, even as adults, we were pretty creeped out. I really wouldn’t have wanted to bring a child.
According to the Telegraph, fairy tales are being replaced. They list the following as today’s Top 10 bedtime stories:
1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle (1969)
2. Mr Men, Roger Hargreaves (1971)
3. The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson (1999)
4. Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne (1926)
5. Aliens Love Underpants, Claire Freedman & Ben Cort (2007)
6. Thomas and Friends from The Railway Series, Rev.W.Awdry (1945)
7. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame (1908)
8. What a Noisy Pinky Ponk!, Andrew Davenport (2008)
9. Charlie and Lola, Lauren Child (2001)
10. Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Robert Southey (1837)
What are they replacing? Here are the Top 10 fairy tales that, according to the Telegraph, are less often read to children:
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
2. Hansel and Gretel
3. Cinderella
4. Little Red Riding Hood
5. The Gingerbread Man
6. Jack and the Beanstalk
7. Sleeping Beauty
8. Beauty and the Beast
9. Goldilocks and the Three Bears
10. The Emperor’s New Clothes
Comments
2. robert legge | 01.05.09
Never seemed clear to me why it was OK for Jack to steal the gold from the giant.
3. Peter Terry | 01.05.09
Surely Fairy Tales actually prepare children for the real world. Take “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Isn’t climbing the pinnacle to steal a giant’s gold a good prelude to today’s financial crisis? Look around the Middle East. There are plenty of modern “Little Red Riding Hoods” being killed and eaten by wolves. “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is just another story of authority ignoring the facts - climate change perhaps. Other research has shown the Fairy Tales that most often remain in the minds of children are those told by children to each other. Stories of fearful giants are said to have originated that way. Researchers have speculated that children in pre-Christian Europe invented the story of giants to warn other children of the dangers of becoming a human sacrifice in burning, giant “wicker men”. Children of the day could not trust adults to protect them. Fairy Tales gave small children “knowledge” to protect themselves. In today’s world nothing much has changed. Adults are still often a danger and children need Fairy Tales - perhaps more than ever.
4. martha | 01.05.09
I was an avid fairytale reader and still I have grown up happy, healthy and quite fearless. I have shared them with my children and will do so with my grandchildren. As long as fairy tales are in the secondary position to the spiritual and moral training of children, they are to be treasured. Would life without that canny expression “The emperor’s new clothes” be as colorful? Is the theme of persistence seen in “third children”, poor farmers, and all the other down-and-outers who make good in London town or on beanstocks or by fighting through endless brambles to get “the prize” not inspiring? And Little Red Riding Hood certainly teaches us not to be fooled by appearances, etc. Fairy Tales are the crudites of the great feast we give our children–nothing more, nothing less.
5. Courtenay Rule | 01.06.09
I see both sides too. Certainly there are elements in some fairy tales that probably would be better deleted or toned down - as indeed some have been over the centuries. (Ever read the original Brothers Grimm versions of some familiar stories such as Cinderella? “Grimm” is the key word.) On the other hand, too much changing or rejecting could be a massive over-reaction - and doesn’t say much for adults’ assessment of children’s discernment, critical judgment and values. I know I was brought up with some stories (including a lot of Enid Blyton) that portrayed girls as weaker and less adventurous than boys - but both my parents and my own experiences growing up made it clear that this was an old-fashioned attitude, that it wasn’t right, and that the reality was that girls had as much right (and ability) as boys to be the heroes! Perhaps we also need to look at the social context in which a child grows up. Stories with potentially sexist/racist/politically incorrect undertones aren’t likely to encourage these attitudes in children if they aren’t supported by the real-world society in which the child is developing.
As for “alternative” fairy tales, one good idea might be to try sharing traditional tales from a wider range of cultures with children. Apart from broadening young ones’ awareness and appreciation of the wider world, these can hold some wonderful surprises. In Russian folk tales, for example, it’s often the wise, brave and resourceful young woman who saves the helpless prince, rather than the reverse. Their version of “The Frog Prince” is “The Frog Princess” - and she doesn’t simply sit around waiting for someone to kiss her, either. True!
6. marie | 01.06.09
what utter nonsense! I am an 85 year old woman who was raised on the Brothers Grimm and they helped mold my character about good and evil and good always comes out the winner. I can’t ever remember thinking that because a girl was pretty, she was more successful, or that women were subservient. Today I am an activist for women’s rights and was even as a child. What are we replacing fairy tales with today? Internet ****, provocative dress, violence and sex slavery. Is this what mothers of today want? I would rather have Cinderella and the wicked step sisters anyday. And in the end, Cinderella wins. I think the world is in need of growing up. Better, mothers should spend time with their children and talk to them. Fairy tales are a thing of childhood, but what kids are getting today goes on and on.
7. Richard McDonough | 01.06.09
Let’s hear it for 85 year old marie.
In contradistinction to the blogger’s “being creeped out” at the opera, I find daily life sufficient to creep out any sentient being and that the imaginative content of the fairy tale..yeah, they are scary sometimes!…duh… they are enriching and speak to myths, frealities, feelings that we all carry with us.
I say you want a sanitized world get a bubble room in a good hospital.
8. Jan Bowman | 01.06.09
Rudolf Steiner, philosopher and founder of the Waldorf Schools, wrote quite a bit about the deep significance of fairy tales in a child’s development. I agree with him that they contain powerful motifs and serve on a much deeper level than the specific imagery implies. Fairy tales should be told in story, without pictures–the imagination of the child empowers and protects him. The opera mentioned in these comments isn’t the same thing, as the images are external, created by the adults.
9. Tony V | 01.06.09
Fairy tales let children think about their darkest fantasies. The world is a big confusing place. Fairy tales give children reassurance that amidst the confusion, they will prevail by being good and self-reliant. Kids are smarter than the over-protective parents of this generation appreciate.
Why the interest in protecting children from exploring their thoughts even dark, scary ones?
Pick up today’s paper to see that the real world will treat many children a lot worse than fairy tales — children are victims of sexual abuse, are murder victims in marital disputes, victims of terrorism and war and famine throughout the entire world.
If anything, fairy tales show children that adults are the most dangerous, exploitative and manipulative creatures out in the real world. And they would be right.
10. waller hastings | 01.06.09
Gee - they contacted experts: one in sociology, and one in women’s studies. With all due respect, the relevant expertise for the effect of fairy tales on children would come from specialists in children’s literature, in psychology, or in folklore. How about contacting some of them? There is a substantial body of literature about fairy tales, which would give a much more nuanced view, and you are publicizing one study of doubtful provenance that says they’re bad. Jeez!
11. Richard McDonough | 01.06.09
Re: Steiner
Bettleheim and Heuscher are also among those who wrote interestingly about fairy tales…though the former may have lifted some from the latter. A big literature on the subject. Interesting, inconclusive.
12. Jeremy | 01.06.09
‘the dwarf reference is not PC.’
The dwarfs referenced are not the same as the ‘little people’ in the world who, for whatever reason, are of less-than-average height. These are the mythical race of dwarves, the kin of Tolkien’s Tori, Balin, Bombur or Gimli to name a few. They don’t have achondroplasia or any of the other host of disorders that cause human dwarfism. They are mythical dwarfs, not humans. The term ‘dwarf’ is used to describe humans who resemble the descriptions of these creatures of fantasy in much the same way gigantism is used to describe people with growth disorders that cause them to resemble the mythical Giants.
13. Danielle | 01.06.09
What would the world be like without Cinderella, Peter and the Wolf and Jack and the Beanstalk? All these stories were ever meant to do was teach. Being written in times where it was not unusual for children to see death all around them, not just in video games and on TV, the violence in them was just normal life then. But as adults or children told stories to each other they also taught one another. Sticking Cinderalla in the DVD player and leaving it to babysit your four year old simply doesn’t have the same outcome as it would if you sat and talked with the child, helped them use their imagination where they see themselves overcoming obstacles to move mountains and actively create their own lives. I’m with Marie, keep the fairy tales, ditch the shrinks. My children aren’t any worse for them and neither am I since I write them every day.
DW Golden
A modern tale of fairies for young adults or even those always young at heart: http://www.eloquentbooks.com/PurpleButterflies.html
14. Wendy | 01.06.09
“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
–G. K. Chesterton
15. Glynne Sutcliffe | 01.06.09
Waller Hastings has the best point - and the most obvious unmentioned text discussing the deeper signficance and raison d’etre of fairy tales is Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment.
16. Jerome | 01.06.09
Like some of the comments have already noted, the fairy tales all have a strong moral–I always thought of “the emperor’s new clothes” more as a morality lesson than a fairy tale.
The real classic fairy tales are supposed to illustrate really really scary situations–fantastically scary, in fact. But they also end with a moral than should build confidence in a young child growing up in a scary world.
These days we want to pretend the world is happy–and we do all sorts of things to shield our children from pain and death. I think fairy tales are a positive way of helping children confront pain and death and the fear they prompt–without simply lecturing at them or telling them that everything will be okay “just take my word for it.”
17. Archie1954 | 01.06.09
I remember reading Bluebeard when I was very young and I was upset by the evil he personified but it gave me pause to consider that everyone wasn’t as nice as my parents and that the world harboured frightening individuals that you must keep an eye on. Also today we have modern dark “fairytales” such as Harry Potter and his books are selling like hotcakes.
18. Margarette Bull | 01.06.09
I’m a big fan of fairy tales. As a kindergartener, my friend and I were lured by a teenage boy to go to his house and make fudge while we were waiting for the school bus. Soon after that I was given a beautifully illustrated Pinocchio book which helped me understand why children should be cautious and not always trust strangers. The book showed what can happen to boys and girls who act impulsively and don’t take a minute to think through situations that involve temptation. Fortunately, I took the lesson to heart and have never grown donkey ears.
19. Shadowsprite | 01.06.09
I’d like to see more fairy tales reworked to show a princess who looks Inuit or Samoan or Columbian. Same story, just a different look. Kids today need to know that a round face, wide nose and a plumper figure could just as easily be beautiful princess material as the animated thin white girl with a pointy nose, long hair and big eyes that we see over and over again at the movies.
20. Grahame Perkins | 01.06.09
If you use such criteria to not read fairy tales to children then you certainly should not read the bible to them either . It is full of far more gruesome tales then a young girl dressed in a red cape walking alone through the forest to find her grandmother eaten by a wolf , Jonah being eaten by a whale . There is plenty of violence and blood in the bible and unpleasantries that can impinge on young childrens minds .
21. Ragnar | 01.06.09
It’s difficult remembering back 65 to 70 years, but I’m quite sure I had a puppy love affection for Snow White, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Goldilocks, etc
22. Mrs. Dorothy Barron | 01.06.09
Mrs. Dorothy Barron
The decision to read Fairy Tales to a child depends on how well the parent knows his/her child. Other important factors, the parent’s view, how the story is introduced to the child, and what the child is expected to garner from the fairy tale. After the analysis, it is important to respect the decision of the parent.
As a child, I was an avid reader of Fairy Tales. Introduced correctly, they can become exercises in character building.
Thank you,
Mrs. Dorothy Barron, Author
23. annetta | 01.07.09
It’s amazing what is on the TV at 8:00 or 9:00 at night that doesn’t raise flags to people concerned about their children. Generations of children heard the fairy tales on the “bad” list and I remember reading them for enjoyment as a child. I wonder which source of stories are the most potentially harmful to children.
24. C. Ritter | 01.07.09
“Fairy Tales archetypal images live on through all the changes and upheavals in society” writes Polly Lawson, translator of Rudolf Meyer’s book The Wisdom of Fairy Tales. The author rediscovers the lost meaning of these stories and shows how they can have a profound and positive influence on the developing mind of a child. Telling fairy tales to children today gives spiritual nourishment which later in life can be a source of ideals and imaginative, creative thinking. Hats off to Rudolf Steiner and Waldorf education who has influenced such work as Meyer’s. Classic fairy tales are told through story, verse, puppet plays and song in all Waldorf kindergartens around the world.
25. Kim Stewart | 01.07.09
Fairy Tales were used as a form of brainwashing in the schools in the 1960’s
instead of teaching the students the three R’s. For this I feel they are evil.
26. Rachel Clark | 01.08.09
This is terrible! I was raised on fairy tales…they taught me to seek deeper meaning in books and stories…my reading comprehension is impeccable and I am a complete bookworm. I thank my parents for giving me my first story book, Grimms’ Complete Fairy Tales.
These stories teach our children lessons, and show all sides of the story - the good, the bad, and the ugly, and they teach children to know the difference.
This is a sad day in children’s literature.
27. radka | 01.08.09
I am surprise they did not like Hansel and Gretel but agree with Monster.Inc.Every child should be terrified by this movie, in night (in their nightmares)monster is crawling from the closet and by scaring them make them cry, is that politicaly correct?
We took a vote at the office after reading the article ( many of us parents),
and we all agree, the old fairy tales prepare children for the real world.
28. becka | 01.08.09
I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer here. Well-balanced children with a supportive environment will enjoy tales for what they are–the delight of hearing or reading a fanciful, eye-widening story which also may have more than one thing to say about life. A needy child may use such tales for escape or take them more seriously than they were intended.
Tales have been an integral part of our lives from the time of evening cave fires right down through the times of the court jesters and troubadors, the passion plays and theatre, right through to books, movies and the Internet. We never outgrow our love of a good story, even when we know it may be slightly inflated–and sometimes that’s precisely why we love them.
Tales are not going to go away ever. Where I feel we should put the emphasis is on giving our particular children a loving supportive environment with parents or other central adults who discuss the stories their children are reading with them.
29. jeds | 01.09.09
Don’t become so ignorant as to take away these important stories from children. These types of stories are necessary to the development of the child’s mind.
“A third of parents refused to read Little Red Riding Hood because she walks through woods alone and finds her grandmother eaten by a wolf.”
Lying to the child and telling them that the world is full of sunshine and wonder will just leave them unready for the adult world. Stories like this need to be heard for a child to be ready to handle the life ahead of them
30. Terri | 01.12.09
Reading fairy tales was probably my first introduction to reading. I read and re-read them. The made learning to read a joy. I am 75, and thanks to that, am still an avid reader. Of course, now as adults we can read horrors into them, but as children, we read and enjoyed them in our innocence and found the good and the basic morals in them. How much more harm is given our children now in movies and television, video games, and comic books that take away not only the innocence, but the creativity of an imagination. I would much rather see the young people immulate Prince Charming, Cinderella, etc., than the heros they make of rappers, drug using sports figures, and other celebrities of questionable morals.
31. Isobel | 06.23.09
This is ridiculous!!!!!!!!
Fairy tales are made up lies for children.
Without fairy tales as a young child i would not have the imagination i have today. I read snow white, cinderella and all that **** and they meant everything in the world to me. Why stop children reading them now. You are lowering their education skills and ruining their imagitive lives to com. Believe me it pays off when you get older.
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1. Kayla | 01.05.09
I see both sides. But I’m fond of Fairy Tales, they teach children in a fun way. (Ex: Little Red Riding Hood teahces to not talk to strangers, Cinderella teaches anyone can be a “princess”…etc.) Plus, without Fairy Tales, we wouldn’t have many books today. Like Gail Carson Levine and Robin McKinly’s books, which are rewrites of fairy tales. I don’t know about you, but I love their books!