Cinderella is tortured by her “evil’ step mothers and stepsisters. She finds her Prince Charming after endless hardships. Snow White is haunted by the evils of her stepmother and is forced to live with the dwarfs in the forest. Beauty sacrifices everything and her innocent and sincere nature pays her off as the beast turns into a handsome prince. Why is that the protagonist of a fairy-tale is always made to look helpless and poor? Why is the word “beauty” always associated with innocence and ‘step” relations with evil. Does this imply that all charming people are unblemished and sinless? And all the stepmothers wicked?
Certainly not. Have you ever thought about fairy-tales from this point of view? Sincerely and honestly, ask yourself a question. Have you ever heard or read a fairy-tale in which the maiden is fat, dark-complexioned and clumsy? Why is the prince in shining armor always gallant and handsome? There are so many prejudices attached to the fairy-tales. They aren’t all hunky-dory. Close analysis show how shallow these stories are. They bring us to the question: how fair are fairy-tales? No doubt that they create a parallel universe for kids,where they can be imaginative and creative. But on the same hand, they end up developing an illusion.
Every girl, henceforth will wait for a dapper guy who’ll sweep her off her feet. WHY? A perfectly average looking guy with a decent background could be the guy for her. Similarly a boy would keep waiting for a dainty and tender girl when an independent and wise girl could be the one. So the whole point is that, HOW UNFAIR ARE FAIRY-TALES! All of us have grown up listening to endless fairy-tales in the end of which good triumphs. But does that ever happen in reality? Because no story ends at “happily ever after”. There is a huge possibility that:
- Cinderella and her prince thought that “their love at first sight” was certainly not working out and that they needed to take a break.
- Snow white could have aged into someone who imprecates with 7 children tottering around. Whereas her prince could have been squandering around, doing nothing.
- Rapunzel could have had to get her long cascading hair cut off due to a life endangering ailment.
There needs to be something called “practicality” attached to such stories. Agreed that the uncorrupt minds of children are too gullible to put down into their hard disks such harsh actualities of life. But we certainly can’t take advantage of their unskeptical minds. The truth needs to be rolled out. Slowly and warmly. But it does need to get out. The bubble needs to be burst in a manner where the other world becomes crystal clear and the ping is also not heard.
