Have you ever noticed that all the female characters in fairy tales that appear to be over forty are either evil or dead?
Think about it. Snow White’s stepmom, the Evil Queen – over forty and well, evil. Cinderella’s step mom, Lady Tremaine – over forty and really, really mean, and really, really jealous. She replaces Cinderella’s biological mom – over forty and DEAD. Belle’s biological mom – over forty and DEAD. Maleficent, the villain from Sleeping Beauty – over forty and nicknamed the “Mistress of All Evil”. Ursula, Ariel’s nemesis from the The Little Mermaid – over forty and a narcissistic bitch. And don’t even get me started on Rapunzel’s “kidnapper”, Dame Gothel…clearly over forty with issues…lots of them.
And the list goes on and on.
So why is this? I have a couple of theories.
First of all, the originating fairy tales were written by men. Or should I say chauvinistic pigs who showcase young (barely legal) beauties as the heroines, and mature (way legal) women as unattractive, bitter, resentful monsters.
To break that down even more, all our famous fairy tale princesses are innocent, overly gorgeous, incredibly skinny, perfect young ladies being bullied by overweight, ugly, jealous, miserably flawed older women.
Really? Is this the message we want to send impressionable girls? Or for that matter, aging women? If you’re beyond a certain age and either single, childless or not where you want to be in life, you turn into a wicked lunatic?
Taking a closer look, these female villains probably weren’t evil at all, but perhaps misunderstood. Yet, those chauvinistic pig writers exaggerated these women’s imperfections in a manner that was WAY over the top.
