Things Walt Disney Never Told Us Author(s): Kay Stone Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of American Folklore,

Vol. 88, No. 347, Women and Folklore (Jan. - Mar., 1975), pp. 42-50 Published by: American Folklore Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/539184 . Accessed: 10/03/2012 10:47
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KAY

STONE

Things Walt Disney Never Told Us*

THE FOLLOWINGITEM appearedrecentlyin a Winnipeg newspaper:

only one of many that illustratethe popularityof fairy-taleheroines in North America.That they are householdwords as well as "householdtales" is attribeffortsof the Grimmsand the very intentionalefforts utableto the unintentional of Walt Disney. Despite the wide appeal of such heroines,they have receivedlittle scholarly discussion.Stith Thompson'sdefinitionof the term Miirchenbegins by stating that the genre is characterized "such tales as 'Cinderella,''Snow White,' or by 'Hansel and Gretel,'"2 but he then goes on to consider only the exploits of
Miirchen heroes. Lord Raglan does not include a single heroine in his international survey of twenty-one heroic characters.3Linda Digh explains that she has excluded most heroines from Folktales of Hungary because they are much

the same throughoutEurope;it is only the heroes who take on national coloring.4 In North America,where oral forms of the Miirchenare not abundant literature.5
and where the Grimm tales are read mainly by or to children, heroines have been virtually ignored except by a handful of writers interested in children's

* I thank all those who have offered suggestions on this article, especially Claire Farrer and Linda Degh. 1 Winnipeg Free Press, April 14, 1972. 2 The Folktale (New York, 1946), 8. 3 The Hero (New York, 1956), chap. 16. 4 Chicago, 1965, xxx. 5 See, for example, Marcia Lieberman, "Some Day My Prince Will Come," College English (December, 1972), 383-395; Alison Lurie, "Fairy Tale Liberation," The New York Review of Books (December 17, 1970), 42-44; and "Witches and Fairies: Fitzgerald to Updike," The New York Review of Books (December 2, 1971), 6-8. Sporadic references to fairy-tale heroines are found in Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (New York, 1953), and Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York, 1963).

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In attemptingto correctthis imbalancein attention I have surveyedboth popular and scholarlycollectionsin English and have asked dozens of women to recall their childhoodmemories.Almost all of those interviewedwere completely unfamiliar with Anglo-Americanheroines, most of whom appear in scholarly collections not often found in children's sections of libraries. All, however, could easily recall tales popularizedthrough the numerous Grimm translations and the Disney films.6These tales are so thoroughlyacceptedthat one womaneven referredto the Grimmstoriesas "Englishfairy tales," because her German-born mothertold her "real" (German) tales.7 What have the Grimm translations offeredto North Americanchildren?Of the total of 210 stories in the complete edition, there are 40 heroines,not all of them passive and pretty. Very few translations offer more than twenty-five tales, and thus only a handful of heroines is usually included. Most of them run the gamutfrom mildly abusedto severelypersecuted. fact, a dozen docile In heroines are the overwhelming favorites, reappearingin book after book from the mid-nineteenthcenturyto the present.8Cinderella (AT 5ioA) and FrauHolle (AT 480) succeedbecauseof their excessivekindnessand patience; have to be reawakened life by a man; and the innocentheroinesof "The Little to Goose Girl" (AT 533) and "The Six Swans" (AT 451) are the victims of schemingand ambitiouswomen. The villains are not alwayswomen, however. A girl is forced by her father to accepta grotesquesuitor in "The Frog Prince" (AT 440), and anotheris marriedoff to a greedy king by her father in "Rumpelstiltskin" (AT 500). Still anotherfather is encouragedby his daughterto mutilate her in order to save himself in "The Girl Without Hands" (AT 706). Though this tale is not quite as popular as the others, it is sufficientlywell known to have inspired authorJoyceCarolOates'snewest novel.9 Some Grimm heroines do show a bit of spirit, but they are not usually rewarded for it. In "The Clever PeasantLass" (AT 875) the girl is threatened with abandonment her boorish husband,and the proud daughterin "King by Thrushbeard"(AT 900) is humbled by both her father and her unwanted husband. Only Gretel ("Hansel and Gretel," AT 327) is allowed a brief momentof violence in orderto save herself and her brother.No other popular Grimmheroinesdestroythe villain. The passivityof these heroinesis magnifiedby the fact that their storiesjump
6 The impact of the Grimms in England and North America is detailed in Katharine Briggs, "The Influence of the Brothers Grimm in England," and Wayland Hand, "Die Mdirchen der Briider Grimms in den Vereinigten Staaten," Hessische Blitter ffir Volkskunde, 54 (1963), 511-524 and 525-544. 7 R. R., interviewed in Winnipeg, January 3, 1973. 8 These are, in order of their popularity: "Sleeping Beauty," "Snow White," "Cinderella," "Rapunzel," "The Frog Prince," "Hansel and Gretel," "Rumpelstiltskin," "King Thrushbeard," "The Little Goose Girl," "Red Riding Hood," "Frau Holle," and "The Six Swans." AT numbers in this article refer to type numbers from Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson, The Types of the Folktale, Folklore Fellows Communications No. 74 (Helsinki, 1928). 9 Do With Me What You Will (New York, i973). The title is taken from the girl's words to her father.

Sleeping Beauty (AT 4-10) and Snow White (AT 709) are so passive that they

KAY STONE 44 from twenty percentin the originalGrimmcollectionto as much as seventy-five percentin many children'sbooks. In this sense the fairy tale, a male-oriented genre genre in Europe (both by tale and by teller), becomesa female-oriented in North Americanchildren'sliterature. But if the Grimmheroinesare, for the most part, uninspiring,those of Walt Disney seem barelyalive. In fact, two of them hardly manage to stay awake. Disney producedthree films basedon Mairchen ("SleepingBeauty"and "Snow White" from the Grimms and "Cinderella"from Perrault). All three had passive, pretty heroines, and all three had female villains, thus strongly reinforcing the alreadypopularstereotypeof the innocentbeautyvictimizedby the wicked villainess. In fact, only half of the Grimm heroine tales have female villains, and among the Anglo-Americantales, only one-third.Yet even Stith Thompsonbelieves otherwise;he states that "for some reason,to the composer of folktales, it is the woman of the family who is nearlyalwayschosen for the partof the villain."0o of not But Walt Disney is responsible only for amplifyingthe stereotype good versus bad women suggested by the children's books based on the Grimms, of he must also be criticizedfor his portrayal a cloying fantasyworld filled with cute little beings existing among prettyflowersand singing animals.Though a recent magazine article calls him a "Masterof Fantasy,"in fact Disney has removed most of the powerful fantasy of the Miirchenand replaced it with false magic." heroinesof the Grimmsand Disney are not only pasIn brief, the popularized but also unusuallypatient, obedient, industrious,and quiet. A sive and pretty, womanwho failed to be any of these could not becomea heroine.Even Cinderella has to do no more than put on dirty rags to concealherself completely.She is a heroineonly when properlycleanedand dressed. and heroescan be slovenly,unattractive, lazy, and their In contrast, Mairchen success will not be affected.The Grimms' "Hans-my-Hedgehog" (AT 441) has a hero who activelyexploits his grotesqueshape in order to gain power, wealth, and--of course-a beautiful wife. The hero of "The Little Red Ox" (AT 5xiA), unlike his passive sister in "One-Eye,Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes" (AT 51 x), does not docilely accepthis fate: he kills his stepmotherinsteadof the helpful ox and rides boldly away. The many youngest-sontales known as "male Cinderellas"almost always have heroes who, unlike the female Cinderella, do not seem to be the least botheredby their unfavoredposition. One of these, in the Grimms'"The Youth Who Wanted to LearnWhat Fear Is" (AT 326), is clearlydescribedas dull and stupid, in contrastto his clever and industriousbrother.He is seen as a burdento the family becausehe does everybetween thing wrong. Not exactlythe typicalCinderella.The only resemblance this hero and Cinderellais that he wins in the end becausehe proves to be

more courageous than his brother, not because he sits home awaiting the arrival of a princess.
10Thompson, 113. 11"The World That Disney Built," Newsweek (October I5, 1973), ioI-Io2.

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Heroes succeed because they act, not because they are. They are judged not by their appearance inherentsweet naturebut by their abilityto overcome or even if these obstaclesare defects in their own characters. Heroines obstacles, are not allowed any defects, nor are they requiredto develop, since they are alreadyperfect. The only tests of most heroines requirenothing beyond what At they are born with: a beautiful face, tiny feet, or a pleasing temperament. least that is what we learn from the translations the Grimmtales, and especiof ally from Walt Disney. To judge from the I86 heroines found in five major Anglo-Americanfolktale collections,oral narrators not confinethemselvesto passive princesses.12 do There are even women who express a national coloring apparentlylacking in heroines.Englandhas a female versionof "Jackand the Beanstalk," European for example, and the United Stateshas severalheroineswell suited to a tough pioneering life. They do not always rely on sympatheticfairy godmothersor dwarfs, nor do they always await the last-minutearrivalof the overprotective hero. And, as alreadymentioned,they are more often aggravatedby male villains than by the familiarwicked stepmother.13 Among the Ozarktales collected by Vance Randolph,we find women who destroy the threateningmale villains and also a girl who does not need her fatherto convinceher that frogs make interestingbedfellows.14 LeonardRoberts introduces numberof Kentuckyheroineswho do not fit European a stereotypes. The heroineof his versionof "Cupidand Psyche"(AT 425A) marriesa prizefighter instead of a more obvious beast and is not intimidatedby his brutal In treatment.15 "The Little Girl and the Giant" (AT 327) a mother and in The Randolph daughtercooperate escapingfrom a giant and destroying him.16 and Robertscollections,and othersalso, offer a numberof versionsof "Cinderella" (both AT 51oA and 51oB) that would have made Disney's hair curl. Four British heroines are outstanding.One ("Kate Crackernuts," AT 306 and 711), in an unusualversionof "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," only not rescuesa prince from nocturnalfairiesbut also curesthe beautifulstepsisterdeformed by the heroine'sown jealous mother.17 Another, in "Mossycoat"(AT of 51oB), leaves home voluntarily-with the encouragement a loving mother, not becauseof the threatsof an incestuous Unlike many of her counterfather."s
12 Katharine Briggs, A Dictionary of British Folktales, vol. I (London, 1970); Marie Campbell, Tales from the Cloud Walking Country (Bloomington, Indiana, 1958); Emelyn Gardner, Folklore from the Scholarie Hills, New York (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1937); Vance Randolph, The Devil's Pretty Daughter (New York, 1955), Sticks in the Knapsack (New York, 1958), The Talking Turtle (New York, 1957), and Who Blowed Up the Church House? (New York, and Leonard Roberts, Old Greasybeard (Detroit, 1959), South from Hell-fer-Sartin 1952); (Lexington, Kentucky, 1955), and Up Cutshin and Down Greasy (Lexington, Kentucky, 1959). Of the i86 heroine tales, only 62-exactly one-third-had exclusively female villains. Of 130 the male villains, many were angry fathers, murderous lovers, and jealous husbands. 14Vengeful heroines are found in abundance in The Devil's Pretty Daughter: "What Candy Ashcraft Done," 6; "How Toodie Fixed Old Grunt," 63; and "The Girl and the Road Agent," 139. In the same volume is "The Toad-frog," 91. 15 "Bully Bornes," South from Hell-fer-Sartin, 60-63. 16 Ibid., 45-46. 17Briggs, A Dictionary, 344. 18 Ibid., 416.

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but parts, she is not only unintimidated her jealous fellow-workers, actually by bewitchesthem into silence. Still anotherheroine (in "Tib and the Old Witch," AT 328) leaves home in protestover her father'srejectionof her lover.'9She is not locked in a tower as in the Grimms'"LadyMadelaine"(AT 5ioA), nor is she forced to choose Neither does she returnhome after againsther will as in "King Thrushbeard." her adventures live happilyever after. to Even more aggressiveis the heroine of "MallyWhuppee" (AT 328).20 She also leaves home, but with two sisterswhom she protectsfrom a giant and for whom she wins husbandsbefore she wins one for herself. She earns them by answeringa king's challenge to returnand steal the giant's treasures.Unlike AT Jack ("The Boy Stealsthe Giant'sTreasures," 328), she succeedsin doing so without killing the giant. She even prevents him from unknowingly destroyinghis own wife. A more violent Americanversion of the same tale has the heroine in competitionwith her sisters, who want to kill her, and more violent towardthe giant; she does not destroyhim but does drown his wife.21 In none of these tales do we find the stereotyped conflictbetweenthe passive, beautifulwoman and the aggressive,ugly one. Most of the active heroinesare not even describedin terms of their naturalattributes-and Mally Whuppee is presentedas less attractivethan her stepsister.Like heroes, they are judged by their actions. Though most do marry,their weddings are no more central to the tale than is the concludingmarriageof most heroes. Some husbandsare even won as passive prizes, in the same way that princessesare won by heroes in many tales. Most important,active heroinesare not victims of hostile forces beyondtheir controlbut are, instead,challengerswho confrontthe world rather than waiting for successto fall at their pretty feet. Unfortunately,heroines of this sort are not numerousin oral tales and do not exist at all in any of the Grimm tales or the Disney films. Female aggressivenessis not the only aspect of heroine tales that is unfamiliar to most of us. Sexualityin fairy tales seems to be limited to Jack's Overt sexual references,if they even find their way into original beanstalk.22 collections,rarelyappearin children'sbooks. Translationsof the Grimms, for example,usuallyomit the fact that Rapunzel'sinitial encounterwith the prince resultedin twins. The Grimms' "other"Cinderella,"All-Kinds-of-Fur"(AT 5 oB), is usually left out altogether,since the heroineis forced to leave home to avoid her father'sthreatsof an incestuousmarriage.A "Disney version"of this tale is difficultto imagine, for Disney found even the more passiveGrimm version of Cinderella (AT 51oA) unsuitablefor children and used the more innocuousPerraultversion instead. Othersexualreferencesare moresubtle.We must look closelyto discoverthat it is at pubertythat Rapunzelis locked in a tower, Snow White is sent out to
9 Ibid., 522. 20Ibid., 400. 21 "Polly, Nancy, and Muncimeg," in Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 119-123. 22 See Alan Dundes, The Study of Folklore (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1969), 107-113, for two examples of phallic interpretation of "Jack and the Beanstalk."

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be murdered,and Sleeping Beautyput to sleep. Such heroineshave their freedom severelyrestrictedat a time in life when heroes are discoveringfull independence and increasedpower. Restrictionson girls at puberty,in contrastto the increasedfreedom their brothersenjoy, possibly explain the intenselysympathetic reactionmany women have to such passive heroines in fairy tales.23 In the specifictales mentioned,this restriction reflectsanxietyaboutcompetition with other women that increasedsexuality offers. It might also be seen as a protectionfor the heroineherself, who must remainpure for the one man who will eventuallyclaim her. The restrictionof women at pubertycan also be interpretedas a reactionof men to the threatof female sexuality.24 Though female symbolsin general have certainlybeen consideredby Freud, Jung, and a handful of otherscholars,they still lack a familiarname, and, compared with phallic symbols, have receivedpracticallyno attention from folktale scholars.25 As Freudnotes, female symbolsarethose that suggestthe possibilityof either These would include rooms and houses, ovens, jugs and entry or entrapment. bowls, shoes, and forests and flowers. Such symbols do not appear randomly or without meaning. They take their significancefrom the context in which to they are used; thus it is not necessary interpreteveryhouse, for example,as a female symbol.Occasionally symbolismis obvious,such as the hero'spluckthe ing of the enchantedflowerin AT 407, "The Girl as Flower."Other references are more obscure-the fitting of Cinderella'sslipper in AT 5IoA or her ring in AT 5 ioB.26 Both male and female symbolscan be portrayed positivelyor negatively,reeither desire or anxiety.In this sense Jack'spowerful beanstalkleading flecting to a treasurecontrastssharplywith the imposing tower in "Rapunzel" with or the dagger used to murder Bluebeard'swives in some versions of AT 312. Similarly,the lovely enchantedflower presents quite a different image than does the threatening witch'shut or the magic forest, both of which trap unwary male travelers."2 is Hansel, one remembers, It who is trappedfirst in the witch's hut and then in her cage. as Sexualityis also portrayed harmfulto the heroineherself. There are many symbolichints thatwomenshouldnot becometoo familiarwith theirown bodies. wives are murderedfor looking into forbiddenrooms,and Sleeping Bluebeard's Beauty is punished with near death from a sharp object for doing so. Other heroinesare threatenedwith death for breakinga tabu against looking into a fireplacein versionsof AT 480 ("The Kind and the Unkind Girls"), and little
23 V. S., interviewed in Winnipeg, May 3, I973. 24 See, for example, H. R. Hays, The Dangerous Sex (Richmond Hills, Ontario, 1964), especially chap. 4. 25 See, for example: Sigmund Freud, A General Introduction To Psychoanalysis (New York, 1969), 156-177; Carl Jung, The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, vol. 9, part I (Princeton, New Jersey, 1968); and Lewis Mumford, The City in History (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 196I), 15-17. 26 For a provocative interpretation of Cinderella and female sexuality, see Lea Kavablum, Cinderella: Radical Feminist, Alchemist (Guttenberg, New Jersey: privately printed, 1973). 27 See, for example, Hays, 148.

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girls are murderedby their stepmothersfor breakingjugs in several versions of AT 720 ("The JuniperTree"). Sexualimageryof this sort would not be obviousto most children (or to most adults), but some writersfeel that fairy tales do satisfy a more generalpsychological need, at least for North Americanchildren.They suggest that children might view themselvesas the helpless underdogswho eventuallytriumphover Michael Hornyantheir parents.28 the powerful witches and ogres representing sky emphasizesthat North Americanchildren are still avid readersof fairy tales, possibly because of such identification:"The stories they want to hear 'SnowWhite,' 'Jackand the Beanstalk,'and that crowd: storiesfull of princes, princesses,giants, wicked witches, wolves, dwarfs, and other personsnot normally encountered."29 Hornyanskymentions only one hero tale, thus underlining the observation made earlier in this paper that the large numberof heroine tales in fairy-tale books indicatesthat these are meant for girls. It does not seem an exaggeration to say, as one feminist writer does, that fairy tales may serve as "trainingmanuals" in passivebehavior,and that "Millionsof womenmust surelyhave formed their ideas of what they could or could not accomplish,what sort of behavior would be rewarded,and of the nature of reward itself, in part from their favorite fairy stories. These stories have been made the repositoriesof the A dreams,hopes, and fantasiesof generationsof girls."30 popularpsychiatrist, the late Eric Berne, felt that fairy tales offer not only dreams and hopes but actualprogramsfor behavior.Your favoritefairy tale may parallel and inform your attitudesand acts.31 Rather than accept these views uncritically,I interviewed forty women of All varyingages and backgrounds.32 had read fairy tales, almostall could name severalfavoriteheroinesbut rarelyanyheroes,and most of these tales were from Disney or the Grimms.Many admittedthat they were certainlyinfluencedby their readingof fairy tales. Some had openly admiredthe lovely princessesand hoped to imitatethem-especially their ability to obtain a man and a suburban told me, "I thought I'd just sit castle without much effort. An eleven-year-old around and get all this money. I used to think 'Cinderella'should be my of Anotheradmirer Cinderella,a nine-year-old, said, "Well, I wouldn't story."33 want to marrya prince like she did-just somebodylike a prince."34 really admiredthe passiveprincessbecausethere were few alterOthersreluctantly
28 See, for example, Eric Berne, What Do You Say After You Say Hello? (New York, 1973), especially chap. 3; Bruno Bettelheim, "Bringing Up Children" (monthly column), Ladies' Home Journal (October and November, 1973); Michael Hornyansky, "The Truth of Fables," Only Connect, ed. Sheila Egoff and others (Toronto, 1969), 121-132. 29 Hornyansky, 121. 30 Lieberman, 38531 Berne, chaps. 3, 12, and 13. 32 Interviews were conducted in Miami, Minneapolis, and Winnipeg, from December, 1972, to August, 1973. The ages of the women ranged from seven to sixty-one. 33 R. S., Winnipeg, June 13, I973. 34 C. C., Miami, December 25, 1972.

last thing at night . . . are 'Sleeping Beauty,' 'Red Riding Hood,' 'Cinderella,'

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native images, but they did not expect to imitate either her attributesor her materialsuccesses.Said a twenty-nine-year-old:
I remember feeling of beingleft out in fairy stories.Whateverthe storywas about,it the wasn'taboutme. But this feelingdidn'tmakeme not interested them-I knewtherewas in I something was supposedto do to fit in but I didn't.So I thoughttherewas something wrongwith me, not with the fairy stories.35

A twenty-four-year-old me that she had really expectedto bloom one day told as Cinderellahad done, but she was still waiting.36 Many of those who admired the passive princess, either openly or reluctantly,recognizedher image in variousforms of popularentertainment, notably in romantic tales on televisionand in comic books, magazines,and novels read almostexclusivelyby women. Even women who had shakenthe persistentprincess in their dailylives returned her in fantasythroughsuchpopularmaterials. to The woman who mentioned feeling left out in fairy stories said she had to force herself to stop buyingromantic magazines:"Theydepressedme and made me feel confused. There was something about them-something like the victimized fairy-talewomen-that I didn't want to see in myself."37 Many informantsunderthe age of fifteen (the post-Disneygeneration) were not so impressedwith the passive heroines of Disney and the Grimms. Some found them boringand stoppedreadingfairytales altogether,such as the young woman who said, "Thatpoor princess,so beautifuland helpless. She sure will have a long wait for that prince to show up!"'' Others who liked the fantasy world of the Miirchenclaimed they compensatedfor the lack of interesting heroinesby readingabout heroes, but they could rarelyname even one. Still othersperformeda fascinatingfeat of selectivememoryby transforming relativelypassive heroinesinto active ones. Severalwere mentioned (including the persecuted sisterof AT 451, "The MaidenWho Seeks Her Brothers"),but the best remembered was Gretel, who pushes the witch into the oven. In fact, this is her only aggressive act, and it seems almost accidentalin comparison with those of the ever-confident Hansel. He does not even lose hope when he is caged but devises the fake finger to fool the witch into delaying his death. Yet not surprisingly is the tearfulGretelwho is remembered girls in search it by of active heroines, for Gretel is indeed aggressivewhen comparedwith most of the Grimm heroines and all of the Disney heroines. However, when contrastedwith the Anglo-American heroinesmentionedearlier,she seems far less heroic. We see through her what we have lost by taking our heroines from Grimmand Disney, ratherthan from the tales of our own heritage. whetherthey admiredCinderella found her boring, or Among the informants, whetherthey felt heroineslike Gretel were active or were not, there was general agreement that considerably more diversitywould have been welcome.Many reactedfavorablyto a rewrittenversionof AT 300 ("The Dragon-Slayer"),in
35 L. J., Winnipeg, January 1973. 6, 36 S. L., Winnipeg, January 26, 1973. 37L. J., of n. 35. 38 L. M., Miami, December 22, 1972.

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which an unintimidated princessdestroysher own dragon and leaves the men to cleanup the remains.39 were interested hearthat therewere even tradito All tional heroines--and Anglo-American ones at that-who were equally impressive. Walt Disney neglectedto tell us that Cinderella's freedomdoes not always end at midnight. Universityof Winnipeg Winnipeg, Manitoba
39 Jay Williams, "The Practical Princess," Ms. (August, 1972), 61-64. Another "liberated" tale by the same author is "Petronella," McCall's (January, 1973), 74-110o.