By: Anabel Lynch
Abstract
Fairy tales such as Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella promote societal misconceptions about love and gender roles in relationships. Beauty and the Beast demonstrates a Stockholm Syndrome relationship while Cinderella presents an obsessive prince, and both stories ignore the dangerous love circumstances being portrayed. Through research, analysis, and close readings of scholarly sources as well as One Direction’s song “Stockholm Syndrome” and Blondie’s song “One Way or Another,” this paper will analyze how the fairy tale themes of Stockholm Syndrome and stalking appear in modern music and inform personal views on love and gender roles. The themes involving love found in fairy tales that are mirrored in music are dangerous media to present to the public as they describe unequal gender roles, toxic love, and objectify women. Analysis of the two different fairy tales has been done by many different scholars such as PhD author Marcia, R. Lieberman. Research regarding female representation in music lyrics have also been completed in academic journals by professors such as Brook Bretthauer and Texas Tech University’s Eric Rasmussen and Rebecca Densley. However, not much research has been completed to relate Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast to contemporary music. The hope is to have this comparison help us shift societal understandings of love so that these dangerous relationships are no longer romanticized or encouraged and positive and respectful notions of love are represented in music. This paper also aims to call adults to action to begin conversation with children about gender and relationships in order to allow them the opportunity to form their own ideas of love.
The Dangers of Normalizing Toxicity in Fairy Tales and Music
Fairy tales such as Jeanne- Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s “Beauty and the Beast” and the Grimm Brothers’ “Cinderella” exacerbate societal ideas about love, relationships, and gender roles. “Beauty and the Beast” tells a story of Stockholm Syndrome and “Cinderella” downplays the prince’s stalking behavior to be charming. The romanticizing of toxic relationships is a theme portrayed in both fairy tales and contemporary music. The interpretations about love found in fairy tales and contemporary music are a danger as they normalize unequal gender roles, toxic love, and objectify women.
Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s version of “Beauty and the Beast” details the story of young Beauty who takes the place of her father as the Beast’s prisoner. After months, Beauty realizes she loves the Beast and agrees to marry him and it is revealed that the Beast is actually a handsome prince who had previously been cursed to look like the Beast. This tale romanticizes Stockholm Syndrome, where a person who is held captive or abused develops a positive relationship with their captor or abuser. Another example of toxic romance is found in the Grimm Brothers’ version of “Cinderella”. The tale follows the story of a girl, mistreated by her step mother and step sisters, who meets the prince at a ball and captures his heart. The prince refuses to marry anyone but Cinderella and does everything in his power to find her. This story of Cinderella misrepresents stalking behaviors and obsessive actions as true love. These fairy tale themes are reflected in the contemporary songs “Stockholm Syndrome” by the famous British boy band One Direction and “One Way or Another” by the American rock band, Blondie. The song “Stockholm Syndrome” describes the situation where a person held captive falls in love with their captor and doesn’t want to leave them. “One Way or Another,” written by Blondie’s lead singer Debbie Harry, is based on her own life experience with a stalker. The song talks about following someone around, finding, getting, and winning them. Both of these songs share disturbing messages, but through their upbeat rhythms and high popularity the messages are shone in a positive light. The popularity of fairy tales and music skew the messages about relationships that are conveyed in both forms of media.
Fairy tales like the Grimm Brothers’ “Cinderellas normalize unequal gender roles as the female characters in the tale are desperate to marry. As the prince arrives at Cinderella’s house, her two stepsisters cut their feet in order to fit into the shoe and have him take them as his wife. This idea stemmed from the step- mother, “Cut the toe off. Once you’re queen, you won’t need to go on foot any more” (Grimm 152). The idea of cutting off a part of the body in order for the prince to marry them is frightening and presents a stereotype in which women should be so desperate to marry and meet the standards of a man. Keera Allendorf et. al. analyzes the reasons why women often marry at earlier ages than men and their gender roles in her academic journal, “Early Women, Late Men: Timing Attitudes and Gender Differences in Marriage.” The article found that “gender differences in marital timing contribute to gender differences in family life, economic opportunities, and well-being.” It is interesting that women around the globe marry at such young ages as did the girls in the fairy tales who at times were only early teenagers. This concept of women marrying earlier than men can relate to the desperation women in fairy tales have to marry. The other gender stereotype in “Cinderella” is the idea of women as petty or cruel to one another. This is presented through the step sisters who taunted Cinderella saying “‘Why should this silly goose be allowed to sit in the parlor with us?…If you want to eat bread, you’ll have to earn it. Out with the kitchen maid!”‘ (Grimm 148). Gender roles depicted in fairy tales are reflected in modern day relationships. PhD author, Marcia Lieberman is the author of the academic journal “Some Day My Prince Will Come: Female Acculturation through the Fairy Tale” where she takes a closer look at marriage and relationships in fairy tales. Lieberman found patterns of fairy tales ending with marriage as happily ever after, powerful women are rarely depicted and if they are they live isolated from others, the message of being ill-favored correlates to being ill-natured, most heroines are helpless or submissive (3-5). The theme of a helpless heroine is present in Cinderella as she requires the Prince to rescue her from her abusive family. Furthermore, as fairy tales, including “Cinderella,” often end immediately with marriage, and do not focus on marriage life it would be no surprise to see fairy tale gender roles become a reality where the female of a relationship is expected to rely heavily on the male for support and rescue. Fairy tales depictions of weak women and heroic men are also seen in music with limitations to the power of female character.
Both “Cinderella” and “Beauty and the Beast” narrate the dangerous love situations of Stalking Syndrome and Stockholm Syndrome in a nonchalant tone. In Cinderella, the prince becomes infatuated with Cinderella after meeting her at the balls and after one ball “the prince followed her, hoping to see which house she would enter”(Grimm 151). Despite how fascinated by Cinderella or how beautiful she was or how mysterious to the prince she might seem, it is never okay to follow someone to their house without them being aware of it. If a girl runs away from you three times, someone might assume that she is not interested or does not want you to know more about her; rather than be understanding the prince takes his actions to the extreme and follows her. This theme is not only found in fairy tales but it is also seen in Blondie’s song “One Way or Another” where the lyrics state “I will drive past your house/ And if the lights are all down I’ll see who’s around.” This is a similar situation, where someone watches another person at their house without their knowledge. Knowing that “One Way or Another” is based off of Debbie Henry’s personal experience with a stalker and the similarity between the situations, it escalates the actions of the prince into stalking. “Beauty and the Beast” clearly demonstrates Stockholm Syndrome as the story describes how “Beauty spent three peaceful months at the castle…[and] each day Beauty discovered new qualities in the monster. Once she began seeing him everyday she became accustomed to his ugliness, and far from fearing his arrival…There was only one thing that still bothered Beauty. The monster, before leaving, always asked her if she wanted to be his wife, and he seemed deeply wounded when she refused” (Beaumont 46). The first indication that this is a dangerous situation is how prior to loving the Beast, Beauty refers to him as a monster and fears him, similarly, over the course of her captivity she begins to accept him. Another sign of toxicity is the way in which the Beast continues to ask Beauty to marry him after she has already said no, and is somewhat manipulative in the way he is disappointed after she refuses again. This exact situation is reflected in One Direction’s “Stockholm Syndrome” where the storyteller details their experience saying “Who’s this whisper telling me that I’m never gonna get away?/ I know they’ll be coming to find me soon/ But I fear I’m getting used to being held by you.” These two presentations of toxic relationships do have an immediate effect on modern day perceptions of love. While much of the media is available to all ages, it is very impactful on impressionable children who absorb the content and messages included in both songs and fairy tales and adopt the attitudes and morals reflected in the stories and lyrics. Dr. Anne- Lesley Ey is a professor at the University of South Australia with research focusing on the sexualization of children and media problematic sexual behavior. Her article, “Sexualized Music Media and Children’s Gender Role and Self- Identity Development: A Four Phase Study,” reports “findings which suggest that the pervasive influence of mass media contributes to the construction of a sexualized milieu in which children grow and develop, and in this way has an impact their development” (13). Ey’s research shows that even children who are able to discern the messages being displayed in music are still impacted by it. She also found that young girls reflect the sexual behaviors in music videos at younger ages than typical because of such young exposure. It can also be assumed that then young girls will also view stalking and Stockholm Syndrome as a decreased danger than what it really is. Ey urges a call to action in which parents and educators aid children in understanding sexuality and gender roles so that they may develop ideals that do not reflect the negative impacts of music messages. From songs such as “One Way or Another” and “Stockholm Syndrome” and fairy tales like “Cinderella” and “Beauty and the Beast,” children may come to believe that obsessive love should be considered flattering rather than frightening.
Fairy tales often objectify women, this is obvious in Beaumont’s “Beauty and the Beast” as only Beauty has to overcome the Beast’s hideousness and unintelligence for love, and the Beast does not have to overcome any flaws in Beauty’s looks. After the Beast is transformed back into the prince he reveals to her that, “An evil fairy condemned [him] to remain in that form until a beautiful girl would consent to marry [him]” (Beaumont 49). There are multiple issues with this message, the first being the description of “beautiful girl.” The Beast has to remain in his form until a beautiful girl agrees to marry him, not a smart or brave or kind girl but a beautiful girl. This sends the message that a girl’s beauty should be valued above all other traits she might have. Another problem presented is the fact that Beauty was the only one who had to look past the Beast’s looks. The Beast did not have to find any other reason to marry Beauty other than her looks, after all the girl’s name is literally Beauty. The idea of looks being important is also reflected in One Direction’s “Stockholm Syndrome” where the only actual description of the person is about physical appearance, “Who’s this man that’s holding your hand/ And talking about your eyes?”This again is an appreciation of looks shown in media rather than any other trait. Similarly, Blondie’s “One Way or Another” has lyrics saying “one way, or another, I’m gonna win ya,” offering the idea that women are something to be won, like a prize or a medal. In this context women are not a being with emotions of their own or the ability to choose but something to be won like an object. Studies have shown that across genres lyrics often diminish women down to their bodies and sexual actions alone. For example, well published authors from Texas Tech University, Eric Rasmussen and Rebecca Densley, worked to examine the portrayal of women in popular country songs in the United States in their academic journal, “Girl in a Country Song: Gender Roles and Objectification of Women in Popular Country Music across 1990 to 2014.” With close analysis of the lyrics to around 750 country songs and comparison of the portrayal of women in songs by female artists versus those sung by male singers, they report that country music today objectifies women as well as orients them toward family life. Similarly, the article, “A Feminist Analysis of Popular Music: Power Over, Objectification of, and Violence Of,” describes the authors’ completion of close readings of the top 20 songs for the years ranging from 1998 to 2003. They were searching for the most common themes within the lyrics. The article reports that the following “six themes were identified: men and power, sex as top priority for males, objectification of women, sexual violence, women defined by having a man, and women as not valuing themselves” (1). Despite exploring different genres of music both of these articles found that lyrics often objectified women. These messages are introduced into our society repeatedly until they become normal; as most of the audiences for this music are young teenagers, music with these messages give the idea that it is okay to objectify and diminish women and that women are responsible for preventing the objectification of men, as in “Beauty and the Beast” despite the fact that men do not hold the same responsibility. This risks adding to hostility against women and the inequalities they already face.
The messages portrayed in music that reflect the same themes of fairy tales are dangerous to the way societies construct ideas about relationships. It is essential that the themes presented in songs are addressed with children prior to and throughout their exposure in order to ensure that ideas about gender role stereotypes, dangerous relationships, and objectifying women do not become normalized or acceptable. It is important to be active listeners to popular music and work to address the ways in which it limits the female character, the same way fairy tales diminish, abuse, and sexually promote women.
By: Anne- Anderson
By: Frederic Lix
