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The Twelve Dancing Princesses

May 9th, 2007 by alexh

A traditional fairytale about twelve young princesses who’s new dancing shoes are magically worn through every morning and their father has no clue how. He poses a challenge; any prince who can find out why this is can have any one of his daughter’s hand in marriage. Many try but they all disappear. A poor gardener finds the means by which to follow them without being detected and figures out their secret. The princesses discover that he knows and invite to their magical castle where they dance and eat all night. The princesses try to trick him into imprisonment in the magical place just as they did to the other princes, but the youngest, who has a pure heart, warns him and they live happily ever after.

As a female I feel that this story portrays women as treacherous. That women sneak around and try to keep men with us always, otherwise known as clingy. I see them portraying the men as clever and strong willed. A man might read this story and feel that the story portrays the princess as seductive, lying, and powerful. While they see the princes as weak, easily tricked, helpless, and overall just companions for women.

In my eyes as a person of no religion I have no problem reading that the women are the ones who have power over the men and are in possession of all things magical. If I were a Muslim male I might find this story offensive because here women have the magical qualities. The women are free to do what they want and walk around with hair uncovered.

Through my own opinions as the youngest in my family I feel that they are trying to show that the youngest is pure, innocent, and kind, while the older daughters are evil and don’t know that difference between right and wrong. From the other point of view I might say that the youngest is a tattletale, and a goody-two-shoes and that the oldest is always wrong and blamed for everything.

Overall there are similarities between the themes in all of the lenses, such as sexism, but there are also many differences, for example whether or not the one lens offends another. For one person to be able to look through a lens other than their own is a great thing that will help more people to understand each other and in turn cause less disagreements.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses

 

A traditional fairytale about twelve young princesses who’s new dancing shoes are magically worn through every morning and their father has no clue how. He poses a challenge; any prince who can find out why this is can have any one of his daughter’s hand in marriage. Many try but they all disappear. A poor gardener finds the means by which to follow them without being detected and figures out their secret. The princesses discover that he knows and invite to their magical castle where they dance and eat all night. The princesses try to trick him into imprisonment in the magical place just as they did to the other princes, but the youngest, who has a pure heart, warns him and they live happily ever after.

As a female I feel that this story portrays women as treacherous. That women sneak around and try to keep men with us always, otherwise known as clingy. I see them portraying the men as clever and strong willed. A man might read this story and feel that the story portrays the princess as seductive, lying, and powerful. While they see the princes as weak, easily tricked, helpless, and overall just companions for women.

In my eyes as a person of no religion I have no problem reading that the women are the ones who have power over the men and are in possession of all things magical. If I were a Muslim male I might find this story offensive because here women have the magical qualities. The women are free to do what they want and walk around with hair uncovered.

Through my own opinions as the youngest in my family I feel that they are trying to show that the youngest is pure, innocent, and kind, while the older daughters are evil and don’t know that difference between right and wrong. From the other point of view I might say that the youngest is a tattletale, and a goody-two-shoes and that the oldest is always wrong and blamed for everything.

Overall there are similarities between the themes in all of the lenses, such as sexism, but there are also many differences, for example whether or not the one lens offends another. For one person to be able to look through a lens other than their own is a great thing that will help more people to understand each other and in turn cause less disagreements.

Posted in The Tempest | | | 1 Comments

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