Unraveling Gender Roles: A Critical Comparison of the Rapunzels
Jaylie Holmes
Thompson Rivers University
VISA 1500
Terryl Atkins
2024-02-24
Would you rather be daring or desirable? Heroic or protected? Masculine or feminine? Fairy tales such as Brother Grimms’ Rapunzel often depict men as the first dominant connotation and women as the latter. Rapunzel is the typical damsel in distress story of a girl who was locked in a tower by a witch and is saved by a prince who climbs her long golden hair. Versions of this tale have been told for centuries however, Disney’s Tangled is the first to skew the gender roles into ambiguity. The valiant retelling of the original story is driven by Rapunzel’s ambition to see the floating lanterns at the castle. Gender expression in media is an important part of a child’s development, so how does the feminine construct differ in Brother Grimms’ Rapunzel and Disney’s Tangled?
Apart from sharing the same name and physical features, these characters could not be any more different. Grimms’ Rapunzel is a static feminine character, she is an object of desire, beauty and youth. She has no goals, no personality and her only tangible attributes are her sweet singing voice and long, gorgeous blonde hair. As foreseen, she is ultimately saved by the prince. This drives the narrative that “…define women as beautiful objects, powerless to alter the events in their lives, while fairy tale men are powerful agents of their own destiny.” 1 Similarly, Tangled’s Rapunzel is a feminine individual with miles of golden hair and is joined by a male heroine who encourages her to leave the tower. However, the difference lies in her personality and the hair itself. She is ambitious, brave, clever and has a multitude of hobbies. Throughout the film her hair is used as a tool of protection and possesses magic that can bring youth and health to others. In a way Tangled flips the gender narrative without scrutinizing men or women.
Traits such as these are what perpetuates the gender constructs of Rapunzel. The Grimms’ Rapunzel is seen as an object, a damsel who willingly stays in the tower, which directly integrates into the constructed feminine. She is simply there to give the prince something to save. Whereas Disney’s perspective is much more androgynous. She is powerful and determined, often seen using a frying pan as a weapon which “makes a mocking gesture towards household chores of women and breaks the stereotype of domesticity”.2 Although her power aligns with that of feminine ideals such as youth, protection and healing abilities, she still manages to fall outside the guidelines that society has provided for her. While continuously exhibiting the physical feminine traits of long blonde hair and purple dresses, she is endlessly defiant of the constructed feminine.
So how do these constructs affect its viewers? Brother Grimms’ Rapunzel is an anti- feminist that teaches women that their roles in society should be reduced to an objectification of desire. Unlike her outdated counterpart, Tangled’s Rapunzel is a feminist, her persuasion being, “her message [to invite] audience members (particularly, female audience members) to think about their roles in society.”3 A crucial moment in the film is her understanding of who she is and her realization of the control she’s been under. Furthermore, she makes an active choice to change these circumstances, this is …” a key function of third wave feminist consciousness-raising.”4 These changes were made to her character to exemplify empowerment and its “active, multi-dimensional process which enables women to realize their full identity and powers in all spheres of life.”4 Disney’s Tangled is not simply a juvenile story of a lost princess, but a critique of how gender constructs play into society.
In both of the story’s finalities, Rapunzel is fated with short hair. In the original Brother Grimms’ version her hair is sheered so the witch can trick the prince and is therefore still objectifying a piece of Rapunzel. Comparatively, in Disney’s adaptation her hair is cut by the male love interest for the purpose of Rapunzel’s hair no longer being a possession of the witch. In this case, both figuratively and literally, her hair is her power. Interestingly, her femininity is not compromised but rather expressed through her emotions, as her tears now hold the power. Summarized wonderfully by Sushama Sahay, they say “a woman with short hair is a direct threat to femininity – and that is a threat to masculinity.”5
By critiquing both Rapunzel’s from a gender critical lens and analyzing the role fairy tale media plays in society I have concluded that the feminine constructs can be heavily damaging to its audience, especially when targeted towards children. Fortunately, we are slowly moving towards a more optimistic representation of not only women, but gender constructs and roles. As major companies such as Disney continue to create more feminist oriented stories, we will hopefully start seeing a shift in the younger generation to inspire agency over one’s destiny.
References
1. Kuykendal, Leslee Farish, and Brian W. Sturm. “We said feminist fairy tales, not fractured fairy tales.” Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children 5, no. 3 (2007): 38-41.
2. Khalid, M. U. B. E. E. N. “A feminist study of Tangled.” European Academic Research 3, no. 2 (2015): 1838-1845.
3. Saladino, Caitlin J. “Long May She Reign: A Rhetorical Analysis of Gender Expectations in Disney’s Tangled and Disney/Pixar’s Brave.” (2014).
4. Sahay, Sushama. Women and empowerment: Approaches and strategies. Discovery Publishing House, 1998.
5. Aspinall, Hannah. “The fetishization and objectification of the female body in Victorian culture.” Brighton Online Journal.[Online] Available: http://arts. brighton. ac. uk/study/literature/brightonline/issuenumber-two/thefetishization-and-objectification-of-the-female-body-in-victorian-culture (Sept 12, 2017) (2012).
6. Greno, Nathan, and Byron Howard. 2010. “Tangled.” Disney Movies. November 24. https://movies.disney.com/tangled.
7. Grimm, Brothers. 1812. Rapunzel. Grimms’ fairy tales.
Anika Peters
I found this analysis of ‘Tangled’ by Disney vs Brother Grimm’s version a very interesting read. Although Rapunzel between the two reads are described as having the same look, their attributes and characteristics couldn’t have been any different. Grimm’s version is seen as a static female, with no goals or real personality, and, the only characteristics she has is her long hair and singing voice. On the other hand, Disney’s Rapunzel is seen as ambitious and brave with many hobbies.
The description between the two versions shows the idealism of a female character then vs now. As Disney’s Rapunzel is seen as more of the heroin in her own story compared to the Brother Grimms it challenges female roles and the constructed feminine. The writer talks about how this can affect its users, as the Brother Grimms version teaches women their outdated roles in the world from an anti-feminist standpoint, the latest version of the character is seen as a feminist and challenges women and young girls to think about their roles in society.
I thought the use of quotes throughout the read added an extra touch of information that helped and supported the story to flow nicely. It is clear the writer had an immense amount of resources to back up their analysis and used this to bring to life their thoughts from different resources. The writer knew and understood the assignments which allowed for an informed and intellectual understanding between the characters. All resources used in the assignment are scholarly from first look. One critique I’d have for this message is more information about Rapunzel from Brother Grimms, I sometimes saw that the writer focused heavily on Disney’s Rapunzel. Overall, I found this analysis well-written, well-informed, and very interesting.