Where Dreams come true, or not?
Fairy tales play a large part in society today. Stores are lined with fairy tale themed items, and commercials are commonly based around fairy tales. The reason fairy tales are still around today is mainly because of Disney’s adaptations. Disney has taken complete control over the fairy taler market. They have created adaptations that make little kids aspire to be like the characters in the folktales. Disney commonly uses the slogans “Where dreams come true” and “Capture the Magic”. Disney creates tales of perfect romance, and dreams coming true. This leads our youth to be attracted to these dreams of happiness. Some of the underlying messages do need to be examined though. The idea of perfect love may leave girls with high and unrealistic expectations of what relationships are like. Fairy tales portray relationships full of happiness and good endings. Realistically, relationships will be a lot less romantic, and will not always be full of smiles like it may seem. Women today might be holding their standards of relationships at a level that might not be attainable. Another big message that is sent in fairy tales is the message of sexuality. In the tale, Snow White, the rape culture is very evident. A snow white meme one examined in one of the blog entries. The meme displays the message about finding a random body unconscious in the forest, and kissing that body. The message that is sending to the youth is very disturbing.
Fairy tales also play a part in representing the social structure of society and things actually happening in the real world. A great example of this is the idea of labeling an under dog story, or a team as a cinderella story. One of the blog entries will go into the idea of a cinderella story basketball team that defies the odds and pulls major upsets. This connects to cinderella as she is a girl that comes from a low class house worker and she breaks everyones expectations of her to become a beautiful princess and be successful. Another obvious portrayal of social structure in society is used in Robin Hood. The characters take part in a lower class vs upper class battle. Robin Hood takes from the rich and disperses it amend the poor to give more power to the lower class.
Overall, fairy tales are still popular in modern day society because they let readers experience dreams when people are young. They give us something of happiness to look forward too. They answer some of the questions of youth, the tales display both love and death for the first time. Tradition also plays a large factor in fairy tales today, the stories have been passed from generation. When a parent feels an emotional connection to a fairy tale as a kid, they will then introduce that fairy tale to their children creating a cycle for the fairy tales. Fairy tales provide moral messages that people crave. People want to be hopeful for better things, and this is exactly what fairy tales provide.