The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in ...

The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children's Fairy Tales Author(s): Lori Baker-Sperry and Liz Grauerholz Source: Gender and Society, Vol. 17, No. 5 (Oct., 2003), pp. 711-726 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3594706 Accessed: 18/04/2010 15:20 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sage. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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THE PERVASIVENESSAND PERSISTENCE OF THE FEMININE BEAUTYIDEAL IN CHILDREN'S FAIRY TALES LORIBAKER-SPERRY WesternIllinois University LIZGRAUERHOLZ Purdue University

Thisstudyadvances understandingof how a normativefemininebeautyideal is maintainedthroughculturalproductssuch asfairy tales. Using BrothersGrimm'sfairytales, the authorsexplorethe extentand ways in which 'feminine beauty"is highlighted.Next,theycomparethose tales thathave survived(e.g., Cinderella,Snow White, Sleeping Beauty) withthose thathave not to determinewhethertales thathave beenpopularizedplace moreemphasison women'sbeauty.Thefindings suggest thatfemininebeautyis a dominantthemeand that tales with heavy emphasesonfeminine beautyare muchmorelikelyto have survived.Thesefindings are interpretedin light of changes in women'ssocial status over thepast 150 years and the increasedimportanceofestablishingforms of normativesocial controlto maintaina gender system. Keywords:

beauty; fairy tales; Grimm brothers; social control

The institutionof genderrelies in parton whatLorber(1994, 30-31) referredto as genderimagery-"the culturalrepresentationsof genderand embodimentof gender in symbolic language and artistic productionsthat reproduceand legitimate gender statuses."Children'sfairy tales, which emphasize such things as women's passivityandbeauty,areindeed genderedscriptsand serveto legitimatizeandsupport the dominantgender system. The presentstudyfocuses on one prominentmessage thatis representedin many children'sfairy tales: the feminine beauty ideal. The feminine beauty ideal-the socially constructednotion that physical attractivenessis one of women's most importantassets, andsomethingall women shouldstriveto achieveandmaintainis of particularinterest to feminist scholars. While the feminine beauty ideal is viewed largely as an oppressive,patriarchalpracticethatobjectifies,devalues,and subordinateswomen (e.g., Bartky1990; Bordo 1993; Freedman1986; Wolf 1991), it is acknowledged that many women willingly engage in "beauty rituals"and AUTHORS' NOTE: The authors thank Janet Wilmoth,Debra Street, Rachel Einwohner,Susan Sprecher,and anonymousreviewersfor their insightfulcommentsand help on earlier draftsof this article. Authors'namesare listed alphabetically.Both authorsmade equal contributionsto this article. GENDER & SOCIETY,Vol. 15 No. 5, October2003 711-726 DOI: 10.1177/0891243203255605 ? 2003 Sociologists for Womenin Society

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perceive being (or becoming) beautifulas empowering,not oppressive (Dellinger andWilliams 1997). A furtherparadoxof the femininebeautyideal is thatin a patriarchalsystem, those women who seek or gain power throughtheir attractiveness are often those who are most dependenton men's resources. This study investigatesthe extent to which the feminine beauty ideal has persisted over nearly 150 years by examining its pervasiveness,and tracingits survival, in children'sfairytales. We begin by investigatingthe pervasivenessof feminine beautyin the Grimms'fairy tales. We then analyzetales accordingto whether they survivedinto the twentiethcenturyand explore the extent to which women's beautypredominatesin these survivingtales. This studyof beauty'ssignificancein children's fairy tales can provide insight into the dynamic relationshipbetween gender,power,andculture,as well as the culturaland social significanceof beauty to women's lives.

THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF FEMININE BEAUTY Beauty,or the pursuitof beauty,occupies a centralrole in many women's lives, especiallyrelativelyaffluentEuro-Americanwomen who have the resources,time, andenergyto expendon acquiredbeauty.Bordo (1993, 167) arguedthatthe beauty regimes of diet, makeup,and dress are "centralorganizingprinciples of time and space in the day of manywomen."It remainsone of the majormeansby which adolescent girls and women gain social statusand self-esteem (Backmanand Adams 1991;SuitorandReavis 1995). As notedby Freedman(1986, 11), "womenareaware thatbeauty counts heavily with men and they thereforework hardto achieve it." The social importanceof the feminine beauty ideal lies in its ability to sustain and to reproducegender inequality (Bartky 1990; Currie 1997; Freedman1986; Wolf 1991). The feminine beautyideal can be seen as a normativemeans of social controlwhereby social control is accomplishedthroughthe internalizationof values andnormsthatserve to restrictwomen's lives (Fox 1977). In this way, women internalizenormsandadoptbehaviorsthatreflect andreinforcetheirrelativepowerlessness, making externalforces less necessary.Value constructssuch as "nice girl" or "femininebeauty"operateas normativerestrictionsby limiting women's personalfreedom and laying the "groundworkfor a circumscriptionof women's potentialfor power and control in the world"(Fox 1977, 816). Fox (1977, 816) also noted that "normativecontrolguaranteesto those women who comply with its demandssafe passage in the world"and that women who do not comply are somehow punished. In the case of the beauty ideal, women who achieve a high degree of attractivenessare psychologically and socially rewarded (Dellinger and Williams 1997; Hatfield and Sprecher 1986). Adolescent girls in Currie's(1997,472) studyreportedthat"feelinggood aboutthemselves"depended on "looking good." And Dellinger and Williams (1997) found that women who wearmakeupin the workplaceareseen as heterosexual,healthier,andmorecompetent than those who do not. Those who unsuccessfully attempt to achieve the

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standard,or fail to try at all, are viewed more negatively (Bartky 1990; Dellinger and Williams 1997). Reliance on normativemeans of social control is likely to vary dependingon how contested the gender terrainis. That is, when or where women's lives are highly restrictedvia externalmeans (e.g., laws), it may not be necessary to rely heavily on normativecontrols.However, as women gain greatersocial statusand independence,relianceon normativecontrolsbecomes moreimportantto maintain genderinequalityat structuralandinterpersonallevels. In otherwords,as women's status in society is enhanced,there is likely to be a greaterreliance on normative controls via value constructssuch as the beautyideal. In this study,we explorewhetherthe beautyideal has diminished,intensified,or remainedstableover time in children'sfairytales. If the femininebeautyideal operates as a type of normativesocial control, we would expect to see an increased emphasis on beauty in these tales as women's legal, economic, and social status improves.In particular,we wouldpredictgreateremphasison women'sbeautyduring the latterpartof the twentiethcentury,comparedto earlierperiods, as women have gainedgreaterlegal andeconomic power(FlexnerandFitzpatrick1996). This is not to suggest thatwomen'sprogresshas been uncontestedor consistentoverthe twentiethcenturyor thatall women have enjoyedimprovedstatus.Indeed,research on issues such as women's poverty,the devaluationof women's work, and sexual victimization suggests that conditions for many women, especially women of color, immigrant women, and poor women, have remained relatively stagnant (Bianchi 1999; Russo 2001; Williams 2000). Unquestionably,the group that has reaped the most benefits is white, heterosexual,middle- and upper-classwomen (Sorensen 1991; Williams 2000). For these women, legal, economic, and social conditionshave tendedto improve,especially since the 1970s. Notably,this is precisely the groupof women to whom the femininebeautyideal is directedandthatis depicted in children'sfairy tales. THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE Culturalproductsembodysocietal values andprovidea meansto observe shifts in suchvalues (Schudson 1989). One of the most useful sets of culturalproductsfor investigatingculturalmotifs and values is children's stories, which accordingto Bettelheim(1962) area majormeansby which childrenassimilateculture.According to Pescosolido, Grauerholz,and Milkie (1997, 444), "theintendedclarityand moralcertaintywith which adultsprovidechildrenwith tales of theirworld offer a fortuitousopportunityto examine social relationsand belief systems."Children's literatureis especially useful for studyingvalueconstructssuch as the beautyideal. Fox (1977, 807) suggestedthatwherenormativerestrictionprevails,one is likely to "findan elaborationof socializationstructuresthatconduce towardthe internalization"of suchvalues. Thus,we would expectto findthese valuesexpressedin media, especially those marketedtowardchildren.

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Research since the early 1970s has shown that children's literaturecontains explicit and implicit messages about dominantpower structuresin society, especially those concerning gender (Clark, Lennon, and Morris 1993; Crabb and Bielawski 1994;KortenhausandDemarest1993;Weitzmanet al. 1972). Fairytales writtenduringthe eighteenthand nineteenthcenturieswere intendedto teach girls and young women how to become domesticated,respectable,and attractiveto a marriagepartnerand to teach boys and girls appropriategenderedvalues and attitudes (Zipes 1988a, 1988b). But these messages arenot static. Children'smedia have been found to be powerfully responsive to social change and not simply in a way that mirrorssociety. Researchby Pescosolido, Grauerholz,andMilkie (1997) foundthatduringperiods of intense racial conflict and significant political gains by African Americans, Black charactersvirtuallydisappearedfromchildren'sbooks. They suggestedthat children'smediaboth reflect and are shapedby shifting social and power relations among groups.As such, it is possible to study children'sliteraturefor insight into importantpolitical and social struggles over time. In the presentstudy,we investigatethe genderedmessages concerningfeminine beautyas containedin children'smedia. We chose a classic set of children'sliterature-fairy tales written by the Grimm brothers in the nineteenth century-to investigatethe extent to which the pervasivenessof the feminine beauty ideal has shiftedover time. These tales were originallyused as primersfor relativelyaffluent Europeanchildren and served to impart moral lessons to them (Zipes 1988a). Today,these tales, at least those thatsurvivedinto the twentiethcentury,arereadby childrenacross varioussocial class andracialgroups (Zipes 1997), while continuing to contain symbolic imagery that legitimates existing race, class, and gender systems. We first documentthe prominenceof a feminine beauty ideal and the ways in whichbeautyis presentedin these tales. Ourmainconcern,however,is not whether these fairy tales contain stereotypicimages (they do) but ratherwhetherwomen's beautyappearsto play a more importantrole in fairy tales duringcertaintime periods, possibly serving as a means of normativesocial control.Thus, we document whichtales have survived(i.e., were reproducedin books andfilms) into thetwentieth centuryand whetherthose that survivedplaced greateremphasis on women's beautythan those thatdid not survive. Furthermore,we examine the time periods when tales were reproduced.If normativesocial control is more critical during timeswhen manywomenhavegainedgreatersocial power,we wouldexpecta large increase in reproductionsof tales that focus on women's beauty duringthe latter half of the twentiethcentury. Of course,we wouldexpect some variationin the numberof reproductionsgiven changes in the children'sbook publishing industryduringthe twentieth century. Whenpublishinghouses firstestablishedseparatechildren'ssections around1920, there was an increase in the productionof children's books (Tebbel 1978). The 1930s and 1940s saw some decline in sales, althoughit was duringthis time period (1932) that Western Printing and Lithographing Company-the largest


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lithographiccompanyandpublisherof children'sbooks in the world-entered into an exclusive contractwith WaltDisney Inc. to produceits books (Gottlieb 1978; Tebbel 1978). Children'sbook publishingincreasedsignificantlyduringthe 1950s and 1960s, as the baby boom marketincreasedsales andinterestin children'sreading, andfederalaid was madeavailablefor librarymaterials(Gottlieb 1978; Turow 1978). Finally, by the 1970s, the growth in children's book publishing subsided (Gottlieb 1978). In the presentstudy,we arenot interestedin whetherreproductionsof tales follow these general patternsbut in whether those tales that highlight a feminine beauty ideal actually had increased reproductionsduring periods when normative control would be more necessary, such as since the 1970s. This study represents one of the few attemptsto analyze long-termchanges in children'sliterature andthe only one to offer a historicalanalysisof thereproductionof a beautyideal in fairy tales. As such, it providescriticalinsight into ways in which children'sliterature has been shapedby political and social forces over time and yet continuesto provide traditionalgenderedprescriptionsfor children. DATA AND METHOD The dataused in this studyarebased on writtentexts containedin TheComplete Fairy Talesof the BrothersGrimm(Grimmand Grimm 1992), translatedby Jack Zipes, a leading contemporaryexperton and translatorof folk andfairytales. The translationused in this studyis based on the seventhedition of ChildrenandHousehold Tales, published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1857, and contains 250 tales. Tales were excluded from our analysis if they contained only nonhumans, simple rhymes,or shortdescriptionsbut no storyor had neverbeen translatedinto English until the 1990s. Thus, our data representthe populationof Grimms'fairy tales (N = 168) thatcontainhumancharactersandstoriesandwere availablein English in the 1800s. The unit of analysis is the tale, and each tale was coded by Baker-Sperry.To check for reliability,a subsetof tales (20) was coded by two separatecoders-one womanandone man-who werefamiliarwith the goals of this research.The agreement among coders for each variableused in the study was 90 percentor higher. Toexplorethe prevalenceof the femininebeautyideal in these tales, information was obtainedfromeach taleconcerningthe numberof times female ormale characters arereferredto as beautiful,pretty,fairest,or handsome.Althoughwe were not specificallyconcernedwith variationsby age, the doublestandardof aging (Sontag 1976) and culturalassociationsof beauty with youth would lead us to expect that the age (as well as gender) of a characterwould shape messages aboutattractiveness. Thus, we coded the numberof references to "beauty"for younger women, younger men, older women, and older men (younger women/men include both young adults and children). Finally, because "beauty"is so gender specific, we sought an overall measure of the relative importanceof physical appearancefor

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male andfemale characters.We obtainedinformationon the numberof references to a character'sphysical appearance,which includedreferenceto any aspectof his or her body, looks, clothing, and so forth (e.g., body type, attractiveness,physical strength,eye color). These data were coded separatelyby genderbut not age. First,simple descriptivestatisticswere computedto explorethe extentto which a femininebeautyideal is evidentin these tales andwhetherit differsby group.That is, we explore the extent to which there are more referencesto women's physical appearanceor men's physical appearance,and the same for women's beauty and men's handsomeness (for readability, throughoutthis article we use the term womento referto both girls andwomen andmento referto bothboys andmen). We also comparethe averagenumberof referencesto physicalbeautybetweenyounger men and younger women and between older women and younger women. To explore cultural associations with beauty,we asked several general questions, such as, "Istherea clear link between beautyand goodness?"(yes/no), "Are there instances where dangeror harm is associated with beauty or desirability?" (yes/no), and,if so, "Isbeautyor desirabilitythe cause?"(yes/no). Such questions, however,cannot tap the subtle but powerful messages surroundingbeauty.Thus, we also employed qualitativediscourse analysis (van Dijk 1985) to examine such associations with beauty. Discourse analysis allows for the identificationof patternsor themes, along with variations(Straussand Corbin 1998). In our analysis, severalpatternsemerged,includingthe associationsbetweenbeautyandeconomic privilege, beauty and race, beauty and goodness, and beauty and danger.We provide excerpts from varioustales obtainedthroughthe discourse analysis to illustratesuch more subtle messages aboutbeautyportrayedin these tales. Finally, to determine which tales had survived since the mid-1800s, we consultednumeroussourcesto documentwhethera particulartale survivedin the form of a book or film. Eighteenprimarysources,such as Bowker'sBooks in Print Indexto the BaldwinLibraryofBooks in English (http://www.booksinprint.com/), 1900 Children (Baldwin Library 1981), and Media Review Primarilyfor before were consultedto documentwhethera particReview 2002), (Media Digest Digest ular Grimms'fairy tale had been reproducedin book or film from the time of its date of publicapublicationin 1857 to 2000. Title, illustrator,translator/narrator, tion, andpublisherwere codedfor each tale listedin these references.We theneliminated duplicatesfrom those coded. Fromthese sources, informationon the numberof times a tale had been reproduced(in a children'sbook, video, or film) was obtained.This variablerangedfrom 0 to 332. Regressionanalysis was used to determinewhetherthe numberof references to women's or men's appearance,beauty,or handsomenessin a tale is related to how manytimes a tale has been reproduced.To correctfor skewness,the dependentvariablewas logged. Touse all tales, includingthose thathadneverbeenreproduced (andthereforehad a value of 0), the value of 1 was addedto all originalenumerationsof reproduction.Because the log of I is 0, the value for tales thathadnot been reproducedwas still 0 butcould be includedin the analysis.We also controlled for numberof pages becausereferencesto physicalbeautyarelikely to be relatedto

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the length of the tale (i.e., longer tales are more likely to elaborateon physical attributes). We exploredwhetherotherfactorsmightexplainthe survivalof tales. In particular,we coded whethera tale containeda romantictheme (yes/no), women's victimization(yes/no), men's victimization(yes/no), orbothtypes of violence (0 = no victimization, 1 = men's or women's victimization only, and 2 = both men's and women's victimization in tale). Finally,to determinewhetherthe reproductionof tales variedoverthe twentieth century,we examineddescriptivedataon reproductionsfor six time periods:before 1900, 1901 to 1920, 1921 to 1940, 1941 to 1960, 1961 to 1980, and 1981 to 2000. To determine statistically whether tales that glorify women's beauty were more likely to have been reproducedin the latterperiods than those thatdo not, we created a variabletime period thatranges from 0 to 6 and representsthe time period when most reproductionsoccurred(0 = never reproduced,1 = before 1900, 2 = 1901-20, etc.). If a tale was reproducedan equal numberof times in two or more periods,the mean value was assignedfor thatcase. Correlationsbetweentime period andnumberof times beauty,handsomeness,and appearancewere mentionedin a tale were then analyzed. FINDINGS PhysicalAppearanceand Beautyin FairyTales Thereis frequentmentionof characters'physical appearances(theirlooks, physiques, clothing, etc.) in these fairy tales, andthis is trueregardlessof theirgender or age (see Table 1). For instance, 94 percentof the tales make some mention of physical appearance,and the average numberof times per story is 13.6 (among those stories that have at least one mention, the averageis 14.5). Thereis no substantivegenderdifferencein the numberof times physical appearanceis mentioned (the averagenumberof times thatphysical appearanceis mentionedin referenceto men is 6.0 andfor women is 7.6), butthereis a notabledifferencein therangeof references for men and women. The numberof referencesto men's physical appearance ranges from 0 to 35 per story,whereasthe range for women is 0 to 114. More detailedexaminationof physicalbeauty/handsomenessby genderandage reveals some interestingpatterns.Table 1 indicates that women's beauty is highlighted more thanmen's attractivenessandthatbeautyplays a moredominantrole for youngerwomen thanfor olderones. Overall,thereareapproximatelyfive times morereferencesto women's beautyper tale thanto men's handsomeness(the average numberof referencesto women is 1.25 and 0.21 for referencesto men's handsomeness). The average numberof references to younger women's beauty in all tales (1.17) outnumbersthose of younger men (0.20), older women (0.08), and older men (0.02) combined.Althoughthe actualnumberof referencesto younger women's beautyis not all thatgreat,what is strikingis the way in which women's

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TABLE1: Average Number of References to Physical Appearance and Beauty/ Handsomeness by Character's Gender and Age for All Books All Tales (N = 168)

Reference

n

Women'sappearance Men'sappearance Women'sbeauty Men'shandsomeness Youngerwomen's beauty Olderwomen'sbeauty Youngermen's handsomeness Oldermen's handsomeness

7.56 6.00 1.25 0.21 1.17 0.08 0.20 0.02

SD 14.31 7.10 2.53 0.56 2.11 0.65 0.55 0.11

beautyis mentioned.Forinstance,in ThePink Flower a maidenis describedas "so beautifulthat no paintercould ever have made her look more beautiful"(Grimm andGrimm1992, 286), andin TheGoose Girl at the Springa young womanis said to be "so beautiful that the entire world considered her a miracle"(Grimm and Grimm 1992, 566). Of the tales thatcontainyoungerwomen, 57 percentdescribedthem as "pretty," "beautiful,"or "thefairest,"andon averagethereare 1.74 referencesto theirbeauty. By contrast,only 5.2 percentof tales that containolder women make referenceto theirbeauty,with the averagenumberof referencesto older women's beautybeing 0.14. For male characters, 18.3 percent of the tales that contain younger men describe them as "handsome"(averagenumberof referenceswas 0.25). Only 1.7 percentof the tales with oldermen charactersdescribethem as handsome(average numberof referencesis 0.02). Discourseanalysesrevealseveralthemesin relationshipto beauty.Oftenthereis a clear link between beauty and goodness, most often in reference to younger women, and between ugliness and evil (31 percentof all stories associate beauty with goodness, and 17 percentassociateugliness with evil). MotherHolle incorporatesboth of these themes.The storybegins, "Awidow had two daughters,one who was beautifuland industrious,the otherugly and lazy" (Grimmand Grimm 1992, 96). As the tale unfolds, both daughtershave the opportunityto work for Mother Holle. While staying with Mother Holle, the beautiful and industriousdaughter admittedthat she was homesick: "I'mpleasedthatyouwanttoreturnhome,"MotherHolleresponded....Shetookthe maidenby thehandandledherto a largedoor.Whenit wasopenedandthemaiden wasstandingrightbeneaththedoorway,anenormousshowerof goldcamepouring down,andall thegold stuckto herso thatshebecamecompletelycoveredwithit. saidMotherHolle. "Iwantyoutohavethisbecauseyouhavebeensoindustrious," (GrimmandGrimm1992,97)


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When the ugly, lazy daughterbegan her work for MotherHolle, all did not go as well: Onthefirstdayshemadeaneffortto workhardandobeyMotherHollewhentheold womantoldherwhattodo,forthethoughtof goldwasonhermind.Onthesecondday shestartedloafing,andonthethirddaysheloafedevenmore.... SoonMotherHolle becametiredof thisanddismissedthemaidenfromherservice.Thelazymaidenwas quitehappyto go andexpectedthatnow the showerof gold wouldcome.Mother Holleledherto thedoor,butas themaidenwasstandingbeneaththedoorway,a big kettleof pitchcamepouringdownon herheadinsteadof gold.... Thepitchdidnot comeoff themaidenandremainedon heras longas shelived.(GrimmandGrimm 1992,99) Thus, while beauty is often rewarded,lack of beauty is punished. Anothertheme identified throughthe discourse analysis, as evidenced by the exampleof MotherHolle, is thatbeauty is sometimes linkedto race and class. The "lazy"daughterin MotherHolle is coveredin (black)pitch.In TheWhiteBrideand the BlackBride,the motheranddaughterare"cursed"with blacknessandugliness. Manytales connotegoodness with industriousness,andbothwith beauty,andcharactersare "rewarded"for theirhardwork (Cinderellais anotherclassic example). In this way,beautybecomes associatednot only with goodness butalso with whiteness and economic privilege. Althoughbeautyis oftenrewardedin Grimms'tales, it is also a sourceof danger. Of the tales in which dangeror harmis associatedwith physical attractiveness(28 percentof all tales), 89 percentinvolve harmto women. Fortypercentof these acts of victimization are the direct result of the character'sphysical appearance.For instance, there are examples of women who must flee or disguise themselves for protectionbecause they are so beautiful. Such was the case for the princessin All Fur who was "so beautifulthat her equal could not be found anywhereon earth" (GrimmandGrimm1992, 258). She was forcedto runawayfromthe castle because her father"fell passionatelyin love with her and said to his councillors, 'I'm going to marrymy daughter'" (Grimmand Grimm 1992, 260). Finally,in 17 percentof the stories therearelinks between beautyandjealousy. These issues almost exclusively concern female characters.Snow White offers strong messages concerning competition among women and the importanceof beautyfor women:"Whena yearhadpassed,the king marriedanotherwoman,who was beautifulbut proudand haughty,and she could not tolerateanyone else who might rival her beauty"(Grimmand Grimm 1992, 196). The murderousactions takenby the stepmotherremindreadersof the symbolic lengthssome women go to maintainor acquirebeauty. In sum, messages concerning feminine beauty pervade these fairy tales. Althoughthe tales arenot devoidof referencesto men's beauty,orhandsomeness,it is women's beauty that is emphasized in terms of the numberof references to beauty,the ways it is portrayed,and the role feminine beautyplays in moving the story along.

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TABLE2: References to Beauty/Handsomeness/Physical Appearance, by Gender, in Tales according to Times Reproduced All Tales Ever Reproduced

Tales Reproduced 101 or More Times

Tales Reproduced Between 1 and 100 Times

Tales Never Reproduced

Reference

(n = 43)

(n = 5)

(n = 38)

(n = 125)

Women'sappearance Men'sappearance Women'sbeauty Men'shandsomeness

11.30 8.00 2.11 0.37

33.80 2.60 7.20 0

8.60 8.70 1.50 0.41

6.15 5.20 0.93 0.15

SocialReproductionof the FeminineBeautyIdeal Of the 168 tales analyzed,43 (25.6 percent)havebeen reproducedin children's books or movies. The most frequentlyreproducedtale is Cinderella,for which 332 reproductionswere recorded.In fact, just 5 fairy tales-Cinderella, Snow White, Briar Rose (also known as Sleeping Beauty), LittleRed Cap (also known as Little Red RidingHood), and Hansel and Gretel-constitute more thantwo-thirds(72.7 percent)of all reproductions. There are many more references to women's physical appearancesin reproducedversusnonreproducedtales (11.3 vs. 6.15), andthis is somewhattruefor referencesto men's physical appearance(8.0 vs. 5.2) (see Table2). In termsof beauty, the averagenumberof referencesto women's beautyin those tales thathave been reproduced is 2.11 for women, which is more than twice the number in nonreproducedtales (0.93) andmuchhigherthanthe averagenumberof references to men's handsomenessin reproducedtales (0.37) andnonreproducedtales (0.15). Table 2 groups tales accordingto the numberof times they have been reproduced. Interestingly,of the top five most reproducedtales-those that have been reproducedmore than 100 times-there are two exceptions to the "beautyrule": LittleRed Cap or LittleRed RidingHood, for which 227 reproductionswere documented, and Hansel and Gretel,which trails the othertales at 143 reproductions. Thereareno referencesto women'sor men's beautyin Hansel and GretelandLittle Red Cap. In fact, in Hansel and Gretelthere are morereferencesto men's appearance (8) thanwomen's appearance(5). When analysesareconductedonjust the top three most reproducedtales, which eliminates Little Red Cap and Hansel and Gretel,the referencesto women'sbeautyandwomen'sappearancearemuchhigher (12 referencesto beautyfor the top threevs. 7.2 for the top five; 41.7 referencesto appearancefor the top threevs. 33.8 for the top five) andthose referencesfor men's appearancedecline (0.67 for topthreevs. 2.6 for top five). Note thatthereareno references to men's handsomenessin any of the top five tales. Because references to men's handsomenessand older women's beauty are so low (e.g., 98.8 percentof all tales have no mentionof older men's handsomeness),


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TABLE3: Regression of Number of Reproductions (Logged) on Women's Beauty/ Men's Handsomeness and Women's/Men'sPhysical Appearance, Controllingfor Page Length UnstandardizedRegression Coefficient Equation1 Women'sbeauty Pages Constant Equation2 Men'shandsomeness Pages Constant Equation3 Women'sphysicalappearance Pages Constant Equation4 Men'sphysicalappearance Pages Constant

StandardError of Estimate

Significance

.146 .031 .255

.039 .043 .196

.001 ns ns

.099 .079 .221

.176 .043 .205

ns ns ns

.020 .033 .282

.007 .046 .201

.01 ns ns

-.005 .086 .240

.014 .045 .207

ns ns ns

we combined older and youngermen, and older and younger women, to perform the regressionanalyses. Preliminaryanalyses suggested that it was appropriateto do so since there is no interactioneffect between age and gender with respect to appearanceor beauty. The resultspresentedin Table3 indicatethateven aftercontrollingfor length of the tale, referencesto women's beautyare associatedwith the likelihoodthata tale has been reproducedmanytimes, as is the numberof referencesto women's physical appearance.For men, physical handsomenessand appearanceare not significantly relatedto a tale's reproduction,nor is length of a tale. We explored alternativefactors that may help account for tales' reproduction, such as themes of romanticlove or victimization.We found thateven aftercontrolling the regression analysis for tales that have a romantictheme, the numberof times women'sbeautyis mentionedin a tale remainsstronglyrelatedto the number of times it has been reproduced,as does women's physical appearance.Furthermore,thereis a moderatebivariatecorrelationbetweenwomen's victimizationand numberof reproductions(.202), but women's victimizationbecomes nonsignificantwhen numberof reproductionsis regressedon women's beauty,women's victimization,andpages (andwomen's beautyremainssignificant).The generalpresence of violence or men's victimizationwas not linked to reproductions. Examinationof reproductionsover time revealsan interestingpattern.The vast majorityof tales were reproducedin the latter partof the twentieth century.For instance,the averagenumberof reproductionsbefore 1900 was 4.07 (SD = 10.32) versus24.79 between 1981 and 2000 (SD = 51.72). This is particularlytruefor the

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most reproducedtales. For instance, there were 46 reproductionsof Cinderella before 1900,5 or 6 for each of the time periodsbetween 1901 and 1960,42 between 1961 and 1980, and 227 between 1981 and 2000. When we correlatedtime period in which tales were most often reproduced(which ranges from 0 to 6) with mentions of beauty,handsomeness,and physical appearance,we found no significant correlationbetween physical appearanceand time, for men or women. However, the numberof mentionsof women's beautyis significantlycorrelatedwith a larger numberof reproductionsin the latesttime period(r = .159), andthe same is truefor mentionsof men's handsomeness(r = .203). In fact, all but one tale thatmentiona man being handsomewere reproducedmost often in the latterperiod. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Not surprisingly,among the manymessages containedin fairy tales, those concerningthe importanceof femininebeauty,especially for youngerwomen, areparamount.Young women are more often describedas "beautiful;""pretty,"or "fair" thanare older women or thanmen of any age are describedas handsome.Furthermore, beauty is often associated with being white, economically privileged, and virtuous.Fairy tales, like other media (Currie 1997), convey messages about the importanceof feminine beautynot only by making"beauties"prominentin stories butalso in demonstratinghow beautygets its rewards.So ingrainedis the image of women's beautyin fairy tales thatit is difficultto imagine any thatdo not highlight and glorify it. Recent Disney films and even contemporaryfeminist retellings of popularfairy tales often involve women who differ from their earliercounterparts in ingenuity,activity,and independencebut not physical attractiveness. Severalof the tales have been reproducedin books andmovies since theiroriginal publication.Ourfindings suggestthatthose thathavebeen reproducedthe most (CinderellaandSnow White)arepreciselythe ones thatpromotea femininebeauty ideal. Tales that make frequentreference to physical appearanceand beauty for women are likely to have been reproduced.Even aftercontrolling for length of a tale, referencesto feminine beautyandwomen's physicalappearancearerelatedto the numberof times a tale is reproduced.However,the same is not truefor men. Our findings furthersuggest that attentionto attractivenessmay have become increasinglyprevalentover the past century.Tales thatwere reproducedmostly in the latterpart of the twentieth centurytend to make more mentions of women's beautyand men's handsomeness,which is consistentwith earlierstudiesthathave foundan increasedemphasison physicalattractivenessin the late twentiethcentury for men (Berger,Wallis, and Watson 1995). In fact, of the 11 tales thathave been reproducedand mention men's handsomeness, 10 were reproducedmost often in the last time period. This finding suggests that both men and women are being increasingly manipulatedby media messages concerning attractiveness,a trend thatis undoubtedlylinkedto effortsto boost consumerism.This trenddoes not necessarily contradicta social controlperspectivethatsuggests such messages should


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be directed more towardwomen than men. We found that messages concerning women's beauty are far more dominantthan those for men. Only 2 of the reproduced tales that mention men's handsomeness are fairly popular (Rapunzeland Puss and Boots), and each makes only one mentionof men's handsomeness.Passing mentionsof men's handsomenessin these 11 tales simply do not compareto the tales in which women's beauty is glorified and in which beauty,for beauty's sake, plays a majorrole in the story, as in Cinderella or Snow White.Thus, while there does appear to be an increased emphasis on men's handsomeness along with women's beautyin the late twentiethcentury,thereremainsa profounddifference in the prevalenceand persistence of messages concerningattractivenessfor men and for women, which is consistent with a social controlperspective. Clearly, beauty is not the only reason certain tales have survived. Some tales become popular during particularhistorical periods because they resonant so deeply with individuals'and societies' economic, social, or political strugglesduring these times (Zipes 1988b). Certainly,muchof the success of certaintales can be attributedto the work of WaltDisney. For instance, the threetop tales had all been made into Disney movies before 1960 and have enjoyed continuedpopularity.We were not able, however,to determineany otherclearlinksbetween survivalof a tale andthemes. Mentionsof women's beautyare far morelikely to be linkedto reproductionsthan are otherpopularculturalmotifs such as victimizationor romance. We suggest thatthis emphasison a feminine beautyideal may operateas a normativesocial controlfor girls andwomen. The fact thatwomen's beautyis particularly salient in tales in the latterpartof the twentiethcenturysuggests thatnormative social controls (such as internalizationof a feminine beauty ideal) may have become increasinglyimportantoverthe course of the twentiethcenturyas external constraintson women's lives diminished.We do not proposethat thereis a direct relationshipbetween cultural values concerning feminine beauty and women's behaviorand identities,but the feminine beauty ideal may operateindirectlyas a means of social control insofar as women's concern with physical appearance (beauty) absorbs resources (money, energy, time) that could otherwise be spent enhancingtheir social status. Women may "voluntarily"withdrawfrom or never pursue activities or occupations they fear will make them appear "unattractive" (e.g., "hardlabor,"competitive sports).The competitionwomen may feel toward other women over physical appearancemay limit their ability to mobilize as a group.In these ways, the focus on andglorificationof femininebeautyin children's fairytales may representa meansby which genderinequalityis reproducedvia culturalproducts. One limitationof our studyis thatwe cannotdeterminethe extentto which messages concerningfemininebeautyfoundin fairytales havein fact been internalized orby whom. Nor do we know whethercontemporarychildrenreadfairytalesin the sameway as theirmothersor grandmothersdid, especiallyin termsof internalizing messages aboutbeauty.Currie(1997) did find thateven very young andadolescent girls areawareof how theirown bodies fail to live up to the ideal andexpressstrong desiresto conformto this ideal. Of course,we do not claim thatfairytales aresolely

724 GENDER &SOCIETY / October2003

or even largelyresponsiblefor instilling such beliefs. Whatseems clear is thatmessages in the Grimms'fairy tales, especially those thathave been reproducedoften, are consistent with othermessages women and girls receive aboutthe importance of feminine beauty.And they convey this message in a particularlypowerfulway, by drawingstrongassociationsbetweenbeautyandgoodness andrewards.Furthermore, the emphasis on beauty has remainedstrong and seemingly has increased duringa period of time when many women have achieved greatereconomic and legal status. The notion of normative social control raises questions about who makes choices about publishing children'sbooks and why. Turow's(1978) researchon publishinghouses found thatmost publishersclaim to make choices based on the book's quality,reputationof the author,andmarketconsiderationandthatpublishers in the mass market-which marketbooks to nonlibraryoutlets (which characterizemost of the books analyzedhere)-are sensitive to the preferencesandtastes of their clientele (i.e., buyers for discount, department,and book stores). Surely individualsmakingdecisions aboutwhich books to publishare unawareor unconcernedthatbooks based on Grimms'fairytales highlightandperpetuatea feminine beautyideal. Whatthey probablyunderstandis thatcertainfairytales havebecome nearlymythic and enjoy wide appeal(and a large market).Thus, thereprobablyis no "conspiracy"to control girls' and women's lives by perpetuatingcertainmessages, but if Zipes (1988b) was correct that "fairy tales do not become mythic unless they are in almost perfect accordwith the underlyingprinciplesof how the male membersof society seek to arrangeobject relationsto satisfy theirwantsand needs," then these cultural products certainly reflect and legitimate hegemonic beliefs surroundinggenderandfemininebeauty.Thus,thesebooks andothermedia that glorify feminine beauty may or may not be intended to redirect girls' and women's attentionto theirlooks, buttheydo reflectbroaderculturalvaluesandrepresentpartof a largergenderimagerythathelps to maintainandlegitimatethe institution of gender (Lorber1994). Althoughwe do not subscribeto the idea that a "conspiracy"is at work among publishersto "dupe"girls andwomen into adoptingsubservientbehaviorsandvalues by intentionallypublishing and reproducingthose texts that emphasize and even glorify sexist values, the impact of such messages is likely to have the same effect. Children'smediacan be a powerfulmechanismby which childrenlearnculturalvalues. Throughthe proliferationof fairy tales in the media, girls (andboys) are taught specific messages concerning the importanceof women's bodies and women's attractiveness.The messages presentedin the Grimms'tales portraydifferingmeans of statusattainmentfor women andfor men, especially white, heterosexual women. The pervasivenessof fairy tales in our society, throughbooks and movies, suggests that there are many opportunitiesfor these messages to become internalized. Of course, the effect of media on behavioris not clear (Currie1997). As with other literature,children'smedia should not be viewed simply as gender scripts. Children(or theirparents,throughtheirreadingsof the texts to children)have the


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ability to use these texts to challenge or "rewrite"these scripts (stories). Zipes (1988b, 191) suggested thatby unusualelementsintothefairytale... thechildis compelledto shattera introducing certainuniformreceptionof fairytales,to re-examinetheelementsof the classical theirfunctionandmeaningandwhetherit mightnotbebetter tales,andto reconsider to alterthem. The recentfilm Shrek,whose main womancharacteris ultimatelytransformedinto an ogre ratherthanthe beautifulmaidenshe was believed to be, may begin to challenge the value and meaning of women's beauty.But such retellings of fairy tales arerare,andthe cumulativeeffect of the moretraditionaltales, in conjunctionwith the unidirectional nature of media, makes such agency difficult. Indeed, the "beauty"of messages thatmay serveas normativecontrolsis thatso few questionor challenge their legitimacy. REFERENCES Backman,Carl B., and MurrayC. Adams. 1991. Self-perceived physical attractiveness,self-esteem, race, and gender.Sociological Focus 24:283-90. BaldwinLibrary.1981. Indexto the Baldwin libraryof books in English before 1900 primarilyfor children. Boston: GK Hall. Bartky,Sandra.1990. Femininityand domination.New York:Routledge. Berger,Maurice,BrianWallis,andSimon Watson.1995. Constructingmasculinity.London:Routledge. Bettelheim, Bruno. 1962. Uses of enchantment.New York:Collier. Bianchi, SusanM. 1999. Feminizationandjuvenilizationof poverty:Trends,relativerisks,causes, and consequences.AnnualReview of Sociology 25:307-33. Bordo, Susan. 1993. Unbearableweight. Berkley:University of CaliforniaPress. Clark,Roger,Rachel Lennon,andLeannaMorris. 1993. Of Caldecottsandkings: Genderedimages in recentAmericanchildren'sbooks by Black andnon-Blackillustrators.Gender& Society7:227-45. Crabb,Peter, and Dawn Bielawski. 1994. The social representationof materialculture and gender in children'sbooks. Sex Roles 30:69-79. Currie,Dawn. 1997. Decoding femininity:Advertisementsandtheirteenagereaders.Gender& Society 11:453-77. Dellinger, Kirsten,and ChristineL. Williams. 1997. Makeupat work:Negotiating appearancerules in the workplace.Gender & Society 11:151-77. Flexner,Eleanor,andEllen Fitzpatrick.1996. Centuryofstruggle: Thewoman'srightsmovementin the UnitedStates. Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversityPress. Fox, GreerLitton. 1977. "Nice girl":Social controlof women througha value construct.Signs:Journal of Womenin Cultureand Society 2:805-17. Freedman,Rita. 1986. Beauty bound. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Gottlieb,Robin. 1978. Publishingchildren'sbooksinAmerica, 1919-1976. New York:Children'sBook Council. Grimm,Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. 1857. Children'sand household tales. Berlin: R. Dummler. . 1992. The completefairy tales of the BrothersGrimm.Translatedby Jack Zipes. New York: Bantam. Hatfield,Elaine, and Susan Sprecher.1986. Mirror,mirror:The importanceof looks in everydaylife. Albany: State Universityof New YorkPress.

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Kortenhaus,Carole, and Jack Demarest. 1993. Gender role stereotypingin children's literature:An update.Sex Roles 28:219-32. Lorber,Judith. 1994. Paradoxesof gender.New Haven, CT: Yale UniversityPress. Media Review Digest. 2002. Media reviewdigest. Vol. 32. Ann Arbor,MI: PierianPress. Pescosolido, Bernice, ElizabethGrauerholz,and Melissa Milkie. 1997. Cultureand conflict: The portrayalof Blacks in U.S. children'spicturebooks throughthe mid- andlate-twentiethcentury.American Sociological Review 62:443-64. Russo, Ann. 2001. Takingback our lives. New York:Routledge. Schudson,Michael. 1989. How cultureworks. Theoryand Society 18:153-80. Sontag, Susan. 1976. The double standardof aging. In Sexuality today and tomorrow,edited by S. Gordonand R. W. Libby. North Scituate,MA: Duxbury. Sorensen,Elaine. 1991. Genderand racialpay gaps in the 1980s: Accountingfordifferenttrends.Washington, DC: UrbanInstitute. Strauss,Anselm, andJulietCorbin.1998. Basics of qualitativeresearch:Techniquesandproceduresfor developing groundedtheory.ThousandOaks, CA: Sage. Suitor,Jill, and Rebel Reavis. 1995. Football, fast cars, and cheerleading:Adolescent gender norms, 1978-1989. Adolescence 30:265-72. Tebbel,John. 1978.A historyofbookpublishingin the UnitedStates: VolumeIII.New York:Bowker. Turow,Joseph. 1978. Gettingbooks to children:An explorationofpublisher-marketrelations.Chicago: AmericanLibraryAssociation. van Dijk, Teun. 1985. Handbookof discourse analysis. Vols. 1-4. New York:Academic Press. Weitzman,LenoreJ., DeborahEifler, ElizabethHokada,and CatherineRoss. 1972. Sex role socialization in picturebooks for preschool children.AmericanJournalof Sociology 77:1125-49. Williams, Joan. 2000. Unbendinggender.Oxford,UK: Oxford UniversityPress. Wolf, Naomi. 1991. The beauty myth.New York:Doubleday. Zipes, Jack. 1988a. ThebrothersGrimm.New York:Routledge. 1988b. Fairy tales and the art of subversion.New York:Methuen. -. 1997. Happily ever after.New York:Routledge.

Lori Baker-Sperryis an assistant professor of women's studies at WesternIllinois University. Her currentresearchinterests include the intersectionoffeminist theoryand popular culture, particularly as it applies to childrenand adolescents. Liz Grauerholzis an associate professorof sociology at PurdueUniversity.Her researchfocuses on the intersectionsbetweengender andpower,especially as revealedin classroominteractions and media.