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Society
Fairy Tale Princes
Turn
into Beasts
A childhood
spent believing beautiful princesses marry charming princes and live
happily ever after could well end in a very unhappy adulthood, according
to British research that has concluded that girls who over-identify with
fairy tales are more likely to fall victim to abusive relationships.
Titled 'The Tales We Tell Our Children' - or over-conditioning of girls to
expect partners to change - the study is the work of a psychotherapy
research student at the University of Derby in central England. It will be
presented at the International Congress of Cognitive Therapy in
Gothenburg, Sweden, in June.
Research student Susan Darker-Smith found female victims of domestic
violence often identified with passive, female role models they had
encountered in fairy tales as children and believed that if their love was
strong enough they could change their partner's behavior.
Transformational themes, such as in 'The Beauty and the Beast' - the story
of a beautiful woman who falls in love with an ugly monster, who becomes a
handsome prince as soon as she promises to marry him - had a particular
resonance. Interviewees made statements like: "I know I could change him
back into the prince I fell in love with if only I could love him enough."
"This over-identification with transformational themes, whereby the woman
in the story is responsible for the salvation of the beast ... may be the
reason why women remain locked in domestic abuse situations, feeling
powerless to leave, due to feelings of guilt that they have not been able
to love enough to change their partner back into a prince," commented
Darker-Smith.
The impact of fairy tales, often read by parents to children, is likely to
be particularly profound; and overly romantic adult literature, such as
the works of novelist Barbara Cartland, is unlikely to have so formative
an impact, Darker-Smith said.
"It seems to me that as adults, we are able to make inferences about the
reality of roles and differentiate between submissive story-book roles and
real-life roles," she said. "However, small children ... may interpret the
story-book submissive roles as a template of how society expects them to
develop."
Darker-Smith was inspired to begin her research after speaking with
domestic violence survivors in therapy who voluntarily identified with
role models portrayed in fairy tales, which they said had been their
favorite stories as children. Apart from 'Beauty and the Beast', other
favorites were 'The Princess and the Frog', in which the frog turns into a
prince when the princess kisses him, and 'Cinderella', the story of the
gentle Cinderella, cruelly used by her stepmother and step-sisters until
her fairy godmother whisks her away to a ball and she meets her handsome
prince.
"This led me to ponder on the implications of whether fairy stories do in
fact have an impact on the way we develop," said Darker-Smith. "It stands
to reason that if cultural norms, family and our environment all play a
part in our personal development, so too would the role models we are
brought up with, whether they be Britney Spears or Cinderella."
She went on to interview a total of 67 female abuse survivors and obtained
striking results.
As many as 61 out of 67 female domestic abuse survivors said they believed
they could "change their partner through compassion, love and
understanding", while the remaining six stated that their partner could
change, but it was up to them to do so.
By contrast, 48 male abuse survivors out of 52 stated they did not believe
they could change their partner and that they would leave a relationship
rather than try to change someone.
Variables existed in that a higher proportion of the female than of the
male domestic abuse survivors had been abused by partners, as opposed to
by anyone else. Darker-Smith said the reason for this was that women were
more likely than men to seek help and therefore more approachable for
research purposes.
Lending weight to her findings, a control group of 30 women and 12 men
with no domestic abuse experience indicated similar attitudes to those of
the 48 male abuse survivors. Also by contrast with the female abuse
victims and their identification with submissive heroines, women in the
control group tended to prefer stories which depict girls in stronger
roles, such as British writer Enid Blyton's 'The Famous Five' series.
The age of those interviewed by Darker-Smith ranged from 16 to 52 and she
believes future generations could be different. Perhaps roles could even
be reversed.
"I think that there are stronger female roles now being portrayed on
television," said Darker-Smith. "What the effect of stronger role models
will have on women is something which will be very interesting to study in
the future," she continued. She added that the possibility of strong
female roles to the detriment of some male roles could also be the subject
of future research - perhaps by Darker-Smith, who hopes to continue her
psychotherapy studies.
She has the backing of more senior academics at the University of Derby.
"We learn about ourselves and how we relate to others through stories in
childhood," said Margaret Smith, who runs the Prevention of Domestic Abuse
Centre at the university. "If we hold these beliefs deeply enough, and
have submissive personalities as adults, it can be difficult to break away
from destructive relationships."
Describing herself as an equalist, rather than a feminist, Darker-Smith
stressed the importance of appropriate role models for both boys and
girls. "It is, I would propose, extremely important to ensure that
children of both genders have the opportunity of a wide range of role
models with which to identify, instead of only submissive females and
hero-worshipped males," she said.
– Barbara Lewis
June 19, 2005
By arrangement with
Womens Feature Service
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