From a Five Year Old

I was at a loss for what to blog about today, so I called up my five-year-old cousin, Audrey. This child is definitely the light and the love of my life... that's really irrelevant to this post, but I wanted to put it out there anyway. Audrey and I (another irrelevant fact: we're both named for our grandma), had a nice conversation about fairy tales. I asked her to name a few and she mentioned Sleeping Beauty, and said that was her favorite. She also mentioned The Lion King, Cars, and "Ariel."

At this point, I realized that Audrey was not naming fairy tales, but rather she was naming Disney movies. I asked her if she'd ever read a fairy tale and she named off the same list of titles, implying that all of her fairy tale books are Disney movies written, illustrated, and bound (which they are, I know this because I've read each one to her countless times). From there, I wanted to test some of the topics brought up in class, such as whether or not fairy tales affect young girls' world views (this is especially relevant as we move into a discussion about feminist retellings and criticism of fairy tales). I asked Audrey what her favorite parts of the movies were, to which she responded, "Pretty dresses and crowns." Her least favorite part, she says, is "that there has to be a bad guy... they're weird and kind of scary." After a little prodding from me, Audrey told me that although good guys are both boys and girls, bad guys are almost always girls, except in "Jasmin."

I then asked her a very gender-pointed question, "Who is the hero of the fairy tales?" For The Lion King she responded Simba, which was no surprise. For Cinderella she mentioned the fairy godmother, which did kind of surprise me. For "Ariel" and Sleeping Beauty she called the princes the heroes.

As I reread Audrey's answers to my questions three things become apparent. To her, "fairy tale" = "Disney movie," and the title of the movie is synonymous with the princess's name. Also, she seems to fall victim to the various stereotypes found in fairy tales that are criticized by this week's readings (and some members of the class), that women are portrayed as oppressed by other women and passive, while men are portrayed as the heroes. Although Audrey loves Disney movies and "pretty dresses and crowns," I hesitate to say that she has been lead to believe false things about the real world from these media. Audrey is incredibly intelligent, independent (by a five-year-old's standards), and has a vivid imagination.

In conclusion, I think that my interview questions were biased toward Audrey being a five-year-old girl. I could have asked her what she thinks about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Packers, and Bernie Brewer (all also big entertainment staples in her household). Instead, I asked questions that I knew the answers to, and neglected to ask questions that would assess the impact of literature and movies on Audrey's life in a balanced, accurate way. I fell victim to the common assumption that sexist themes in fairy tales permeate the minds of young children, especially girls, and neglected to consider the variety of pop culture influences that Audrey experiences on a daily basis. As some proof that Audrey is not 100% consumed by Disney princesses, I included this picture of her from Halloween. She is dressed as Super Girl, who is arguably the opposite of the passive, oppressed Disney princesses.