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History of Fairy Tales So fundamental is our need to tell stories that prehistoric man drew on rock in caves to record the legends of their time. Stor ytelling fulfills an intrinsic need to explain, dissect, compose and extract meaning from the chaos around us. Most modern fair y tales are adapted from stories w rien over 200 years ago by e Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm, who published the first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1812. e majority of their narratives originated from German spinners. In the 19th centur y, spinners were predominately women who worked together at night. ey told stories to keep themselves awake during the long hours, thus the phrase "spinning a tale." e Grimm brothers took great liberty editing the original legends to fit w ith patriarchal German society. e original "spinner" stories included ancestral rape or the aempted rape of a young girl by her father. e Grimm brothers replaced the male predator w ith a stepmother envious of the young girl 's beauty. Fair y tales routinely cast less aractive or older females as evil and violent, thereby promoting the idea that girls should be fearf ul of other women. e evil female characters are also portrayed as strong , determined and capable of changing their situations even w ithout the aid of a man, the opposite traits of the feminine ideal. e heroines, meanwhile, are depicted as beautif ul and helpless, doomed to tragedy w ithout the assistance of a strong male. While women today have freed themselves from many shack les of antiquated expectations, modern fair y tales have not veered far from the ideals presented hundreds of years ago. Feminine stereoty pes are continually perpetuated, especially when it comes to beauty. If any thing , the importance of aractiveness has actually intensified in the age of plastic surger y and Photoshop. While girls are encouraged to pursue a w ide range of opportunities today, they are expected to do so look ing their youngest, thinnest, most beautif ul best. In the world of legends, marriage is the ultimate goal for most heroines. e elusive " happily ever aer" begins the moment she says, "I do." A ll is made right w ith the world, evil is crushed, the sun is always shining , and she can peacef ully glide toward her prince's castle into a life of privilege and bliss. Perhaps it is this idealized expectation that makes the reality of marriage a devastating disappointment for so many. Even real-life princes fall far short of their fair y tale counterparts (as Princess Diana confirmed). Marriage by any estimate is hard work . We need not crush children's expectations w ith the realities of the tumultuous ride of love, but it would be helpful if marriage were just one ingredient in "happily ever aer," instead of the whole recipe. en perhaps girls would be beer prepared to find a suitable substitute for fulfillment should their true love become less than true. Of course, fair y tales are just the beginning of a much larger stor y of cultural bias. Rather than mirror society, movies and television continue to reflect the distorted themes originating in legends. Women are routinely cast as the damsel in distress, and males as the hero needed to save the day. Surprisingly, men dominate stor y lines on movie screens in even greater numbers than in decades past. e Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University found that females comprised a paltr y 12% of protagonists in the top- grossing films of 2014, representing a drop of three percentage points from 2013, and a fall of four percentage points from 2002. e center's report came on the heels of a study that examined the dearth of female directors, screenw riters and other behind- the-camera talent. at examination into employment found that over the past 17 years, the number of women directing the 250 top-grossing films has actually declined by 2%. is lack of representation is undoubtedly part of the problem. People tend to tell the stories they k now best, which are their ow n. Without more female screenw riters and directors, the stor y lines are unlikely to change. At the Women in Film's Cr ystal + Lucy Awards in 2015, Nicole K idman stated, "Obviously we need to create more opportunities, it's not an even playing field...We also need to put cameras in lile girls' hands and get them to tell stories and increase their confidence so that they can feel powerf ul." In 2014, females comprised a paltry 12% of protagonists in top-grossing films. 44 | GRAVITAS MAGAZINE GravitasMag.com

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