Kovac 1

Erin Kovac
Mrs. Williams
English 102
14 July 2014
Objective Summary: Feminism
The article titled, Feminism by Shawn C. Jarvis was sourced from The Encyclopedia of
Folktales and Fairy Tales. Jarvis is a known author for her book The Queen's Mirror: Fairy
Tales by German Women, 1780-1900, she writes on the German fairy tales views of women from
a powerful manner. These fairy tales were written to teach young children of female heroines and
how women may save children or fight, overcome, and rescue. Jarvis is also a professor of
German and applied linguistics at St. Cloud State University, MN. As a writer and professor
Jarvis seems to have deep passion in the feminist views. The article takes a look at how fairy
tales were written and portrayed women, the representation of women in these traditions
(Jarvis 1). According to the article:
Feminism has occupied itself an interdisciplinary critique of patriarchal literary and
cultural practices and looks at the conditions within society that restrict womens access
to the public sphere and denigrate their activities in the private realm (Jarvis 1).
The article focuses on how fairy tales represents women in a negative fashion, demeaning their
value and stature in life. The fairy tales would only show powerful women as characters such as
witches and other negative figures, these figures are what our children are learning.
According to the article, images of negative stereotypes are occurring each time our
children are reading or are read to a well-known fairy tale, such as from the Grimms: according
to the article,
Kovac 2

Feminists viewed the most popular fairy tales as a primary site of contention within the
civilizing process and argued that the most popular stories shaped the sexual, gender, and
social politics of modern society and kept women subordinate to men (Jarvis 1).
Many of these stories we have today are being rewritten by contemporary feminists ready to start
a new image of female characters for our young minds to view. According to the article:
With the new feminist wave, contemporary feminist writers rejected, rewrote, and
responded to the canonical tradition and, as early female writers had done, used the
subversive potential of the genre to criticize the patriarchy and its messages of female
subordination (Jarvis 1).
Women with these interested began to analyze and research fairy tales and folklores. Within the
article they began the process of editing the traditional stories and contemporary male
empowered views, and then started to examine the female voices. The women considered how
they may change these views or shift the semantics of power and evil. According to the article:
Feminist scholars argued that folklore studies were amazingly apolitical and
unconcerned about gender issues, but three broad areas of feminist concernthe
conditioning effects of negative images of women projected in verbal folklore, the female
use of folklore, and the valorization of female folk performers and artistsclosely
parallel the critical agenda of their peers in fairy-tale studies (Jarvis 1).
Despite all the hard work these feminist endure still to this day male reviews or research is
chosen over a females view. Battling gender biases within the story books as well as in the real
world brings much thought to how society works and where womens power stands.
Womens power and expressions are often shoved aside or viewed last, whereas the
mens views are what is being seen as the dominant opinion. According to the article:
Kovac 3

In folklore studies, feminist scholars have revealed the effects of the gender divide and
how public and hence more accessible than womens more-private domains, it is often
assumed to be the dominant or only area where expressive culture occurs (Jarvis 2).
This quote states that throughout hard work and time women are still being viewed as less
powerful and perhaps in a negative manner. Feminists still continue to maintain their views and
strength for chance and empowerment. According to the article: For all its efforts to elevate the
position of women in every aspect of society, the feminist critique itself has not been immune to
criticism (Jarvis 2). These women will continue to expand their knowledge and understanding
of powerful womens roles and how to create a permanent leading view to all.

Jarvis, Shawn C. Feminism. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folklores and Fairy Tales. Ed.
Donald Haase. Vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008. 336-338. Gale Virtual
Reference Library. Web. 9 July 2014.