{"id":74075,"date":"2024-07-24T11:54:35","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T04:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/?p=74075"},"modified":"2024-07-24T11:54:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T04:54:35","slug":"7-cynical-truths-that-fairytales-taught-us-when-we-were-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/7-cynical-truths-that-fairytales-taught-us-when-we-were-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Cynical Truths That Fairytales Taught Us When We Were Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<p>We had a\u00a0lot of\u00a0fun reading fairytales for children and we\u00a0found some cynical truths hiding in\u00a0them.\n</p><div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<h2>Women have to\u00a0be\u00a0beautiful and men don\u2019t:\u00a0<em>Ricky of\u00a0the Tuft\n\n<div class='\"fe475c3f28885ceec1f1\"' tabindex='\"-1\"'>\n<div data-test-id='\"article-image-3\"'><picture class='\"b10992b7e7307cb7c32f\"'><source srcset='\"https:\/\/wl-brightside.cf.tsp.li\/resize\/728x\/webp\/948\/56f\/678fad5f2682165dfa12c057c7.jpg.webp' type='\"image\/webp\"'></source><img loading='\"lazy\"' decoding='\"async\"' id='\"image27344262\"' class='\"e33ce0f82f0e7404cc63\"' title='\"\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/wl-brightside.cf.tsp.li%5C/resize%5C/728x%5C/jpg%5C/948%5C/56f%5C/678fad5f2682165dfa12c057c7.jpg%5C%22" alt='\"\"' width='\"728\"' height='\"664\"'>\n<div class='\"bf0a2e8fd2dd44f1e1c9\"'>\n<p>A queen had an ugly son, but a fairy comforted her and told her that he\u2019d be very smart and make the woman that loves him smart too.\n</p><p>Another queen had 2 daughters \u2014 one of them was very beautiful and the other one was ugly. The same fairy told the woman that the beautiful girl will be very stupid, but she\u2019ll have the power of making people that she likes beautiful too.\n</p><p>In spite of her beauty, the older princess is so stupid that people tend to favor the company of her ugly, but intelligent, younger sister. The ugly boy falls for the ugly princess and promises to make her smarter if she\u2019ll agree to marry him. There\u2019s no magical transformation for the boy, though, as the author assures us that he becomes \u201cbeautiful\u201d when the princess grows accustomed to his looks.\n</p><p>And the ugly, younger sister is just forgotten about. Even if she was able to impress people with her personality, the story still acts like the pretty sister is the one who is entitled to be the heroine.\n</p><p>So, this fairytale teaches us that no matter how stupid a woman is, if she is attractive, her life will be good. And she can have other positive traits, like intelligence, just handed to her, instead of actually working toward those goals.\n</p><div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<h2>Make one mistake, and people will never forget\u00a0it:\u00a0<em>Diamonds and Toads\n\n<div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<p>A widow has 2 daughters. She loves the older one, who resembles her, and treats the younger one, who takes after her father, like a servant in her own home.\n</p><p>The little sister went to get water, met an old lady, and gave her something to drink. In return, the old lady gave her a gift: every time the girl opened her mouth, flowers and diamonds would fall out. The older sister tries to go meet this fairy herself \u2014 and this time the fairy disguises herself as a refined lady and the girl, who is on the lookout for the old lady, is rude to her. As punishment, snakes and toads appear when she speaks.\n</p><p>The horrified mother chases the younger girl out of the house and she meets a prince in the woods. Realizing that a girl who makes jewels is a better dowry than any princess, he marries her.\n</p><p>The older girl was banished and died alone. The author didn\u2019t even give the poor girl a chance to make things right.\n</p><p>It would be one thing if the older sister were being punished for mistreating her younger sister, but the fairy doesn\u2019t seem to care about that. In fact, the mother, who is arguably the real villain in all of this, goes completely unpunished.\n</p><p>Over the years, some authors felt sorry for the sister or gave her a happy ending. One famous parody accidentally has the fairy give the wrong gifts to each girl. A coquettish girl tricks a fairy into making her speak diamonds and she ends up getting kidnapped by a con-artist. Her sister tells off the fairy over this, gets cursed into speaking snakes and toads, and ends up happily married to a rich doctor who studies animal venom. Another retelling changes the younger sister to be the bad one and has her marry the prince\u2019s evil brother and become queen, before getting her comeuppance.\n</p><div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<h2>To\u00a0be\u00a0successful, you have to\u00a0walk all over people:\u00a0<em>Puss in\u00a0Boots\n\n<div class='\"a7a009a2bc69238836f2' dbd3833dbc73d3acd29b>\n<aside class='\"ca17a89d1f9c34c777a4\"' data-test-id='\"advert-d-inread-l-2\"' data-adunit-type='\"d-inread-l-2\"' data-adunit-started='\"true\"' data-state='\"rendered\"'>\n<div class='\"f5404ebf8cd5437b33d6' c8d44fe6e497120eb20e>\n<div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<p>This\u00a0cat\u00a0threatened people so\u00a0that they would lie to\u00a0the king, to\u00a0make his owner look better. Later, the same cat tricked an\u00a0ogre into becoming a\u00a0mouse. Then the cat ate the ogre and took what the ogre owned. So, by\u00a0threatening and lying, the cat reached his goals.\n\n</p><div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<h2>There\u2019s no\u00a0need to\u00a0make sacrifices for love and hope people will appreciate\u00a0it:\u00a0<em>The Little Mermaid\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29><picture class='\"b10992b7e7307cb7c32f\"'><img loading='\"lazy\"' decoding='\"async\"' id='\"image27344263\"' class='\"e33ce0f82f0e7404cc63\"' title='\"\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/wl-brightside.cf.tsp.li%5C/resize%5C/728x%5C/jpg%5C/66f%5C/7e7%5C/dbce305b98b3255fb23705bacf.jpg%5C%22" alt='\"\"' width='\"728\"' height='\"602\"'>\n<div class='\"bf0a2e8fd2dd44f1e1c9\"'>\n<p>A mermaid saved the prince and fell in love with him. She wanted to become human, so she made a deal with a witch and got legs in return for her voice. She drank a potion and met the prince, who fell in love with her. But the prince married a different woman and the mermaid threw herself into the sea.\n</p><p>The message is simple: don\u2019t sacrifice anything in the name of love and hope that the one you love will appreciate that.\n</p><div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<h2>Girls always grow up\u00a0before boys:\u00a0<em>Peter Pan\n\n<div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<p>Wendy, unlike Peter and her brothers, didn\u2019t want to\u00a0stay in\u00a0Neverland forever\u00a0\u2014 she accepted the fact that she was growing\u00a0up. Some have seen this as\u00a0a\u00a0symbol of\u00a0the\u00a0inner conflict\u00a0between growing up\u00a0or\u00a0clinging to\u00a0childhood.\n</p><p>Also, as\u00a0some people have\u00a0noticed, Wendy obviously expected Peter to\u00a0have a\u00a0relationship with her. But Peter got stuck in\u00a0childhood and didn\u2019t give Wendy what she wanted.\n</p><div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<h2>Only cold, hunger, and threats can help beat some sense into people:\u00a0<em>King Thrushbeard\n\n<div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<p>A\u00a0princess\u00a0rejected all the candidates she was set up\u00a0with to\u00a0marry because of\u00a0the way they looked. The father of\u00a0the girl lost his patience and ordered her to\u00a0marry the first poor man she met. It\u00a0turned out to\u00a0be\u00a0the man that the princess had laughed at\u00a0the most. The groom locked the princess in\u00a0a\u00a0cold cabin, made her work, and even ruins the pots she plans to\u00a0sell at\u00a0the market\u00a0\u2014 all in\u00a0an\u00a0attempt to\u00a0make her into an\u00a0obedient wife.\n</p><p>So, the tale teaches\u00a0us that some people can be\u00a0changed, but only with brute force, as\u00a0ugly as\u00a0this sounds.\n\n</p><div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<h2>There\u2019s always someone stronger than you:\u00a0<em>The Gingerbread Man\n\n<div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<p>The\u00a0gingerbread man\u00a0escaped several pursuers, but ended up\u00a0being eaten by\u00a0a\u00a0fox. The idea is\u00a0that no\u00a0matter how strong and smart you are, there is\u00a0always someone stronger and smarter.\n\n</p><div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n<p>Of\u00a0course, if\u00a0fairytale characters were all kind and happy, this wouldn\u2019t be\u00a0good for children: they wouldn\u2019t be\u00a0learning to\u00a0be\u00a0strong. But teachers and psychologists still don\u2019t have a\u00a0consensus on\u00a0how much truth kids should know.\n</p><p>What other fairytales for kids actually talk about difficult topics? Should parents read them to\u00a0their children?\n\n\n</p><div class='\"e599d42b92530cddc130' d678c9ac111a6390ff29>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We had a\u00a0lot of\u00a0fun reading fairytales for children and we\u00a0found some cynical truths hiding in\u00a0them. Women have to\u00a0be\u00a0beautiful and men don\u2019t:\u00a0Ricky of\u00a0the Tuft A queen had an ugly son, but a fairy comforted her and told her that he\u2019d be very smart and make the woman that loves him smart too. Another queen had 2 &hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":74083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[642],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-moral-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74084,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74075\/revisions\/74084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}</p></div></div></div></em></h2></div></div></em></h2></div></div></em></h2></div></div></picture></div></em></h2></div></div></div></aside></div></em></h2></div></div></em></h2></div></div></picture></div></div></em></h2></div></div>