Exploring the depths of “Sun, Moon, and Talia”: Gender Roles
Fairy tale stories have always been told while growing up. Over the years there have been multiple versions of fairy tales, each is affected by the culture and time period it is told in. The ideal fairy tales are that women are passive while the men are the active hero. While there are people that believe that fairy tales should not be taken seriously, others claim that fairy tales have a huge ideal of gender roles stereotypes that need to be changed.
The tales of Sleeping Beauty reveal the stereotypes of gender roles in society. This is because in most versions of Sleeping Beauty she is helpless and needs to be saved by a prince. One specific version of Sleeping Beauty that demonstrates the major differences in gender roles is “Sun, Moon, and Talia” by Giambattista Basile.
Giambattista Basile’s “Sun, Moon, and Talia” was written in 1631. In this story there was a great lord who had a beautiful daughter named Talia. Talia incurred a great danger from a splinter of flax, and she fell into a deep sleep. The great lord believed his daughter to be dead, so he made her a funeral then abandoned his home. One day there was a king that was looking for his falcon which flew into Talia’s home. He entered the home, saw the beautiful girl, and was mesmerized. He carried her to a bed where he “gathered the first fruits of love” (Basile, 2) then left. In other words, he raped her. Nine months later Talia gave birth to two children in her sleep, with the help of 2 fairies, one day a child sucks the splinter of flax from her figure and she is awakened. The king eventually returned to Talia and is happily surprised to see her awake with the children. He tells her the truth of what had happened, and it strengthened their relationship. This is only part of the tale but there are already multiple gender role stereotypes.
In the book “Gender Roles Indoctrinated Through Fairy Tales in Western Civilization” written by Hanel Patel, Patel explains the female role in fairy tales. In fairy tales “The heroine is perfect in every way. She is beautiful, kind, helpful, and compassionate… She is also helpless, naive and lacks any sort of intelligence.” (Patel, 17). This demonstrates how the female heroin is a passive character, she may be perfect, but she is helpless and naïve which is shown in “Sun, Moon and Talia.” Talia was beautiful and mesmerized the king in her sleep however, she was raped and instead of taking a stand she falls in love with the king showing him no consequences for his actions. This is the stereotype that women are weak and naive that they cannot stand up for themselves. It also shows male gender biased stereotypes by showing that he got away with rape but, this is more apparent as the story continues.
As the story continues, we see that the king can only think about Talia and the children. The queen became suspicious of his actions and sent a servant to spy on him. Once she found out the truth, she was instantly jealous and enraged. She sent the servant to get the children from Talia saying it is “in the name of the king” (Basile, 2). Once the children arrived, she told the cook to cook them into several meals. However, the cook could not kill the children so instead he hid them and killed two lambs in their favor. The king and queen enjoyed their meal, as the queen though they were eating the children, she got on his nerves during dinner, so he left to go to a villa nearby. The queen was still angry, so she ordered the servant to bring Talia to her as well. Once Talia arrived, she was immediately disrespected by the queen. The queen ordered for her to be burned at the stake. Talia requested to take her clothes off before she is burned, and the queen agreed. With each piece of clothing that came off Talia “uttered a loud scream” (Basile, 3). With her last piece of clothing the King suddenly appeared to save Talia. He ordered the queen and servant to be burned at the sake while the cook was rewarded for saving the two children. At the end he married Talia, and they lived happily ever after. This continued to show multiple gender stereotypes such as, how different females are viewed and how a man is viewed.
In the article “Children’s Reflections on Gender Equality in Fairy Tales: A Rwanda Case Study” the author claims “Heros or Heroines are engaged in a struggle to uproot the evil grass in society” (88). As the story develops, they portray the queen as the “evil grass” that is stopped by the courageous and righteous king, the hero. This is because the typical stereotype is that “Women who have desires and the moxie to achieve them are villainous and will be punished in the end” (Patel, 17). This shows that when women start to take action then they are viewed as evil. Moreover, they do not justify the queen’s actions despite that she was betrayed and cheated on. Meanwhile, the king being a cheater and a rapist is not questioned in the story and therefore justified since there are no consequences for him. Instead he gets to live his life with the woman he loves. An article named “Once upon a sexual assault…It’s not outrageous for fairy tales to get a modern update” by The Guardian claims “it’s the raging, jealous woman who becomes the destroyer of family, not the guy who can’t keep it in his pants.” (Merrit). This reveals a double standard that woman cannot get away with actions they do due to their emotions, such as anger, while men can get away with their actions of emotion, such as lust.
Additionally, the story explores the idea of passive vs active women. Passive women are righteous while active women are vile and wretched. In the article “Things Walt Disney Never Told Us” Kay stone talks about passive vs active females in three stories, including Sleeping Beauty, and states “All three had passive, pretty heroines, and all three had female villains, thus strongly rein- forcing the already popular stereotype of the innocent beauty victimized by the wicked villaine” (44). This demonstrates how the passive woman, good and pure, is victimized by the active woman, evil and wicked. This stereotype is very harmful as it pushes the idea that being a stong and powerful woman is bad. Furthermore, it shows that it is always the women who are fighting against each other when we should be focusing on the more important things. In this case the more important thing is to realize how wretched the king actually is, which brings us back to our argument of male gender-biased stereotypes.
As we dive in depth of the kings’ action, we realize that he is a rapist and a cheater. However, he faces no consequence due to his role, the male “… of a fairy tale is always right and always wins in the end. He gets his bride and a happy ending, regardless of the plot” (Patel, 38). This exhibits that idea that men always get what they want despite the damage that they may cause. The king caused the queen to go mad because he cheated on her, but he does not apologize instead he threw he in the fire. The king raped Talia and he did not face any consequences instead was rewarded with children and married the women he loves. This is because since he is a male “Even when their actions may be construed as controversial, they are never wrong” (Patel, 38). This is apparent in the story since the king is seen as a hero for getting rid of the queen but not as a wretched husband for cheating on her. He is shown to be brave and courageous for saving Talia but not as a criminal for raping her. This demonstrated male gender stereotypes in fairy tales since the king is able to have a happy ending despite his actions. This is damaging to young audiences because they may think this is normal and result in doing these same actions of being unfaithful and being a criminal.
Overall, gender role stereotypes are apparent in fairy tales. The fairy tale “Sun, Moon, and Talia” by Giambattista Basile clearly shows those stereotypes. It shows how passive women are helpless and naive, yet they are the perfect women while active women are strong and powerful but seen as evil and villainous. Additionally, it shows how men always get happy endings despite their vile actions with no consequences.
Works Cited
- Basile, Giambattista. “Sun, Moon, and Talia.” Sleeping Beauty, D. L. Ashliman, 7 June 2013, www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0410.html.
- Patel, Henal. “Gender Roles Indoctrinated Through Fairy Tales in Western …” AnyFlip, 2017, anyflip.com/pqfx/nevf/basic/51-67.
- Merritt, Stephanie. “Once upon a Sexual Assault … It’s Not Outrageous for Fairytales to Get a Modern Update | Stephanie Merritt.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 27 Nov. 2017, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/27/sexual-assault-sleeping-beauty-fairytales-ban-gender-rape.
- Stone, Kay. “Things Walt Disney Never Told Us Author(s): Kay Stone … – Rohan.” Yumpu.com, 2009, www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/8423359/things-walt-disney-never-told-us-authors-kay-stone-rohan.
- Ruterana, Pierre Canisius. “Children’s Reflections on Gender Equality in Fairy Tales: A Rwanda Case Study.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, 2012, web-a-ebscohost-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5.
