Reflection of the Books as a Set: Female Heroes

Reflection

Reversing Stereotypes with Female Heroes

All three of the books chosen address combat the issue of female stereotypes in children’s books. While researching this topic, I began to think about fairy tales. This genre of literature was one that I was very familiar with as a child. Many of the stories that I read or were read to me, were fairy tales or folk tales. Not surprisingly, almost every fairy tale that I can remember included a “damsel in distress character”. The damsel in distress is a very popular character in world literature. This character is typically a young female, who is put into some sort of dire predicament by a monster or villain. What makes this theme both unique, and damaging to young female readers, is that each situation calls for a male hero to save the female. The damsel is often portrayed as naïve, helpless, and ineffectual. These messages are sent to young female readers each time they read a fairy tale with this type of character. Because of this, I chose three books that reverse the “damsel in distress” stereotype. Each of these books has a female character, which is not just a main character, but also the hero in the book. The first is a collection of actual folk tales that provide strong female characters in place of the typical male heroes that readers may normally find. The second is a single story of a young girl who takes responsibility when no one else in her family can. The third is a story of a young girl who becomes her own hero in order to follow her dreams. Each of the three, although they do so in different ways, presents strong female heroes who do not need men in order to overcome obstacles. They show readers that women can be heroes full of self-determination, bravery, and wisdom, reversing the more widely seen role of “damsel in distress”.