Media Text : Once Upon A Time - Tv show Topic : Challenging Stereotypical fairytale Gender representations Name : Angelica Ourri / OUR14414997 Word Count : 1650 This essay will investigate how, the famous tv series, “ Once Upon A Time” (2011) uses intertextuality by including well known famous Fairytale storylines and characters, challenging their stereotypical representations, especially on gender, enabling them to pass across a more progressive and complex representation. “Gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original; in fact, it is a kind of imitation that produces the very notion of the original as an effect and consequence of the imitation itself.”(Campbell and Logelin, 1992) Throughout the history of famous Tv shows there have been constant stereotypical representations, often negative, of gender. Some of the typical cookie cutter,representations , include the macho man, the damsel in distress, the man provider, the housewife in a patriarchal society. Due to The constant exposure to mass media from a young age, as the audience of disney fairy tales, to adults, the stereotypes imposed , have become the norm, and what society expects from males or females to act like. One could argue, that in recent years, those representations have improved , as many famous tv shows have featured females in the lead roles, for example the world wide known show New girl. Despite, the female protagonist, it could still be argued her character is not progressive in the sense that she is shown as a manic pixie dream girl, a term coined by Nathan Rabin (Rabin,2010,p.4)​ quoting his definition ,this character “exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.” . As mentioned above, the construction of gender roles, starts from an early age, not just by society’s expectations, but by what some could argue, the first exposure of media, fairytales. Classic fairytales, either in the form of a book, a bedtime story or the mass production of them by Disney production pictures, produce the first expectation of gender roles one experiences. Vladimir Propp ​(Propp and Liberman, 1984)​ established a number of characters types and events/functions associated with them. The limited roles of the stereotypical storyline in fairytales, will include a prince who is the hero, a princess who needs to be saved by him, and a shallow villain with no backstory or opportunity for redemption. Once Upon A Time is a tv show, set in present time, when after a curse cast by the Evil queen, all the fairytale characters were transported from their realm , the enchanted forest, to the “real world”. Apart from the evil queen,the memories of everyone have been replaced, by fake ones as normal human beings, residents of Storybrooke the town to which they were transported to after the curse. The essay will Analyse the gender representations of Once Upon A Time and how they differ from the original fairy tale stereotypes, with focus on the characters of Regina Mills/The evil Queen and Mr.Gold/Rumplestiltskin. In the original movie ​ of ​Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs(1937) produced by Walt Disney, The villain,Evil Queen,is not given substantial relationships with others, any sufficient background, and no opportunity for redemption. She simply , wants to kill snow white because she envies the younger pretty princess/ protagonist .Snow white has a beauty closely associated to Naomi wolf’s (Wolf, 1991 )theory of the beauty myth and how a beautiful woman according to society and media should look, as she is thin, caucasian, and big lips and eyes. The evil queen, watches snow white on her magic mirror, objectifying her to just a beautiful fragile woman. The Queen also looks in the mirror for reassurance that she is the “fairest of them all” . It could be argued the above shows, the voyeuristic process of objectification and the narcissistic shallow behaviour of The evil queen, as Laura Mulvey argued (Mulvey, 1975) In contrast, The evil queen in Once Upon A Time, is not presented in that way, she is a given a complex backstory, justification and an opportunity for redemption. The queen want to kill snow white, as she is mainly to blame for the loss of her true love. Thus, she was forced instead to marry the much older, King despite her objections. Moreover, Regina chooses to rule the kingdom alone by killing the king and her mother who forced her into the marriage ,because she wants to live life on her own terms rather than compromise to the rules of her family and society which is more of a male trait as women would normally submit to the desire of their husbands or family at that time and place.Thus, showing an act of rebellion against having her freedom suppressed. Although , the background story, is not the most positive representation of females, it still adds a much more complex layer to the character’s motive than the original disney story. After the curse, Regina still holds a position of power, despite being in the real world without magic, as the mayor of storybrooke. Regina’s character does not only go against gender stereotypes but also represents a group not often shown in media,As Roland Barthes ( (Barthes, 1981))​argues ,absence presence, like the one of Single mothers, is a noteworthy problem of mass media. Regina becomes a single mother by adopting a child, Henry. Even as a mother she still does not compromise to the conventional stereotypes and expectations and goes against Germaine Greer’s theory about women being castrated by society (Greer, 1971). Regina’s character agrees with Butler’s theory “​Gender is not something that one is, it is something one does, an act… a "doing" rather than a "being" since as a character, she rebels against society’s expectations of a woman, and adopts what one could argue as male traits (​ Butler, 1999)​. I​ n neither world, is she just a housewife ,a wife or a mother. She chooses to adopt rather than marry and give birth, and pursues a successful career as mayor. Despite the powerful persona, Regina provides another progressive representation which however is more negative. Regina manipulates and rapes, one of the male characters, the huntsman, as she possesses his heart and has control over him. Overall, Regina / Evil Queen, has significant differences and a much more progressive representation than the Disney fairy tale, as she does not compromise with society rules, holds a powerful position in both worlds, despite the male hierarchy of the enchanted forest and is a given a much more complex background to justify her actions. Also, later on in the show, Regina is given a chance for redemption, and from a villain she becomes a hero, thus giving a positive representation unlike the original character in the Disney animation. Moreover, It is not just females who have experienced ​misrepresentation​. Men have also been exposed to stereotypes of the gender from mass media throughout the years. The “Boys to Men : Media messages about masculinity” (Children Now, 1999) describes the 5 common representations of men in mass media. The action hero, The big shot, The strong silent guy, the Jock and lastly the Joker. The main characteristics of all types, is power, physically and career wise, lack of emotions, and a desire towards “winning” the heart/body of the female or whatever else he desires. Males in fairytales do not make up the exception, from prince charming, as the big shot prince to the Genie from aladdin as the Joker. In the story of Rumpelstiltskin, even if he is not physically strong, Rumple holds power because of magic in which he uses to manipulate his way in getting what he wants. He uses his magic to spin straw into gold, for the millers daughter, in return for her firstborn baby. After she refuses to give her baby, Rumple makes another deal, in which she gets to keep the baby if she guesses his name. After she succeeds rumple disappears, in various ways depending on the version of the story. Overall, Rumpelstiltskin appears just as a manipulative mysterious figure, which, like the Evil queen, has no backstory, relationship with the rest of society or chance for redemption. In Once Upon A Time Rumplestiltskin defies many of the masculinity stereotypes and expectations especially the ones of the enchanted forest. He is firstly presented as a coward as he is frightened of fighting at the ogre wars, like all men were assigned to do and even after he goes, he injures himself on purpose to get out. Rumple is tortured by and later on defies the social pressure to fight in the war and even his wife is embarrassed of him. As a result, he loses his wife to a pirate, who is what is consider by society a macho man. Rumplestiltskin in this case goes against the stereotypes of masculinity often shown in mass media. As argued in the book “​The Media and the Models of Masculinity”(​(Moss, 2011)​ boys and men being prevented from showing emotion or fear, and having to be brave. However due to the social pressure and rejection , Rumplestiltskin becomes the Dark one by obtaining magic, in order to become unstoppable and powerful. One could argue that he is the outcome of the social pressure to meet society's expectations of what qualifies as masculine. However, When he becomes the dark one his voice started developing high pitched childlike patterns indicating how his new found power liberated him from all restrictions and responsibilities to act a certain way, like a child whose identity in terms of gender is more neutral and fluid. Concluding, Gender stereotypes, for both women and men , are imposed not just by society but by probably the first exposure to media, fairytales. Audiences are also exposed to a black and white binary version of good and bad. Once Upon A Time, uses the stereotypical fairytale characters of the audience’s childhood, and enhances them. Characters are given more depth, and a progressive approach challenging society and fairy tale stereotypes on gender, and a more complex view on good and evil. 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