Gender Stereotypes as Represented in Literary Fairy Tales in Georgian and European Societies

Abstract

Due to their sociolinguistic nature, fairy tales are frequently
utilized to express the issues troubling the community in the period of
their creation. Following the rise in popularity of gender studies, fairy
tales and the issues of gender (in)equality attract the attention of linguists.

This research, based on an electronic questionnaire, aimed to
determine the attitude of the members of Georgian and European society
towards gender stereotypes as expressed in fairy tales and whether the sex
or age of a reader is a determining factor in gender-stereotypical thinking.
The results of the research revealed that participants of the experiment,
regardless of their gender or age, answered the questions from the
standpoint of gender stereotypes buried deep in Georgian and European
societies; In addition, the majority ofrespondentslook at men characters as
playing active roles in fairy tales, whilst women are perceived as secondary
characters. Linguistically, women are portrayed as weak, dependent and
fragile heroines; they are mostly described as beautiful creatures whereas
their inner features are discarded. As well as this, participants indicated
that excessive emotionality is typical of women whereas men are not
expected to express emotions openly.