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The Terrifying Truth behind Beautiful Fairy Tales 
 
 

Paulina Szot & Justyna Warchoł 

 
Krosno State College, Krosno, Poland 

 
Abstract 

 
Children from around the world hear beautiful stories about princesses saved 
by brave princes. Everyone knows Disney: it is the world's largest film 
production company which makes movies for children. Many people grew up 
watching their stories. But did you know that some of these fairy tales are 
based on real, tragic stories that happened to real people? How are the 
characters of children around the world shaped when they watch movies about 
weak princesses who need protection? We think it is really important to talk 
about this because such stories exist all over the world, and they promote 
stereotypes which children from every continent and virtually every culture 
learn. 
 

 
Children from all around the world hear beautiful stories about princesses saved by brave 
princes (e.g. Sleeping Beauty) and tough princes ruling their countries (e.g. Cinderella). One 
of the most famous companies that work in this field is Walt Disney. They ranked No. 53 in 
the 2019 Fortune 500 – an annual list of 500 largest US corporations published by Fortune 
Magazine. But did you know that some of these fairy tales are based on tragic histories that 
happened to real people? How are the characters of children around the world shaped when 
they watch movies about weak princesses who need protection and princes who do not 
show any emotions beside bravery? In this article, to make our point clearer, we focused on 
the story of Pocahontas and Cinderella. 
 
According to Linda Rodriguez Mcrobbie (2013) many little girls are obsessed with 
princesses. In 2000 Disney decided to make dolls which looked exactly the same as the 
characters from the movies. They had one primary characteristic: a princess title. Princesses 
are now the biggest industry for the preteens. In 2012 Disney Princesses were the best-
selling products among toys for kids in North America. They generated more than $4.6 billion 
worldwide. This is one part of the “Princess Industrial Complex.” It is everything related to 
princesses that is being sold to kids. Peggy Orenstein, author of “Cinderella Ate my 
Daughter,” is worried that princesses represent unrealistic expectations of beauty and are 
turning kids into narcissists (Mcrobbie, 2013). Things like intelligence are not even 
mentioned in most of those stories. 
 
 Pocahontas’ real name was Amonute. Matoaka was her other, more private name, 
which means „white feather.” Pocahontas was only her nickname and it means „spoiled 
child”. She was born around 1596 and she was her father’s favourite child. His name was 
Powhatan and he was the chief of more than 30 tribes (Mansky, 2017). She first met John 
Smith when he came to Virginia in 1607. He was 27 years old at that time and she was 
around 10 years old. This was when Pocahontas and John first met. In December 1506 
John was caught by Pocahontas’ brother and brought to Powhatan. Indians caught him 

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when he was trying to talk to them. He was supposed to be killed, but Pocahontas protected 
him with her own body. 
 
Debate still continues whether he was really supposed to be killed since this fact was 
mentioned in John’s diary. Some studies say that it may have been a ceremony that only 
the Indians knew. Pocahontas was calling him her brother and Powhatan was calling him 
his son. In 1608 John’s people were starving to death and the Indians were not giving them 
as much food as they used to. There was a drought, so food was hard to find for everyone. 
Later that year John and some of his people went to Powhatan to have a talk about their 
relationship and how they could improve it. In January 1609 Pocahontas, who was still 
seeing the colonials against her father’s wish, warned them about her father who was going 
to kill them the next time they come to his village. John’s life was saved by Pocahontas again 
(Kupperman, 2019). 

 
One of the most important events of this story is the kidnapping of Pocahontas by Samuel 
Argall, the successor of John Smith. It happened during the first Anglo-Powhatan War. 
Samuel tried to exchange Pocahontas for all the prisoners Powhatan was keeping in his 
village, but the girl’s father did not fulfil Samuel’s wish. While being kidnapped Pocahontas 
learned English and was baptised. Her new, Christian name was Rebecca. In April 1614 
she married a man named John Rolfe. In 1616 Pocahontas sailed to England with her 
husband and her newborn son. Because of her ethnicity, she was very popular in London 
and was soon called „The Indian Princess.” A lot of people wanted to meet her, including 
the Royal Family. She died in 1617 in London. To date there has been little agreement on 
what have killed her. Some scientists think it may have been a European sickness and as 
she was from North America her immune system was unable to fight it. 
 
As far as the second character relevant to our considerations is concerned, the story of 
Cinderella was as follows. The father of Francoise d'Aubigne was a poor nobleman, who 
was sent to prison for debt. Probably his wife, Genevieve Pietre, gave birth a girl in 
Niort prison on 27 November 1635 because she wanted to stay with her husband. This is 
why the child had been raised by the relatives on the father’s side. She was quite happy 
there and spent seven years with her aunt. After leaving Constant, her parents decided that 
they would move to the West Indies. Then things just went from bad to worse for the 
d'Aubigne family. The marriage broke up, her father died, and Francoise had to come back 
to France and live with her godmother. Paradoxically, it was in the godmother's family in 
which she experienced "Cinderella" humiliation – heavy and degrading work, she was 
wearing old rags. She was constantly reminded that she should be grateful for the protection 
of Madame de Neuillant. After the death of her mother, Francoise married the disabled artist 
Paul Scarron on 4 April 1652. He was 25 years older than the girl, but this marriage gave 
her more than just escape from her aunt’s family. Scarron had his own salon where an 
extremely varied group of people was received. She learnt how to preside over it and how 
to flirt with the male part of the guests. It is said that they did not consume their wedlock. 
She said that she had preferred to marry Paul rather than a convent. This marriage did not 
last very long as the poet Scarron was already a middle-aged man. When he died, Francoise 
was 25 years old and beautiful. She had a friend: the marquise de Montespan who became 
the king’s mistress. When she got pregnant, she asked Francoise if she wanted to take care 
of the child of King Louis XIV. 

 
Mrs Scarron agreed, and her power became more significant than it was before. She was 
taking care of three children of the king and Montespan when their father decided to legalize 
them in 1673. Francoise and her pupils had to move to the royal residence. The king fell in 

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love with her. Gradually, he gave her more and more attention and gifts: the title of Madame 
de Maintenon, lands and power. After the queen’s death, she became the most important 
woman in his life. He secretly married Francoise in 1683. Shortly after that Madame de 
Maintenon began to teach at the Chateau de Noisy which was located near Versailles. In 
1686 she began to teach at a school called Saint Cyr that she and the King had founded. 
Madame de Maintenon ran this institution which educated two hundred daughters of the 
poor nobility from the area. 

 
It is worth noting that the slipper played a small role in her life. This part of “Cinderella’s 
story” is surprising because her shoes were not made of glass. Formerly French ladies wore 
slippers for which squirrel pelts were used. Such a material was called vair, which sounds 
pretty similar to verre, which means glass in English (Kerziouk, 2015). Parents often are not 
aware of the true stories behind each one of fairy tales. It is one of the problems, however, 
not most important. Certain behaviours are shown in these fairy tales, which might not be 
dangerous at first glance. Nevertheless, after a closer look at fairy tales’ structures, their 
characters and plots, it can be established that their impact on children is huge. In this work, 
some of the studies have been collected to understand the development of the children 
when they were raised in Disney movies. 

 
To determine the effects of tales, the authors of the study entitled “Pretty as a Princess” 
(2016) examined a group of 198 children. Within this group, only 4% of girls had never 
watched a Disney film, meanwhile, only 87% of boys had watched a Disney film. Those who 
had watched it, were asked how often they played with dolls. What is surprising is that 61% 
of girls and only 4% of boys played with dolls. These results provide further support for the 
hypothesis that boys are not affected by the femininity as far as girls are (Coyne; Linder; 
Rasmussen; Nelson; Birkbeck, 2016). 

 
In response to the question: “What kind of patterns of behaviour are given to children through 
Disney movies?” a range of responses was elicited. Firstly, both genders were shown quite 
stereotypically. Men tend to be strong and heroic, cannot show any weakness or emotions. 
One kind of prince's model show is “Handsome Princes,” which is unfair, and the second 
one is “Dashing Heroes' who need to take a journey to become a true man after 'the fall from 
grace.'” A great example of a former prince is Eric in ‘The Little Mermaid,’ the latter illustration 
is Aladdin in ‘Aladdin.’ On the other hand, princesses have to be girly and elegant. They 
present a specific image of the appearance (e.g. long and natural hair, skinny figure) and 
the behaviour (delicate gestures and body language). The most interesting finding was that 
there are not many studies which have examined the role of men in Disney movies. 

 
It is also worth mentioning that in the majority of stories princesses cannot protect 
themselves and have to wait for the rescue by a prince. Without this point, the plot is 
impossible to continue. This has a rather strong impact on children: it sends a message that 
risk and strength should be left for men to solve. Women are passive in action and cannot 
decide for themselves. 'Snow White' or 'Sleeping Beauty' constitute good models of this 
storyline (Hine; England; Lopreore; Horgan; Hartwell, 2018). 

 
Returning to the question posed at the beginning of this study, it is now possible to state that 
tales mostly show us a false reality. The findings suggest that Disney's Princesses were 
slim, charming, and rather passive in action. Nevertheless, we need to remember when 
these cartoons were made ('Cinderella': 1950 or 'Snow-white': 1937). The subject of gender 
equality was not discussed in the past: the world was feminine or masculine. Courage, 
strength, and self-confidence were assigned to men. Sensitivity, tenderness, and modesty 

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were assigned to women. Sarah M. Coyne suggests that parents should talk to kids about 
behaviours, which were shown in all these stories, and explain to them that those are not 
some kind of models they have to follow. The kid is more than a 'princess' or a 'prince'. The 
message which should be sent is “You’re so smart, you worked so hard, your body can do 
great things!”  (Adams, 2016). Taken together, these results suggest that we should take 
more care of the media that children are consuming. 
 

References 

 
Adams, B. (2016, June 16).  Disney Princesses: Not Brave Enough. Brigham Young 
University. https://news.byu.edu/news/disney-princesses-not-brave-enough 
 

Coyne, S. M., Linder, J. R., Rasmussen, E. E., Nelson, D. A., & Birkbeck, V. (2016). Pretty 
as a princess: Longitudinal effects of engagement with Disney Princesses on gender 
stereotypes, body esteem, and prosocial behavior in children. Child Development, 87(6), 
1909–1925. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12569 
 

Fortune Magazine. Ranking of brands from 2019. 
https://fortune.com/fortune500/search/?name=disney 

 
Hine, B., England, D., Lopreore, K., Horgan, E.S., &  Hartwell L. (2018). The Rise of the 
Androgynous Princess: Examining Representations of Gender in Prince and Princess 
Characters of Disney Movies Released 2009–2016. Social Sciences, 7(12), 245; 
https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7120245 
 

History.com editors. (2018, August 21). Pocahontas. History (TV Channel) 
https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/pocahontas 

 
Kerziouk, O. (2015, November 27). A tale of two Françoises: Madame de Maintenon. The 
British Library. https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2015/11/a-tale-of-two-fran%C3%A7oises-
madame-de-maintenon-1635-1719.html# 
 

Kupperman, K. O. (2019, March 12). The full story of Pocahontas is rarely told. Here’s what 
we’re missing. Time. https://time.com/5548379/pocahontas-real-meaning/ 
 

Mansky, J. (2017, March 23). The true story of Pocahontas. Smithsonian Magazine. 
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pocahontas-180962649/ 
 

Mcrobbie, L. R. (2013) . Princesses behaving badly. Random House Lcc Us. 
 
 

 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 

 

http://www.gpejournal.org/
https://news.byu.edu/news/disney-princesses-not-brave-enough
https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12569
https://fortune.com/fortune500/search/?name=disney
https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7120245
https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/pocahontas
https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2015/11/a-tale-of-two-françoises-madame-de-maintenon-1635-1719.html
https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2015/11/a-tale-of-two-françoises-madame-de-maintenon-1635-1719.html
https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2015/11/a-tale-of-two-françoises-madame-de-maintenon-1635-1719.html
https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2015/11/a-tale-of-two-françoises-madame-de-maintenon-1635-1719.html
https://time.com/5548379/pocahontas-real-meaning/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pocahontas-180962649/


Global Partners in Education Journal – Special Edition   February 2020, Vol. 8, No. 1  
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Paulina Szot is in her second year studying English philology at Krosno State College in 
Poland. Despite the fact that she has been living in Poland my whole life she has always 
been interested in other cultures and languages. That was one of the reasons why she 
decided to study English. Beside English she is also learning how to speak Spanish, German 
and Russian. Languages are Paulina’s passion. Her goal is to be fluent in as many 
languages as possible. Additionally, Paulina is interested in social matters such as racism 
or traditional gender roles and many others. Email: paulinasaraszot@gmail.com  
 
Justyna Warchoł was born and raised in a small village in south-eastern Poland. Currently, 
she is attending Krosno State College and studying English Philology. Her love for this 
language increases every day. After finishing her studies, Justyna wants to be a teacher. 
She adores learning the history of Great Britain and her favourite period is the Wars of the 
Roses. She is also a great coffee and tea enthusiast.  In her free time, she writes her own 
stories, which discuss issues related to feminism, politics and human affections. Nowadays 
she is working on her first fantasy series and one day, with a little luck, she hopes to publish 
her works and will start a writing career. Email: justynawarchol.010717@gmail.com  

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