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Shoes and Stereotypes:

How Feminism Has Reorganized the Twelve Dancing Princesses

“There was once upon a time a King who had twelve daughters, each one more beautiful than the other” (Grimm 596). Drugging those who endeavored to help them, lying to their king father and holding their own desires above the good of others, the princesses of the Grimm brothers’ “The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces” took the role of antagonists in the original story. However, in more recent retellings of the beloved narrative, the princesses are given virtues of bravery, compassion, and fierce integrity, along with noble motivations for their previously negative actions. The twelve princesses of the Grimms’ story have evolved from the villains of their tale into the heroines we know today due to the change over time in the expectations placed upon women in the real world.

In the Grimm brothers’ original story “The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces,” the twelve princesses are selfish, cruel, and without pity. They refuse to be honest with their father, and unfeelingly cause the deaths of several of their suitors. In 1812, when the Grimms first published their story, “Victorian domestic ideology valued harmony between spouses, and most men believed this could only happen if women submitted to their husbands. These beliefs got strong support from Christianity’s emphasis on wifely obedience and selflessness” (Frost). Because the princesses diverged from the societal norm of submission and obedience, the expectations of their culture portrayed them as villains. It was commonly expected that the sphere of gentleness and meekness belonged “to women--the realm of holier and kindlier attributes that make the name of wife, mother and sister next to the name of God himself” (Beaudoin). The original twelve young women cause their father (the ultimate ruler of their family) grief and create contention, which was seen as adverse to the feminine standards of the day. The princesses only care about having fun and dancing, and they don’t pay any thought to the fact that people are being put to death in order to satisfy their selfish desire for pleasure. This directly contrasts the Victorian belief that women should be selfless, angelic, and engrossed in caring for the needs of others. When the girls believe that the soldier has taken their sleeping draught, fallen into deep sleep, and has no possibility of discovering their secret, “the twelve princesses…laughed, and the eldest said: ‘He, too, might as well have saved his life.’ With that, they got up, opened wardrobes, presses, cupboards, and brought out pretty dresses; dressed themselves before the mirrors, sprang about, and rejoiced at the prospect of the dance” (Grimm, 598). In the real world of the original story, men didn’t worry about women’s reasons behind their decisions. Men “endeavored to destroy [woman's] confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-esteem, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life” (Rynder). Wives and daughters were simply expected to obey and submit; because the princesses were unwilling to do either of these things, they are written in as villains.

However, in newer versions such as the books Entwined by Heather Dixon (published in 2011) and Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George (published in 2009), the princesses are given a noble motivation for keeping their secret, as well as hearts full of compassion and regret for the pain they cause others. Because it has become politically correct in our modern society for men to allow women a voice, society has impacted pop culture in a way which inspires authors to bestow upon fictional characters a backstory. The main characters of Entwined sneak away at night to dance because they are lonely and afraid due to the recent death of their mother and their father’s absence to fight in a war; unlike the original tale, the princesses dance not out of greed, but in order to find an escape during a trying period of their lives. The twelve princesses of Princess of the Midnight Ball are forced by a curse to dance in an underground kingdom at night, bound by a bargain made by their mother years before. Though they wish they could reveal their secret to their father and friends, and stop their nightly escapades, the princesses are physically unable—when they miss a night of dancing, they become dangerously ill and, in both of these more recent retellings, the princesses are kept from speaking of their reasons and methods of dancing by a powerful magic; this is why they are forced to be dishonest. When Princess Azalea attempts to disclose her sisters’ secret to her father, “a mass of prickles swept over her, hit her so hard it pummeled the breath from her…Her blood rushed in waves. It bristled in frigid pinpricks all over and stole her voice” (Dixon 338). Dissimilarly from their ancient counterparts, these reimagined dancing princesses wish they could speak, while the original young women keep the truth hidden out of self-interest. In addition, the princesses in George’s novel feel a deep sorrow and regret—not indifference—for the deaths of the failed suitors, telling the soldier Galen that “we are cursed…You should leave; find work elsewhere before something happens to you, too” (George 92). Due to a shift in history and a new emphasis on an equal voice for both women and men, the new twelve dancing princesses are no longer unkind, untruthful, and inconsiderate, but are now endowed with generous virtues and strong, decent motivations; the princesses have changed from the villains of the story to the victims, and, eventually, the protagonists.

In the new versions of “The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces,” the princesses no longer rely completely on an outside party to change their situation. In the original story, a wife-seeking soldier discovers the truth of where the girls dance at night; however, in more recent forms of the fairytale, the princesses themselves are able to free themselves from the powers which hold them bound. This new trend directly correlates with significant adjustments in society’s views of the capabilities of women. During the twentieth century, world conflicts made it necessary for women to take on increased responsibilities, most of which had before been restricted to the male workforce. Eventually, “women were serving in America's army, often working just behind the front lines in Europe as nurses and Red Cross volunteers. At home, they were taking over men's jobs in factories and weapons plants” (Beaudoin). This emergence of women into a sphere formerly dominated by the opposite sex strengthened the feminist idea that perhaps women did not need to rely on men to do all of the hard work. “‘The United States Government, learning from the weaknesses and the mistakes of the governments across the sea, immediately after declaring war on Germany knew that it was wise to mobilize not only the man power of the nation but the woman power...’” (Beaudoin), and this mobilization of the female half of the race is reflected in the actions of George’s new and improved twelve princess—the girls shoot pistols, use sharp logic, and can do the work of any man. “Do you know how to load a pistol?’ Galen looked to Rose, but it was Lily who answered. ‘I do,’ she said, taking the pistols out of his hands…She loaded the pistols with expert skill…[and] took careful aim…‘Ha!’ Lily cried out as she fired, and the prince she had been aiming for clutched his shoulder and fell back into the arms of one of his brothers. ‘Swine,’ she screamed…” (George 247). In the suffrage movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women actively protested their lack of rights, prompting the arrests of picketing suffragettes, violence between the police and women, and an astounding amount of persistence and perseverance exhibited by the protesting women, showing the male populace and the world that they were capable of fighting for themselves and their rights. In 1920, women were given the vote in the United States, and the idea of women being just as qualified to take on bigger responsibilities as the men began to be accepted. Before this milestone, “women were denied access to higher education, the professions, and the pulpit, as well as equal pay for equal work” (Rynder), but now, it is common practice for women to be equal opponents of men and equal in strength and ability; this belief promotes the demonstration that women can save themselves without the help of men, as is demonstrated in newer versions of “The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces.”

The original Grimm tale ended in the eldest princess being given away in marriage by her father as a prize to the man who solved the mystery of the worn-out slippers. The King declares that “whosoever could discover where they [his daughters] danced at night, should choose one of them for his wife and be King after his death” (Grimm 597). The girls were objectified, used as bargaining chips, and advertised as rewards. During the time period in which the story was first published, women were seen as property belonging to their fathers and then to their husbands, not allowed to have a say or a voice in their affairs. Married women “had no property rights; even the wages they earned legally belonged to their husbands. Women were subject to a different moral code, yet legally bound to tolerate moral delinquencies in their husbands. Wives could be punished, and in a case of divorce, a mother had no child custody rights.” (Rynder). In new versions, the discontent of being offered as a reward is explored from the girls’ point of view, now that it has become politically correct to allow women a voice. Princess Rose and Princess Azalea of respectively Dixon and George’s novels are allowed the choice of whether or not to marry their suitors. In fact, Azalea of Entwined, due to her superior rank as Princess Royale, is the one to propose to her future husband, rather than the other way around: “‘There’s, ah, going to be a proposal, you know,’ said the King. Azalea nearly leapt out of her boots with delight…‘Azalea…he’s not going to be the one proposing’” (Dixon 466). Women proved during the first and second World Wars that they were capable of thriving and surviving without men, and this is reemphasized in the flexibility of the princesses allowance to make their own decisions and choose their own destiny, rather than letting some prince, soldier, or king choose it for them.

When the princesses of the Grimm fairytale “saw that they were betrayed, and that falsehood would be of no avail, they were obliged to confess all” (Grimm 600). Villains in the original publication, the princesses were surrounded by feats of dishonesty, cruelty, and insensitivity. They were dependent objects at the mercy of the men in their lives, and yet, in newer renditions of the girls’ timeless tale, the young women have grown into the heroines of their own story, and this because of the transformation of women’s expectations and the decline in the number of limitations placed upon them in society. Feminism is changing the world, and not only the world of reality—feminism has also changed the world of women in fairytales.

Works Cited

Beaudoin, Jack. "One Woman One Vote." Scholastic Update 131.9 (1999): 18. MAS Ultra –

School Edition. Web. 24 May 2016.

Dixon, Heather. Entwined. New York: Greenwillow, 2011. Print.

Frost, Ginger. "Ben Griffin. The Politics Of Gender In Victorian Britain: Masculinity, Political

Culture, And The Struggle For Women's Rights." American Historical Review 118.5

(2013): 1601. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 24 May 2016.

George, Jessica Day. Princess of the Midnight Ball. New York: Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children's,

2009. Print.

Grimm, Jacob, Wilhelm Grimm, Padraic Colum, and Josef Scharl. The Complete Grimm's Fairy

Tales. New York: Pantheon, 1972. Print.

Rynder, Constance. "`All Men And Women Are Created Equal.'." American History 33.3 (1998):

22. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 24 May 2016.