Sleeping Justice within Literature

This session focussed on how women are portrayed in society, particularly literature, by using famous stories, such as sleeping Beauty, which are ingrained in our culture. Year 7 discussed how they would stereotype a princess, before considering the thought provoking question of whether such stereotypes were inherently sexist? This allowed students to open up a wider debate, concerning the representation of women in not only books, but film, TV and ultimately how they are viewed by society at large. Harry, a year 7 student, commented “I think [this session] has shown prejudice and stereotyping against women and how men are favoured in film and books.”

Mrs Ross used Sleeping Beauty as a prime example of a female main character whose main portrayal is that of the suffering ‘Damsel in Distress,’ who is absent for a large proportion of the story. “We are thinking about how it’s not right that we, as women, are being shown in a bad light” an outraged Mrs Ross commented. Mrs Ross questioned: “are women main characters enough? When they are given a starring role, is their portrayal as weak and marginal equally problematic?”

Mrs Ross and the year 7 class went on to consider the changing role of women’s representation in literature and film. The group discussed the pioneering performances of Margot Robbie and Gal Gadot in Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman respectively. Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman in particular has been hailed ‘a masterpiece of subversive feminism’ and all students acknowledged Gadot’s character as inspiring for girls and women as well as boys and men.

The group acknowledged that the rise of women in literature has coincided with women getting better pay and better jobs. However, Mrs Ross and the students acknowledged that there is still work to be done with our perception of gender roles in our society and culture. Hopefully our students will lead us to a a society that refuses to see gender roles as homogeneous.