Andaru Iman
Writing 010
Professor Yu-Han Chao
28 February 2012
The Frog Stereotype
Sexism as we know it today is perpetuated by the endless gender stereotyping that our society
produces in a feeble attempt to define our fellow men and women. It stems from the concept that a
certain gender must act in a certain way and if anyone deviates from that rule, that person should be
reprimanded. Gender stereotypes such as the “certain way of acting” are typically furthered by teaching
children these rules. Since we know that fairy tales and stories are one of the largest teachers of morals
and important values, it is imperative that such tales must avoid perpetuating stereotypes. Alexander
Afanasev’s “The Frog Princess” agrees with as well as contends many of the gender stereotypes that
civilization has held dear in the not so distant past. This story is about a young Prince Ivan who has
married a frog. The Frog Princess is then tasked by the King to knit clothes, bake bread, and dance, all of
which fall under the gender role of women since the beginning of mankind. On the contrary, Afanasev
also shows that women have some power such as being able to leave a marriage on a whim. Prince Ivan
eventually journeys to reclaim her and they live happily ever after. Although “The Frog Princess”
explicitly maintains the stereotypical housewife roles, it also, through the Princess herself, portrays
instances of freedom, independence, and wit.
Alexander Afanasev’s story is conserving the housewife tradition through the challenges set by
the King on the wives of the Princes. The three tasks that the King set upon the Frog Princess are very
stereotypical to that of the “housewife”. It is common knowledge what these stereotypes are. Such
stereotypes includes the wife’s ability create clothing, cooking a meal, and dancing. Time-Life further
confirms this fact by telling us in their book called The American Dream by claiming that “Television,
radio, and magazines bombarded them with the assurance that the kitchen was their realm and that
loving food preparation for their families was the way to fulfillment.” From this mentality, people judge
a woman based on her ability to do activities involving the upkeep and maintenance of the home and
her husband. One of the tasks involves making a piece of clothing, specifically a shirt. The King
commands to, “Make him gifts, so that he could be able to see which of them was the most skillful”
(Tatar; 69). The Frog princess, unable to actually make clothes, tricks nurses into doing it for her. The
King is impressed with the Frog’s “work” and considers hers the trendiest out of her competitors. To
people in Afanasev’s time, being able to knit and fix clothing is a housewife’s job, and is only supported
by its mention in this story. The King’s second command was that “They should bake bread, and show it
to him, so that he might see which of them baked best” (Tatar; 69). Like in the previous errand, the Frog
Princess gets the nurses to make her bread while tricking the other wives into making bread incorrectly.
Being able to cook food well is another important aspect that many consider to be part of the housewife
agenda. Likewise, this story, yet again, advances the idea that wives should be able to do housework
such as baking bread in order to be considered a good wife. The last command from the King was to
“hold a ball in order to see which of his daughters-in-law danced best” (Tatar; 70). In this challenge, the
Frog transforms herself into a beautiful maiden and wields what is considered to be magic, to sway the
crowd and the King. Dancing, an extension of being able to please her husband was also a mandatory
skill. Although these three traits can be extremely stereotypical when describing a woman in present
day, they can be seen to establish the grounds for a good housewife to be judged upon.
On the contrary, this story also suggests that women are not only the laborers of the home, but
thinking and autonomous people that also has power within the family. Firstly, it is common knowledge
that when the wife has a role such as this, the husband is the leader and patriarch of the family. This is
further supported by the King’s place in the story. He constantly commands the women to perform
certain tasks. Although the King seems to be making most of the decisions and the women seem to be
doing most of the work, Afanasev creates the notion that the wife is not a simple laborer, but a partner.
The Frog Princess on the night of the ball left her husband because he was impatient to rid her of the
frog’s skin that she owned. During those times, she would not be able to break off the marriage so easily
and therefore what the Frog Princess did in the story was breaking the social norm. What the Frog
Princess did was blasphemy, but their society accepted it, granting women this huge expanse of power
within the marriage. We know that society accepted this because there seemed to be no further inquiry
or disturbance caused by her moving away. It was only after a year did Prince Ivan finally decided to
search for her. Afanasev portrayed the Frog Princess as witty and clever, unlike the roles of a housewife
make such women to be. The Frog Princess is not a mindless worker, but a woman who can think for
herself, scheme, and be intelligent. As mentioned in the previous contention, the Frog Princess deceives
the nurses to create a shirt and bake a loaf of bread since she could not. Furthermore, she is intelligent
enough to speak in such a high-class manner. In her monologue to the Prince before she left him, she
said “If you had waited a little, I would have been yours, now only God knows when we will be together
again. Farewell! Seek me beyond the thrice nine land, and in the thrice tenth Kingdom!” (Tatar; 70).
Instead of the casual banter even in the commands of the King, she speaks in a highly formal style of
English. Her speech is comparable to high-class speech, just like how Shakespeare would portray his
more royal or affluent characters. In William Shakespeare’s plays, specifically, Romeo and Juliet, he
would consistently script his royal or noble characters in iambic pentameter, which is a metrical line that
describes a particular rhythm within a verse. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, Romeo says “O, she doth
teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night.” This poetic verse is
similar to Afanasev’s portrayal of the Frog Princess when she speaks. Granted, it is not iambic
pentameter, but it is far from being colloquial. These instances of intellect and savvy seem to break the
housewife stereotype that 1800s society depicts women as having.
In conclusion, we can obviously see that there is much more to us than gender stereotypes can
define. Society can learn from its mistake of trying to define such a variable thing such as a human being
to two or three set traits. Society can learn to accept everyone as they are and to not be so judgmental.
Even so, the story of “The Frog Princess” by Alexander Afanasev, encompasses both stereotyping and
liberalizing ideas of looking at women, depicting them both as having a specific role to play as well as
being grounded and enlightened individuals.
Works Cited
Tatar, Maria. "Alexander Afanasev : The Frog Princess." The Classic Fairy Tales. New York:
Norton, 1999. 68-71. Print.
Time-Life Books, Ed., The American Dream: The 50s (Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1997),
58.
Shakespeare, William. "Romeo and Juliet: Entire Play." The Complete Works of William
Shakespeare. Web. 07 Mar. 2012. <http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/full.html>.