The Victim-blaming of Little Red Riding Hood

A little girl with a red hood leaves her house to visit grandma, however on her way she encounters a wolf who takes her grandma’s place and tricks her. For most people in the western world this is the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. Charles Perrault’s fairy tales, under the title Tales of Mother Goose from 1697, have become legendary in the modern age. The volume included classics like The Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, and Cinderella, all of which were later retold by the Brothers Grimm (Britannica). Perrault, however, did not create these fairy tales. He simply created a written version of spoken tales. Little Red Riding Hood is one of the most famous with numerous interpretations, even ones that predate Perrault’s. Versions previous to his describe a clever little girl, with no red in sight, who is able to run away from the wolf and out smart him. Perrault’s version seems to think of her as a dim and naive little girl whose foolish actions can only be met with her death or assault. Does this mean Fairytale heroines must be “The Perfect Victim” for them to gain sympathy from the narrative and a happily ever after as illustrated in Perrault’s versions of Little Red Riding Hood.

In 1986, Nils Christie, famous sociologist and criminologist, coined the term ‘ideal victim’. This term refers to the attributes that are perceived when determining a person’s legitimacy to being a victim. Similarly, attention has been paid to the idea of whether a victim was ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving’ of the crime committed to them (Jordan 701). In cases of rape or sexual assault victims who are well-educated with no criminal record, and attacked in their own homes while asleep fit the stereotype of the perfect victim (Jordan 703). They are considered more ‘deserving’ of our sympathy and compassion. Fairy tales have a tendency to also follow this type of ideology. Fairy tale heroines are typically young, pretty, passive, and never fight back against their abuser no matter how much they go through. 

In fact, about a dozen or two stories follow a similar two or three act structure as stated in The Innocent Persecuted Heroine Genre: An Analysis of Its Structure and Themes published in Western Folklore by Steven Swann Jones. Act one where the family mistreats the heroine, act two where the heroine must go through hardships to meet the male lead, and lastly act three in which the heroine is mistreated after marriage (17). Through all of this, we never get to see the female lead show any form of frustration or resistance against her constant torment. While people can argue that it’s naive to expect such complexity from fairy tales or as Jones argues, “The tales [appear to be] offer[ing] its audience members lessons about the kinds of problems plaguing relationships and about how to act in response to them (23)”. While Jones makes a valid point; fairy tales are most often read by kids who do not need to be taught such lessons. It can be debated that it’s much more harmful to teach kids to stay in situations where they are being abused or mistreated. A study conducted by Professor Kristin Wardetzky, fairy tale and storytelling researcher, on about twenty five hundred eight to ten year old children has shown the effect fairy tales have on their minds. In this study the boys and girls were given numerous introductory sentences that they had to write fairy tales off of. During this, researchers found that +if the sentence given suggested victimization or repression all the children would write about a girl; if the sentence given suggested leaving home or independence the children would write about a boy (164). This study’s results convey that kids do not view heroines as independent active characters who have the ability to leave their mistreatment. 

The origin of Little Red Riding Hood is not clear but one of the older versions of it from the French countryside during the late middle ages is The Story of Grandmother. This version is similar to Perrault’s except that after LRRH realizes that her Granny is actually the wolf she asks to go outside to use the bathroom. During this she takes the rope the wolf tied around her leg and ties it to a tree and runs all the way home, effectively escaping. Perrault’s version of the tale made many different changes to the story such as donning her with a red hood, the color often being associated with sin; making her more spoiled, negligent, and naive; having her talk to the wolf and later be unable to trick him; And lastly having her be swallowed or raped like her grandmother (Zipes). 

Perrault’s version changes LRRH from a young girl to a more promiscuous rendition who makes the dumb choice to talk to the wolf, even though, in this version she had no idea that the wolf was extremely dangerous. Not to mention avoiding “wolves” is very hard to do when they are actively praying on you. As explained by Michelle Scalise Sugiyama, a psychologist and anthropologist, “Avoidance of animal attack involves at the very least (1) identifying a given dangerous animal, (2) understanding the nature of the threat it poses, (3) knowing how best to avoid this particular animal, and (4) in the case of an encounter, knowing how to defend oneself against this particular animal” (111). To have LRRH act in this type of way and then have her be punished because she didn’t do everything possible to protect herself from a threat that she didn’t know existed shows the bais Perrault had against her. He is blaming her for her irresponsible actions and giving her the ending she ‘deserves’. 

Perrault’s moral at the end of Little Red Riding Hood further proves this by stating, “Children, especially attractive, well bred young ladies, should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf. I say “wolf,” but there are various kinds of wolves. There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most dangerous ones of all.” While this message can be used to warn young girls about the dangers out in the world. It can also be deduced that through his changes to the original story, which was able to provide the same message without killing her, that he blames LRRH, at least partially for what happens to her. She’s foolish for talking to a stranger even though she wasn’t aware he was a threat and is unable to escape her tragedy due to it. Additionally, by specifying “attractive and well bred young ladies” he’s implying that those girls are the ones who really need to watch out in comparison to unattractive lower status girls who he might even consider to be ‘worthless’.  

To blame the victim for what happens to them because the situation that it happened in wasn’t perfectly pristine is not something that exists only in the tale of Little Red Riding Hood by Perrault. It is a real life situation for hundreds of people, primarily women, every single day. In the USA, about three out of ten sexual assaults are reported to the police and of the sexual violence crimes not reported to police 15% believed the police would not do anything to help (RAINN). Jan Jordan, Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Criminology at Victoria University of Wellington, asserts that police often treat rape and sexual assault victims badly because they are quick to judge a victim based on the victim’s clothes, behavior, and demeanor. Some officers believe, “These are flawed and ‘imperfect’ women – what right do they have to expect ‘perfect’ treatment?” (699). Perrault even shows this bias when he specifically aims his moral message at the end at “attractive and well bred” little girls and portrays LRRH to be dumb and careless when confronted by the wolf. Stories like Perrault’s version of Little Red Riding Hood play into this ideology and teach kids, unconsciously, that they are to blame if they are in a situation like LRRH and reinforces the stereotype that because LRRH wasn’t the ‘Perfect Victim’ she deserves death and assault. While I do agree that Little Red Riding Hood can teach kids a lesson on stranger danger, I think parents should really look into the messages, whether unintentional or not, in the stories they read to children. Nowadays with so much media in the world there are far better stories and even retellings of Little Red Riding Hood to teach kids about stranger danger.

Works Cited 

Britannica. “Charles Perrault | Biography, Fairy Tales, Books, & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, edited by The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 Jan. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Perrault.

Jones, Steven Swann. “The Innocent Persecuted Heroine Genre: An Analysis of Its Structure and Themes.” Western Folklore, vol. 52, no. 1, Jan. 1993, pp. 13–41, https://doi.org/10.2307/1499491. JSTOR.

Jordan, Jan. “PERFECT VICTIMS, PERFECT POLICING? IMPROVING RAPE COMPLAINANTS’ EXPERIENCES of POLICE INVESTIGATIONS.” Public Administration, vol. 86, no. 3, Sept. 2008, pp. 699–719, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2008.00749.x. Wiley Online Library.

Perrault, Charles. “The Complete Fairy Tales.” EBSCOhost, OUP Oxford, 2009, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=302377&site=ehost-live.

RAINN. “The Criminal Justice System: Statistics | RAINN.” Rainn.org, 2020, rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system.

Sugiyama, Michelle Scalise. “Predation, Narration, and Adaptation: ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ Revisited.” Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 2004, pp. 110–29, www.jstor.org/stable/41207031. JSTOR.

Wardetzky, Kristin. “The Structure and Interpretation of Fairy Tales Composed by Children.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 103, no. 408, Apr. 1990, p. 157, https://doi.org/10.2307/541853. JSTOR.

Zipes, Jack. “A Second Gaze at Little Red Riding Hood’s Trials and Tribulations.” The Lion and the Unicorn, vol. 7, no. 1, 1983, pp. 78–109, https://doi.org/10.1353/uni.0.0105. Project MUSE.