An unhappy ending as woke generation spurns fairy tales

ONCE upon a time, children’s books were filled with enchanting stories about monsters, magic and princesses in need of rescue.

But it’s Grimm news for the traditional fairy tale, which is under threat in today’s woke world.

Nine out of ten adults under 30 think fairy tales are ‘ inappropriate’ and ‘outdated’, according to a survey.

And the same proportion believe the stories ‘promote outdated gender stereotypes’ such as the princess needing to be saved by a man, while more than three quarters said many of them were ‘sexist’.

Certain fairy tales may not make it into the bedtime selection as almost a quarter of 18 to 29-yearolds polled worry about their child hearing the original version of a story and ‘getting scared’.

Twenty-four per cent said they would not read certain tales at bedtime if they thought they were ‘offensive’ or ‘old fashioned’.

Fairy tales have previously come under criticism for the many ‘damsel in distress’ storylines, which are said to send the wrong messages to young girls. And Snow

White and Sleeping Beauty have come under fire because Prince Charming kisses the women ‘without consent’, albeit it to wake them from evil spells.

The survey of 2,000 Britons aged 18 to 60, released yesterday, also asked which fairy tale they thought was the ‘darkest or scariest’. Hansel

and Gretel, in which a witch tries to fatten up Hansel so she can eat him, was scariest for many of the 18 to 29-year-olds polled.

The second darkest, according to this age group, was Little Red Riding Hood. The findings of the survey – commissioned by lighting brand Twinkly to tie in with its

range inspired by children’s stories – may perturb long-time fans of the genre’s celebrated authors such as the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen.

But the poll also showed that 86 per cent across the age groups agree there is something ‘truly magical and fun’ about fairy tales.