The main source of power these princesses have is their beauty.
It is this beauty that they use to enchant the heart of their Prince Charming allowing him therefore to take his place as their hero and rescuer. This is how beauty becomes the central focus of the female role. We often damn the media for promoting unrealistic views of women, yet we openly embrace the view in the context of fairytales. Through both mediums it is being said that a woman's beauty is her only virtue. This is best seen in The Ugly Duckling. The youngest duckling is teased for being so ugly and is excluded by his siblings. His performance level in activities is poor compared to his fellow ducklings. It is only when it emerges as a beautiful swan that it feels it has any worth and is then proud and confident.
This story reiterates that the idea of being beautiful is also to be powerful. Girls may try to emulate this story by striving to be thin, fashionable and attractive and won't value the medium of education. According to Naomi Wolf a woman's beauty is used as sort of a currency. She can market herself and hence become more successful when the exchange rate is better, i.e. when she is young and full of her optimum beauty. Since children are such good dreamers they will think that a pretty girl is; a slim girl with beautiful long hair and expect boys to treat them specially.
Another negative viewpoint about women is the idea that all women are either beautiful, passive and male dependant or evil, intelligent and repulsive. Lieberman says; .
"Women who are powerful and good are never human; those women who are human, and have power or seek it, are nearly always portrayed as repulsive." .
All the virtuous, powerful women in fairytales are portrayed as magical creatures in the form of fairy godmothers. This makes them appear almost fictitious and hard to identify with. Powerful mortal females are always presented in a negative way, suggesting that all women with power and initiative are evil.
