Wicked stepmother

Wicked stepmother is a common characterization of adult women in fantasy and fairy tales. The wicked stepmother is usually contrasted with a young, beautiful, innocent female protagonist.

The implicit connection between the young female protagonist and her stepmother is their common male relative: the young female protagonist's father, the stepmother's husband, and the shared household of whom he is the patriarchal head.

Their antagonism can only be understood through this connection. The tyrannical stepmother in Cinderella gains control of the household in which Cinderalla still lives because domestic labour and responsabilites traditionally fall to women via their connection to the men who own the houses. The murderous stepmother in Snow White is jealous of her husband's love for his daughter from a previous marriage. Generally a wicked stepmother's aims are to obtain favourable treatment for herself and/or her own children, which is only possible via her husband, and in competition with her husband's other dependents.

The patriarchal whitewashing of fairy tales often obscures the responsibility of the patriarchal system in creating antagonistic relationships between women, and places the emphasis on the rivalry between the women themselves.

Wicked mothers-in-law are a lesser-known but similar motif, predicated on the relationship between a woman and her husband's mother, again within patriarchal domestic arrangements. Possibly they are less well known in the context of fairy tales because the adventures ofDisney heroines end when they get married...

Examples

• Murderous stepmother in Snow White
• Tyrannical stepmother in Cinderella