Fairy tales, which are among the main literary genres that transfer social and cultural characteristics to future generations, have been influenced by patriarchal ideology and masculine discourse due to male writers and collectors in the transition period from oral to written literature. In the written versions, it is seen that the female characters are exposed to a sexist attitude and are represented as secondary to the male characters. It is claimed that traditional tales play a role in transferring the dominant ideology to future generations, therefore; they can continue to be a tool of oppression. Accordingly, a new understanding of fairy tales, called Counter-Tale or Anti-Tale, has emerged, which argues that tales should be cleaned from some sub-texts. In this study three examples of Anti-Tales are compared with their old versions and are evaluated within the frame of Critical Discourse Analysis to uncover the sexist discourse within them.
Fairy tales, gender, critical discourse analysis, anti-tale.