The Fairy Tale Feminista
Answering life’s questions one fairy tale at a time.
A Fairy Godmother's Inner Life
When I first saw the Disney version of Cinderella, I was more interested in the Fairy Godmother than the girl who called her.
Let me quickly say, I have nothing against Cinderella. I know there’s a strong campaign out there against fairy tales in general because the romances are problematic. I think of them as more allegorical instead of aspirational. It’s how I’ve been able to write a blog called Fairytale Feminista without feeling my feminism is in any way questionable.
Food & Fairy Tales
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I started to think about the relationship of food and fairy tales. Just a cursory look is a mixed bag. Food is a weapon, a threat, transportation, or an opportunity to change your life, just to name a few.
In Snow White, the evil queen’s last-ditch effort to rid herself of her stepdaughter is an apple. A poisoned apple. Hansel and Gretel is probably the scariest of the food references. After being abandoned by their father and mother, they come to a home made of candy and gingerbread only to be trapped by the witch inside who eats children!
New Project (Old Fairy Tale, New Tricks)
Sometimes I think about how it must have been to be Cinderella. Not the evil step-family and abuse part. Afterward. She met a prince. He married her and brought her back to his palace.
Then what?
It must have been an uncomfortable transition. She went from being a slave to a princess. Did she worry she wasn’t up for the challenge? Did she fall into familiar patterns and start mopping the floor or scouring pots with the scullery maid?
The First Story
While we have no concrete evidence, it’s safe to assume that the first story told was a warning from one homo sapien to another.
“Hey, in a time before now, I went in that direction with a hunting party and something with teeth and claws ate half of them. Be careful.”
Lives in Hyperbole
In real life, Cinderella would have slipped laxatives into her stepmother and step sisters’ morning tea or packed a bag for the next village. The youngest son in The Golden Goose would have refused to go chopped wood after his two older brothers had maimed themselves. Sleeping Beauty would have heard gossip which invariably went around the castle to find out why no one sowed. The brave little tailor would have killed the flies and then saved it as a fun story the next time he went to the tavern. The Three Little Pigs (putting aside anthropomorphized pigs) would have lived together in a brick house they could have built in half the time and avoided the wolf.
Universal Fairy Tale Care
The other day my daughter said something that caught me completely off guard. We were watching A Tale Dark and Grimm on Netflix (which if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend) and there was a reference to Rumpelstiltskin. She turned to me and asked who Rumpelstiltskin was.
Reader, I was flabbergasted!
The List
Romantic comedies (and any romance genre for that matter) are our modern-day equivalent of fairy tales. At least the “girl-finds-a-prince or the boy-is-given-a-princess-type” fairy tale. It has a discernable formula—two people meet, they fall in love, an obstacle separates them (and according to Hallmark movies, that’s at the hour and thirty mark), and then all hurts are mended to a happily ever after conclusion—and often used devices. One of the most used is the List.
To Warn or Not to Warn
To Warn or Not to Warn...that is the question.
One of the reasons we read fairy tales is to be transported in a predictable way. Yes, it’s all fantastical, but there are big neon sign type clues that tell you it’s coming. If you save a golden fish in a lake, you better believe it’s going to get you wishes. If a fairy godmother comes with a dress for the ball, you’re going to catch a prince’s eye. And if some rando takes your broken-down old cow and gives you beans, your garden is not getting basic wildflowers.
Fairy Support
This morning I woke up and yet again had to be reminded that a post is due. It was particularly difficult because I was finishing one of those books that makes you snarl at anyone who interrupts the experience. But the reading gave me my next post.
Marking Time with Tale Friends
The other day I was trying to conjure up my quarantine fantasy (not that being under quarantine should be anyone’s idea of a fantasy other than the whole stuck on a desert island with your dream lover, but that’s for another post). It included things like spending an entire day in bed with meals delivered up to my bedroom and reading an entire book, cover to cover, without interruptions. Actually, that last one figures in a lot of fantasies of mine!It got me thinking about what people do when they’re stuck at home and because this is a blog primarily about how I feel about fairy tales, it seemed only natural to consider what a quarantine would be like with one of them.
Suspend belief
I spend a lot time on this blog criticizing fairy tales (as only someone who really loves them can), but there is one thing that I truly love about fairy tales--the ability for fairy tale characters to believe in the extraordinary.Cinderella just ran with it when her mother's grave started granting her wishes. The woodsman didn't question hearing voices coming from a wolf's stomach. And the miller's youngest son didn't ask Puss why he needed the boots, he just got them.
Living a Fairy Tale Trope
It’s a familiar trope in fairy tales. Cinderella had her father’s estate. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty both had a cottage in the woods. Rapunzel had her tower with no doors. Belle had the Beast’s castle. In fairy tales, princesses tend to find themselves in isolation.It’s not unusual. These stories were written in a time when most women could measure their worlds in the square feet of their homes. Men worked outside—women, inside.
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