One More Thought on Little Red and Male Sexuality

It's Labor Day, and the start of a new week, but here's one last blog on Little Red Riding Hood before we move on to other tales.
In my last blog, I looked at the role of gender and sexuality in LRRH, and discussed men's fear of women and their sexuality. I think the story also points to male fear of his own sexuality. We saw how the wolf had to talk to Little Red to gain her trust and then he had to stay one step ahead of her in order to get her in to Granny's bed where he could devour her. This suggests a man's fear that he has to trick or coerce women into going to bed with him. He fears that he can't just be himself, he must be tricky and sly. He must talk to her and dress up in nice clothes--just like the wolf had to dress up in Grandma's clothes. He might have to give her a gift or feed her a meal to seduce her further. In LRRH, this was in the form of Grandma's flesh and blood. In our society, this might take the form of flowers and candy or a meal out (thank goodness!)
Male fear of his own sexuality can also be seen in the characterization in the story. The little red riding hood itself (or little red cap) is suggestive of the female hymen and the man perhaps fears that he sees every young girl or woman as a "little red cap" that he wants for himself. (If this is way off base I hope my readers will excuse me...I may have been in the English Department too long ;0) The man may fear that not only does he view all young women as a little red cap, but that he views his own sexuality as being like a wolf--animalistic, wild, devouring. In the animal world, the wolf is a very strong predator. The man may fear that his sexuality places him in the role of a predator-- stalking its prey, and luring it into a trap. Much like a predator, the wolf was not very discriminating about his prey either, because he ate the Grandmother too. So, LRRH may very well depict a man's fear of his own sexuality -- that he is like a wolf, that he views women as prey, that he has to stalk and trick his prey to get her into bed with him. And I always thought this was a cute little fairy tale! I think I had a Little Red Riding Hood kiddle! Whew!