Legends in Exile: A Woman's View

"Fables: Legends in Exile" is obviously written by a man but I did not realize how male-dominated and anti feminist it was until we discussed it in class. The subtle male dominance issues then got my feminist's views stirred up. We were asked who the audience might be for this piece of work and everyone said it was probably written for young males in their late teens, due to the violent nature of the material and erotic portrayal of the women's bodies. Reading it for a school assignment, I had been reading it to understand the content and characters, so talking about the portrayal of women and the target audience being guys really got me thinking, so I went back and explored the female characters in more detail.
Red Rose was a party whore who allowed Jack to use her to get money from Bluebeard. She prostituted herself, in a way, to Bluebeard in order to get the money. She allowed herself to be used by men. Cinderella is trying to be powerful since she's taking fencing lessons. She looks all fierce and tough, but when Bluebeard actually stabs her and causes her to bleed, she says, "I'm bleeding you shit! Why'd you do that?" Who cares why he did it, it was wrong. She should have held him accountable or at least stabbed him back. Instead, she lets him leave the scene with a lame explanation that she wasn't paying attention and she should think about that before the next lesson. He actually blamed her and then just left, and Cinderella said not another word.
Molly Greenbaum was no example of a modern woman. The author tried to make her seem liberated since she invited Prince home with her and agreed to pay for his meal, but then he stole money from her purse the next morning and took her apartment key. He also left her a note asking her to do his laundry and pick up his dry cleaning. Geez! Maybe her mistake was in letting him spend the whole night. Snow White seems to be a strong woman and even has a good job. Yes, she's beautiful and powerful-- but she's also portrayed as an angry bitch. Why are independent, successful women often perceived by men to be bitches? They must feel that a strong woman is a threat to their masculinity. Back to Snow White, who seems to be liberated and successful. If the reader looks closely, she herself says that King Cole has all the power and authority and she just does all of the work. She is also allowing herself to be used by a man. Though it may at first seem that the female characters in this illustrated novel are independent and strong, they actually have not improved their status much since they left fairy tale land! They are still passive and allow the men to use them. The class must be correct about this being written by a man for men.