Reflections on Fairy Tales: Then and Now

English 102 has been extremely thought provoking as we have studied fairy tales and how they have influenced our lives. I never knew how deeply important and influential fairy tales have been to our society until now. I also did not realize how old many of our fairy tales really are and that they began by being spread orally long before being written down. We think of fairy tales as being frivolous and fanciful, until we really look closely at their structure and messages. For example, Little Red Riding Hood in its earliest forms had some strong sexual suggestiveness with its use of characters and action--a pretty little virgin girl wears a red riding hood and walks innocently through the forest. The big bad wolf, perhaps representing male sexuality and lust, talks to the girl and discovers where she is going. It is very easy for him to trick her by pretending to be grandma and he is then able to overpower her. The language and strip tease in one version suggested sexual desire and that little red was willing to submit to his requests and explore her own sexuality. The wolf, however, still gobbles her up. Was this a warning story that women told to little girls so that they would not wander in the woods? Or did it have the deeper meaning of teaching young girls to be careful about submitting to the lust of big bad men?
The old version of Cinderella certainly had a strong message and used some violence to get the message across. The mean step sisters actually mutilate their feet to try to fit them in the slipper and still they do not end up getting the prince. In fact, they get their eyes pecked out by Cinderella's birds. The message for girls is pretty clear in those days: if you are good and patient and meek, you will succeed and get a prince. If you are bad or aggressive you will end up mutilated and miserable. The Disney version of our time does not mutilate the mean step sisters, but the message is still the same--women should be sweet and gentle and humble and passive. Oh, and they should also be beautiful. As a matter of fact, most of the female love interests in fairy tales, both then and now, are beautiful. Even Bluebeard who was considered physically unattractive had to have a beautiful wife. He was able to attract a pretty girl because he was wealthy and powerful. Unfortunately, he killed all his wives. I would think that the Bluebeard story is a warning to women that you better not go after a man just because he is wealthy --kind of an anti-golddigger story. But apparently back then, it was a warning for women not to be overly curious!
That is the amazing thing about fairy tales---they can have different morals and messages depending on the culture and times in which they are read. They can also have different messages for different people's lives. For example, Beauty and the Beast may tell one person that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. It may say to another person that if you are good and obedient to your father you will end up with riches and a handsome prince. If you watch the Disney version closely, it may tell you to avoid Beasts at all costs because he was quite abusive toward Belle in the beginning and women should not try to "rescue" abusive men. But to another woman, it might have been a beautiful love story that made her want to go out and find a beast to rescue.
I could go on and on about the various messages and interesting look into humanity that are in fairy tales. I mainly want to say that I will now look at fairy tales differently--both the old tales and the new Disney versions. I will receive them with my eyes more opened and my mind prepared to ask more questions. I will look deeper for the more subtle meanings in them and how they might affect my life. I will realize that the stories can have different meanings for different people but that this does not make any one way of thinking about them right or wrong. I can now more fully appreciate the unique stories that we know as "fairy tales."

The Eye of the Beholder--Best One Yet!

I hope you are feeling better!! Maybe this will help...

Okay I have saved the best one for the last week. Please watch this video clip from Saturday Night Live. (There may be a ten second commercial at the beginning--I didn't know any way to fix that.) http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/beauty-and-the-beast/1167711/

This is the clip I hoped to show to the class but the semester became so busy and flew by. I loved this clip because it is very funny, but I think it also offers a deeper meaning that relates to part of what we talked about this semester. Who really is the beast? The fairy tales teach us that the character who does not live up to society's standards of physical attractiveness is a beast. Disney really furthers this belief by making all of its Princesses fit a predetermined standard of beauty, like we have discussed in class. The "beautiful" princesses are all very skinny, have long flowing hair, perfect skin, big doe eyes, and tiny little features. They also quite often have large breasts and low-cut tops. But in the SNL clip, the beast is not satisfied with the woman's looks and says, "Oh my darling, I can hardly wait for your transformation!" The look she gives him is priceless. He thinks that she is the beast, and she thinks that he's the beast. Since she is adhering to Disney's definition of beautiful, she can't believe that he thought she was the beast. I think SNL is making fun of Disney and their stereotypical princesses when the beast says, "Well, you're very slender and I like a big ol' ass." It's wonderful. I think most men agree with the beast on this subject, but our society tries to brainwash us all into thinking that women need to look like a Victoria's Secret model and be tall, thin, and busty. Who are we to say who is a beauty and who is a beast? We all look very different and should love and accept each other however we are. I'm working on this, too, and do not mean to suggest that I have arrived at a state of perfect love for all people, or anything like that. I admit I have alot of trouble with tongue rings--they tend to gross me out. But I can see that many people in the young generation think they are super attractive. Like the beast quoted in this SNL clip, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." 'Tis very true!

One More Observation from Presentations Regarding Women's Roles

Matt showed one of my favorite clips during his presentation. It was the scene from the movie "Enchanted" where she is cleaning up the guy's apartment with the help of all the little animals. I love this scene because it is such an excellent parody of the Disney Cinderella who calls upon the mice and little birds to help her with her chores and help her get dressed. In this scene, she summons the little animals to help her and since she is in the big city now, rats and pigeons and cockroaches come to help her. They do a great job of helping her clean and it is just hilarious. But Matt brought out some points I never thought about before. He was mentioning how happy the girl appears while she is cleaning up someone else's mess, and specifically, how comfortable and undaunted she is at having to pull a nasty hairball out of the tub drain. I think this is a good point and so true of our society. Women are still expected to do these nasty chores of cleaning up after other people much more often than men are expected to do the same type of chores. We are not expected to be singing a happy tune and wearing a pretty dress, but for the most part, I think women are still the ones who take care of the nasty jobs around the house. I hope I am wrong and there are many more homes where the men clean the toilets and wash the dirty dishes. To show that things have changed for the better in this area, here's a clip from an old tv show that I'm pretty sure you would not see on a show today:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq_9wu-KjTk
The son is asking his father why his mom does all the cooking inside and his dad does the cooking outside on the grill. The father in this clip actually says, "They say a woman's place is in the home...as long as she's in the home she might as well be in the kitchen." Then he goes on to explain that "men are better at this rugged type of outdoor cooking--sort of a throw-back to caveman days..." Well, I agree with him there; he is acting like someone who came from the caveman days. I don't think women are defined by their role being in the home any longer. Matt had a good point though, that we shouldn't make it seem like nasty chores are "women's work" and she should be happy with it!