Women in fairy tales

[LadyOfTheManor]

Evening all-after my last post I have been looking into feminism in a big way (not quite converted but more so than I was).

I have been looking into feminism and fairy tales/folk tales (Snow White and then Carter's The Snow Child etc).

Rather interesting. How might a feminist fairy tale go?

Would the woman rescue the man, or would she leave him there?

Anyone?

Most fairy tales stem from an oral tradition. The 'standard' versions were written down by men (Perrault, the Grimms) who tended to a. excise the ruder bits (Sleeping Beauty traditionally not woken by a kiss but by a suckling baby for example) and b. turn them into morality tales (don't go into the woods little girl).

Angela Carter edited the Virago book of fairy tales which contains tales from many cultures including some very short, quite surreal and very vagina obssessed Icelandic tales. Might be worth a look?

There are two collections of fairy tales published by Vitrago and edited by Carter.

Virago
I must type with my eyes open in the morning, it would work better all round.

Thanks, I'll try and get hold of them.

We're not talking about the Bloody Chamber are we? Because I have those.

Or the magic Toyshop?

I'm trying to write a collection of Fairy Tales, using all of the original characters, but throwing in Lacan, Jung and Freud as well as Wollstonecraft, Carter and De Bouvoir...

However I'm struggling with the plot as to how different I can make it. It's set in modern day.

How about Roald Dahl's version, where Little Red Riding Hood carries a pistol in her knickers?

Similiar to Carters, she equips LRRH with a machete (I think the line is;

"Don't forget your blade") which indicates it's a common thing for her to carry around a knife!

If the roles were reversed and a man was locked in the tower that two women were passing, would they being (feminist);
a) help him
b) tell him to figure it out for himself
c) leave him there and focus on the task in hand
d) Do what my dh said: "go and get a man to help them" I think he missed the point.

I don't see why they wouldn't try and help him - presumably, if they're the heroines, they're also quite nice people? Unless he's shouting comments about their bums or something, builder-style.

Does this man have super-long hair? Personally, I'd just chuck him up a coil of rope and leave him to get on with it.

Hmm ok perhaps I can use that. Where would a woman find rope in the forest (the same imaginary place that men often find them?)

Well I would try to find out why he was in there. Because men who are locked up are often locked up for a reason (see: prison). What if he had tried to chat up young girls on the woodland pathways and lure them back to his house? But if he seemed to be unfairly locked up then yeah I would try to rescue him. Kind of like a woodland-fairytale based Amnesty International.

Where would a woman find rope in the forest? Maybe from the well which is usually a rural woman's first port of call in places with no running water.

She could just be carrying some rope - especially if she happens to be a mountaineer or someone who likes climbing trees. Or she could go and find an old lady in a lonely cottage and raid her woodshed...

Good point about what he was doing being locked up in the first place. You would want to check that it wasn't some sort of sylvan young offenders' centre.

Yeah I was thinking she could just be carrying it. Like, what if she were a shepherd or goatherd? She would probably have quite a lot of rope for if she needed to carry a sick sheep on her back or something.

Love the Sylvan Young Offenders idea. But then she might be a bit of a rebel too and want to break him out anyway. Have you read The Forestwife yet, treacle? (Or indeed, OP?) There is a certain amount of female-led rescuing going on in that.

Oh great! I haven't set an era yet as I'm flicking back and forth from Victorian writing (and before) to present day, so I was thinking of mixing them up.

A brief outline....

Emiline (Pankhurst) and Sigmund (Freud) are brother and sister, heading towards their father's home so Emiline can change her father's tyre. On the way they stop for lunch (eating phallic shaped objects, that Freud prepared at home, naturally). When they stop to eat, they witness Simone De Bouvoir (disguised as a wolf) trying to seduce Little Red Riding Hood, however, the hood is removed and she sees it is in fact a boy (Simone DB was famous for seducing her young FEMALE students). After seeing it is a boy she flees. Throughout the forest, they see "unusual" things, being described as normality...the wicked queen is having an affair with Snow White's man, while Snow White is at work etc etc.

Any ideas to help me push this along?

Love the young offenders idea!

Cor blimey well you've lost me! No idea about all the connotations of Simone de Beauvoir etc.

Following on from my earlier post - think you need a clitoris that turns into a sled. (not you personally maybe - the story)

elephants - how right are you that men locked up in forests are normally that way for a reason. You'd be a most sensible person to be lost in mythical fairytale landscape with and no mistake.

A clitoris that turns into a sled?

Yeah it's from Virago book of fairy tales treacle, yet handy.

Thanks Unruly - I think that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me :) :) :)

Ah - another to add to the reading list. What's the Forestwife one?

:)

... Or a boy made out of seal blubber who (iirc) is unable to withstand the furious frottage. Ahhhh the long winter nights in the igloo.

Just Amazonned it - looks good. Will add it to my wishlist...

Handy Elephants? Possibly in the Arctic circle but I think it would get in the way in the city. Particularly when trying on shoes.

Gerta rescues Kay in the Snow Queen.
And isn't it ultimately Gretel who kills the witch in Hansel and Gretel?

Has anyone read the Snow Child by Carter?

I'm aiming to write with hidden references and meanings without just "reversing" the roles of the protagonist.