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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Fairy tales/myths with female protagonists

48 replies

plotmissinginaction · 02/10/2017 20:57

I'm on the hunt for a fairy story or myth with a strong female protagonist. It needs to have good imagery. I like the morrigan but I can't find a story about her I like. Thinking about Tam Lin. I'm not home at the moment so it's some what restricting my ability to look.

OP posts:
haba · 02/10/2017 21:01

Little red riding hood
Goldilocks
Snow White
Most of them have central female role

KeiraTwiceKnightley · 02/10/2017 21:02

If you don't mind complex language and adult ideas, The Bloody Chamber (Angela Carter) is terrific.

KeiraTwiceKnightley · 02/10/2017 21:03

If it is for children, The paperbag Princess is fab

StoatInACoat · 02/10/2017 21:04

Ronia the Robber's Daughter (the Astrid Lindgren book version not the film or series!)

parkednearby · 02/10/2017 21:06

The Red Shoes.

tabulahrasa · 02/10/2017 21:18

The six swans

Katie Crackernuts

Molly Whuppie

Ereshkigal · 02/10/2017 21:20

Oh yes second Angela Carter but many very dark!

BroomstickOfLove · 02/10/2017 21:24

The Twelve Wild Swans.
Bluebeard.
Scheherezade
The Robber Bridegroom.

QuentinSummers · 02/10/2017 21:25

Hansel and Gretel

QuentinSummers · 02/10/2017 21:27

Diana the Roman Goddess en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_(mythology)

feartyfeet · 02/10/2017 21:27

Girls, goddesses & giants: stories of heroines from around the world. Lari Don

LineysRun · 02/10/2017 21:27

Antigone

plotmissinginaction · 02/10/2017 21:27

Not for kids no, it's for a workshop I'm going to. I'm not in the country though so finding it hard to search. Dark is good with me! I'll check out Angela Carter.

OP posts:
QuentinSummers · 02/10/2017 21:28

Pandora

Unicornsandrainbows3 · 02/10/2017 21:28

Baba yaga

QuentinSummers · 02/10/2017 21:29

Macbeths witches
I will stop in a minute Grin

tabulahrasa · 02/10/2017 21:32

Angela carter's great...but they're reworkings, not fairy tales. So it depends what you want them for.

marmeemarch1 · 02/10/2017 21:33

The website mighty girl has lots of recommendations that might be useful

plotmissinginaction · 02/10/2017 21:45

Something like Antigone would be great, I just need it to be a little less well known. I found a strange one about a girl who refuses to marry and her father throws her into the sea to drown, when she tries to climb back her dad cuts her fingers off, her fingers become seals
and she becomes a sea godess. I quite like that although it's a little short.

OP posts:
MulhuddartDrive · 02/10/2017 21:50

Neil gaiman has a wonderful book, the sleeper and the spindle. Snow white goes to rescue sleeping beauty.

OutrageousFlavourLikeFreesias · 02/10/2017 21:53

Some of the Baba Yaga stories are amazing. She’s an old woman who lives in a house on chicken legs and can do magic. Sometimes she helps and sometimes she hinders, and sometimes I think she’s a cannibal.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 02/10/2017 22:16

The Red Shoes

The little girl who is punished for the vanity of choosing red shoes by being forced to dance until the executioner cuts her feet off with an axe?

The Lassie in East of the Sun , West of the Moon - Nordic version of Cupid and Psyche/ Beauty and the Beast.

I second The Sleeper and the Spindle Chris Riddell's illustrations are beautiful.

All of the female characters in The Snow Queen -Gerda, the Robber Girl, the Princess, the Wise Women and the Snow Queen (interestingly the Snow Queen isn't punished and remains a queen)

LineysRun · 02/10/2017 22:21

If Antigone is too well known there's always Clio, or perhaps Io, or Dido, or even Xantalia, if you are prepared to reinterpret them through your own lens.

Ereshkigal · 02/10/2017 22:55

And look up the myth associated with my username!

HatieCockpins · 02/10/2017 23:00

Moon ribbon by Jane yolen.