A blog called Bringing Up Adie has a cute and enjoyable post about the awfulness of parents in fairy tales -- a subject of which I never tire.
I like to post links from other bloggers when I can. Blogging is all about sharing and spreading the word; plus it's a true Golden Rule situation in the blogging world. Or, as I always think of it: You gotta give blog love to get blog love!
The image of Rapunzel (a victim of good hair and bad parenting) is by Emma Florence Harrison
8 comments:
I was watching this doc. on SBS the other night and it was saying how researchers had picked up on links between Snow White and this noblewomen who had travelled and got really involved in politics. She was killed for her skill and beauty.
I feel really sick for liking this version better... But at least it isn't just another helpless princess...
Mulan for the win!!
Interesting Miffie.
I personally don't see Snow White as helpless, just innocent. Innocence gets a bad rap in today's world, but isn't it through childlike eyes that the impossible can occur?
At least that's the real draw for me to fairy tales.
Oh Kate...great blog! I just became a follower.
one of these days I'm going to re-write Hansel and Gretel from the perspective of the witch, ie she is a poor harmless old woman who lives on her own, and one day two psychotic teenagers turn up at her house, wreck the place, and shove her into her own oven. Then they eat all of her food and run off laughing into the forest.
masterymistery at cosmic rapture
Good hair and bad parenting...too funny!
I couldn’t help but giggle as I read this post, it is quite lever. I had not even thought about Rapunzel for my second paper of the course on bad fathers and this post opened my eyes to that one. I think what is interesting about the different roles fairy tale characters play in each fairy tale is that they each have their own little purpose. The “supporting roles” of the story such as the villain or parent or prince make the story what they are and the story would not be the same without them, yet they are often glanced over and the star of the show (often the princess) steals the spotlight. But I think what is also important to take from these “supporting characters” is that they so often emulate real life: the absent father, the evil step mother, the prince charming (always in pursuit of yet so unobtainable) and what I call the secondary hero (I consider secondary heroes to be the seven dwarfs in Snow White and the fairy godmother in Cinderella). To some degree or another, they all exist in real life and we, as readers (be it children or adults) can identify with them or identify people in our lives as fitting that stereotypical role. ~ Angiej T390
Well the awfulness of parents in fairy tales is something I am beginning to become quite familiar and intrigued with myself. I am concentrating mostly on fathers but I also pay attention to mothers, stepmothers, and siblings. But the lack of action and the lack of “good action” in the fairy tales is quite disturbing to me. As a father it is something I would hardly classify as a fairy tale as fairy tales were driven into my while I was growing up to be something that was nice and usually ended with something like, “Happily ever after”. In the classic fairy tales that I have read as of late, hardly qualifies as something that could end happily. The action of the parents in these tales is heart stopping and heart wrenching all in the same swift motion. Being mean to one’s child and favoring one over the other to the point that the other is treated more like a slave than a member of the family is considered an act of lunacy.
I really like looking at this blog as it helps me to understand the true evil in fairy tales. Although throughout this class I have noticed a lot of evil I guess it is just hard to accept as a person who grew up reading Disney fairy tales. As a child I never even heard of The Brothers Grimm or anything like that and had no idea they even existed. I never wondered about where fairy tales came from, but now close to the end of the semester those are some of the things I think about when reading fairy tales. I think that this blog is going to be very helpful when trying to look at the evil in fairy tales and when deciding if to let my kids read them or not. I am sure as a parent I would prefer for my children to only read the Disney version but kids will be kids and they will come across original versions some day.
K.A.
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