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
11 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.
This is a little off topic but I found this post under, “Abuse in fairy tales” and thought it will work. I am very interested and sometimes disgusted by the age of characters in the fairy tales and what they are going through. When many fairy tales were written in the past, the lifespan was shorter, so obviously people grew up and did grown up things at a younger age. Snow White’s bad luck began at the age of seven for goodness sake! She was still a child forced to go out on her own to find her own methods of survival. However, in fairy tale movies now the age of princesses are many time the magical age of 16. These princesses who are 16 and think they are so grown up include Ariel, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty who are all set and ready to be married. When I was 16 I was worried about getting a license not walking down the aisle, even though boys were on the mind. In America, getting married to a prince or rich man isn’t as common. However, there is a new way girls seem to think they would like to grow up and live the high life. As pitiful it is, I am always interested in watching Jerry Springer’s show or Maury’s show just to see how other people view life. Many times you see girls from the age of 13-16 who are purposely trying to get pregnant. But why? Is it because they are just immature or because they have grown up hearing tales of women who grew up and lived “happily ever after” at such a young age. Many times the girls say the father of their child will stay around and help dress the child in name brands and it will all work out. They are foolish though, and fooled by tales they may have grown up hearing. Therefore, I think age really does matter when they are so stressed in fairy tales because it gives misleading ideas on how someone should plan out their life
Even though many fairy tale characters are seen as moral and favorable in original versions these main characters can reflect the actions of their parents. In Snow White, the authors tell nothing of her character, but reveal her attraction to beautiful things like her step mother. Snow White succeeds because she is beautiful and uses the knowledge she has gained from her step mother. The character’s success is based off their wits or supporting characters that step in and offer help. In Hansel and Gretel if the children weren’t raised by bad parents do you think Gretel would have had the courage to push the witch into the oven? While these children have become quite clever, it seems to me that it can represent how we learn morals from our parent’s mistakes. Not to say that murder is right, but the children learned what they needed to survive. Personally I have learned a lot having an alcoholic mother in the past. Even though she took care of me and my brother she did a lot of stupid things that now I know I could never do. In Beauty and the Beast, although Beauty was the only one in her family to realize what is virtuous, she probably recognized that she didn’t want to be cruel like her older sisters; creating courage that no one possessed. I take from this that situations in life have a meaning to us that no one can know because we learn not only from our mistakes, but others.
I was working on my first paper and saw this label so i had to comment on it. In my paper i am talking about parents as the main villians in these tales. It came as quite a shock to me that I never realized that in fact, most of the villians in these tales are the parents. I did not realize it until it was brought up. It makes me feel very lucky and fortunate that I had such loving parents growing up.
KG
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