Comments on: Actually, fairytales weren’t always so sexist

By: Russian Fairy Tales: “The Feather of Finist the Falcon” Part Two « The World of Fantasy Fiction by Ledia R

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 12:22:49 +0000

[...] Actually, fairytales weren’t always so sexist (bluemilk.wordpress.com) [...]

By: Ida

Ida — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 08:04:14 +0000

An important point about the Grimm´s fairytales is that most kids today know them only in the Disney version (pink and passive women). In the originals, at least some of the women showed some courage and strenght. Like the Hansel and Gretchen-story, where it is the sister who saves her (quite stupid) brother from the gingerbread house.

Personally, I love Disney, but I try to comment and discuss the gender issues with my kids. And balance these stories with Nordic and African tales.

By: blue milk

blue milk — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 01:59:18 +0000

For anyone interested in this stuff read the cross-posted version at Hoyden About Town, some very interesting comments have been made over there.

By: Kathmandu

Kathmandu — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 21:43:20 +0000

There are a whole bunch of fairy-tale sources other than the Brothers Grimm. I grew up on the Rainbow Fairy Books. And I had books with titles like Tales from Ireland and Tales from India and Tales from Norway. Lots of them had smart/strong/dynamic female characters. In related news, the artist Ursula Vernon recently put a few annotated versions of fairy tales she has read on her blog. The Master Maid is particularly relevant to this discussion; it has a male viewpoint character, but the Master Maid is the title character and the really interesting one, and she rescues him.

By: lcorriveau

lcorriveau — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 19:51:35 +0000

THANK YOU for posting this. I went over & read the Economist article. I’m really excited to see the English translation of Schoenwerth’s collection of tales.

Something I think that gets overlooked a bit in the discussion of the impact these pathetic princesses have on children is how it affects *boys’* ideas of what women & men should be. I don’t want my son to be bombarded with18th century misogyny that tells him women are stupid, weak creatures he needs to rescue from themselves.

By the way, I’ve linked to your blog on my post about what I’ve been reading lately, to be published tomorrow.

By: Russian Fairy Tales: “The Feather of Finist the Falcon” Part One « The World of Fantasy Fiction by Ledia R

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 10:54:33 +0000

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