The Fairytale rant
Jan. 4th, 2004 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
burntcopperBored whilst writing up Shell oil discoveries and listening to Christina Aguilera, and occasionally reading ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ds_flashfiction when a comment in one story about Victoria basically appearing in what might be construed as a coffin of glass, and how she's basically his Snow White hit me.
Now, those who know me know I have ...issues with fairytales. Big, mamma-jamma issues with fairytales, especially modern interpretations of them and the girls in them. Which brings me back to thinking about New year's eve/day this year and us watching Tenth Kingdom, which is basically fairytales played with. Me, Tors and Neil discussing the basic wrongness of some of them, and the fact that they're all about sex. They're *always* about sex.
Snow White, aka 'hello to the necrophilia'. Snow White is to all intents and purposes dead. Everyone believes she's dead. She's famous because she's the corpse that doesn't decay, and has been for quite some time. And princey wants to kiss and is attracted to the corpse? Oh, *nice* one, lovely...
Sleeping Beauty. I love some versions of this, especially the version the Young Vic did, because it has ogres. Ogres! You really can't get cooler than ogres in a fairytale, because they bring the badness. However, as Tors pointed out, the older version of this, she's woken up by her twins suckling at her breast for the first time. Not by the prince's kiss. (He's let off the necrophilia thing because Sleeping Beauty was always stated to be just asleep, and clearly alive) Now, what does that tell you? Prince had sex with her without her consent while she was asleep. Aka 'oh, look, convenient body'. Niiiice. And just how long was he doing this before she gave birth, hmm? (we had convo with the boys who didn't know that yes, a woman can be preggers and nearly brain-dead to give birth, and indeed, often the dying act is to expel the baby from the body) Also, Tors has issues with Sleeping Beauty for being the one who did the least to get anywhere in the story.
Rapunzel - the prince got her pregnant and abandoned her when it was convenient. I'm right on the side of the witch with this one, for pushing him out of the tower to get his eyes spiked out by the thorns. Rapunzel, you silly girl, there was a reason the witch didn't like the prince.
Rumplestiltskin - we like this one because it's blatantly honest about human greed and concern for productivity. King first tries to establish source of income, decides he likes her, but then thinks 'right, let's make sure it's not just a one-time thing and that she'll be a viable possible source of income for the future'. He didn't have any other reason to marry her, as royalty tends only to marry those of their own class or those who can bring benefit - lands, money, titles - to the kingdom. You wouldn't marry a trader's daughter for any other reason. Though I do love that it normally takes someone pointing out the actual name of Rumpelstiltskin to figure out how the girl's getting her favours. In the less edited versions, she has to sit on him. Sit on a 'stilt with rumpled skin'. Now let's just think about what most resembles one of those, hmm?
Cinderella - whee! everyone think about that mistake in the translation about the glass slipper actually being fur! The prince went around all these girls' houses to check out their fur slipper. I think I might succumb to spontaneous coughing fit induced by innuendo...
Red Riding Hood - :snerk: Girlie throws all her clothes off and gets into bed with someone she clearly knows is not her grandma and flirts with the whole time. Fuck off, Woodcutter.
Little Mermaid - well, apart from the fact that she was sleeping with the prince, not outside his door (honestly, Hans, do you really think we're that stupid?), you can't really blame the prince for falling in love with the girl he actually saw. The one who discovered him on the beach when he was half-delirious. That's the one he remembers. He never even saw the mermaid until she became human. Plus, although we seriously detest him for the epilogue and the new process of gaining a soul (smacks of tacked-on) Tors and I like the fact that he does point out that it's fucking painful for her to walk. It's like walking on knives. Mr. Andersen is a realistic bugger.
Beauty and the Beast - we can't saying anything about this, aside from the fact that we love Belle unconditionally for being kick-arse, educated and knowing what she wants out of life, not to mention being just as fallible as the rest of us..
ds_flashfiction when a comment in one story about Victoria basically appearing in what might be construed as a coffin of glass, and how she's basically his Snow White hit me.Now, those who know me know I have ...issues with fairytales. Big, mamma-jamma issues with fairytales, especially modern interpretations of them and the girls in them. Which brings me back to thinking about New year's eve/day this year and us watching Tenth Kingdom, which is basically fairytales played with. Me, Tors and Neil discussing the basic wrongness of some of them, and the fact that they're all about sex. They're *always* about sex.
Snow White, aka 'hello to the necrophilia'. Snow White is to all intents and purposes dead. Everyone believes she's dead. She's famous because she's the corpse that doesn't decay, and has been for quite some time. And princey wants to kiss and is attracted to the corpse? Oh, *nice* one, lovely...
Sleeping Beauty. I love some versions of this, especially the version the Young Vic did, because it has ogres. Ogres! You really can't get cooler than ogres in a fairytale, because they bring the badness. However, as Tors pointed out, the older version of this, she's woken up by her twins suckling at her breast for the first time. Not by the prince's kiss. (He's let off the necrophilia thing because Sleeping Beauty was always stated to be just asleep, and clearly alive) Now, what does that tell you? Prince had sex with her without her consent while she was asleep. Aka 'oh, look, convenient body'. Niiiice. And just how long was he doing this before she gave birth, hmm? (we had convo with the boys who didn't know that yes, a woman can be preggers and nearly brain-dead to give birth, and indeed, often the dying act is to expel the baby from the body) Also, Tors has issues with Sleeping Beauty for being the one who did the least to get anywhere in the story.
Rapunzel - the prince got her pregnant and abandoned her when it was convenient. I'm right on the side of the witch with this one, for pushing him out of the tower to get his eyes spiked out by the thorns. Rapunzel, you silly girl, there was a reason the witch didn't like the prince.
Rumplestiltskin - we like this one because it's blatantly honest about human greed and concern for productivity. King first tries to establish source of income, decides he likes her, but then thinks 'right, let's make sure it's not just a one-time thing and that she'll be a viable possible source of income for the future'. He didn't have any other reason to marry her, as royalty tends only to marry those of their own class or those who can bring benefit - lands, money, titles - to the kingdom. You wouldn't marry a trader's daughter for any other reason. Though I do love that it normally takes someone pointing out the actual name of Rumpelstiltskin to figure out how the girl's getting her favours. In the less edited versions, she has to sit on him. Sit on a 'stilt with rumpled skin'. Now let's just think about what most resembles one of those, hmm?
Cinderella - whee! everyone think about that mistake in the translation about the glass slipper actually being fur! The prince went around all these girls' houses to check out their fur slipper. I think I might succumb to spontaneous coughing fit induced by innuendo...
Red Riding Hood - :snerk: Girlie throws all her clothes off and gets into bed with someone she clearly knows is not her grandma and flirts with the whole time. Fuck off, Woodcutter.
Little Mermaid - well, apart from the fact that she was sleeping with the prince, not outside his door (honestly, Hans, do you really think we're that stupid?), you can't really blame the prince for falling in love with the girl he actually saw. The one who discovered him on the beach when he was half-delirious. That's the one he remembers. He never even saw the mermaid until she became human. Plus, although we seriously detest him for the epilogue and the new process of gaining a soul (smacks of tacked-on) Tors and I like the fact that he does point out that it's fucking painful for her to walk. It's like walking on knives. Mr. Andersen is a realistic bugger.
Beauty and the Beast - we can't saying anything about this, aside from the fact that we love Belle unconditionally for being kick-arse, educated and knowing what she wants out of life, not to mention being just as fallible as the rest of us..
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Date: 2004-01-05 06:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-05 08:30 am (UTC):does mrs Doyle impression: ah, you will, you will, you will, you will...
That tends to be my problem with fairytales : all the really cool stuff is bad for you, or you have to go back to the normal dimension because you're good and virtuous. Naaaaaah.