Gender and Fairy Tales
If the Roles Were Reversed...
It's hard to imagine a traditional version of the story being reversed. In that time, it was simply not feasible for a female character to rescue a male character. The gender roles set down for generations forbid it, both directly and indirectly. Women were raised with a psychologically ingrained inferiority status which would prevent many of them from thinking themselves capable of a daring and dangerous undertaking. Indirectly, they were generally raised with little knowledge of riding, fighting, or other athletically inclined activities. Sorry retellings, but let's be realistic here, this is very rare. Of course, some exceptions exist, like this awesome queen, but in general this was not the case. Most women couldn't even read, even (and perhaps especially) noble women. With that in mind, how could any typical princess hope to defeat the briars when her only skills were charm and conversation? Also, I would imagine being rescued by a princess would be a shameful state of affairs for any prince. The opinion of their manliness would be destroyed forever. Better to have a noble friend come and rescue you than a woman, even if kissing is involved. With that said, the retellings we have read obviously do not conform to this standard. Almost all the women are well versed in the heroic arts in addition to being literate. Of course, some of them were not raised as princesses so this is more understandable as common women had more freedoms and expectations than nobles did. Still, most men would have found these characters startlingly individualistic and perhaps dangerous (we don't want that kind of disease spreading; have you ever seen how insecure men illustrate suffragettes?). Thankfully for our princesses, their men were forward-thinking enough to allow these eccentricites. They were the lucky ones.
"The Sleeping Prince" - A Greek Fairy Tale
"A king had only his daughter, his wife having died, and had to go to war. The princess promised to stay with her nurse while he was gone. One day, an eagle came by and said she would have a dead man for a husband; it came again the next day. She told her nurse, and her nurse told her to tell the eagle to take her to him. The third day came, and she asked; it brought her to a palace, where a prince slept like the dead, and a paper said that whoever had pity on him must watch for three months, three weeks, three days, three hours, and three half-hours without sleeping, and then, when he sneezed, she must bless him and identify herself as the one who watched. He and the whole castle would wake, and he would marry the woman.
She watched three months, three weeks, and three days. Then she heard someone offering to hire maids. She hired one for company. The maid persuaded her to sleep, the prince sneezed, and the maid claimed him. She told him to let the princess sleep and when she woke, set to tend the geese. (The fairy tale starts to refer to the prince as the king.)
The king had to go to war. He asked the queen what she wanted, and she asked for a golden crown. He asked the goose-girl, and she asked for the millstone of patiences, the hangman's rope, and the butcher's knife, and if he did not bring them, his ship would go neither backward nor forward. He forgot them, and his ship would not move; an old man asked him if he had promised anything, so he bought them. He gave his wife the crown and the other things to the goose-girl. That evening, he went down to her room. She told her story to the things, and asked them what she should do. The butcher's knife said to stab herself; the rope, to hang herself; the millstone, to have patience. She asked the rope again and went to hang herself. The king broke in and saved her. He declared she was his wife and he would hang the other on the rope. She told him only to send her away. They went to her father for his blessing."
She watched three months, three weeks, and three days. Then she heard someone offering to hire maids. She hired one for company. The maid persuaded her to sleep, the prince sneezed, and the maid claimed him. She told him to let the princess sleep and when she woke, set to tend the geese. (The fairy tale starts to refer to the prince as the king.)
The king had to go to war. He asked the queen what she wanted, and she asked for a golden crown. He asked the goose-girl, and she asked for the millstone of patiences, the hangman's rope, and the butcher's knife, and if he did not bring them, his ship would go neither backward nor forward. He forgot them, and his ship would not move; an old man asked him if he had promised anything, so he bought them. He gave his wife the crown and the other things to the goose-girl. That evening, he went down to her room. She told her story to the things, and asked them what she should do. The butcher's knife said to stab herself; the rope, to hang herself; the millstone, to have patience. She asked the rope again and went to hang herself. The king broke in and saved her. He declared she was his wife and he would hang the other on the rope. She told him only to send her away. They went to her father for his blessing."
Men and Fairy Tales
If you take a look at my page "Retellings," you may notice that only two out of all the Sleeping Beauty retellings I found were authored by men. I found this to be notable and consequently asked myself why this might be so. Original fairy tales were written by men such as the Grimms, Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Perrault. Of course, we have to consider the differences in time period. Especially during Perrault's time (approximately 1600), women would not have been likely to be authors in their own right. The Grimms and Anderson were later, writing between 1750 and 1850, so this argument holds less water in their case (although women were still discouraged from this type of activity). If we consider the typical practices of folklorists, this also may have discouraged the presence of women from the trade. Like Elizabeth in The Gates of Sleep, collectors of folklore were required to travel extensively and talk to people of all classes, probably encountering danger or difficulties along the way.
So why is it that men are so underrepresented in the retelling business? They are more than present in the fantasy fiction business in general, but not in relation to fairy tales. If you look at the shelves in the fantasy section of any bookstore, you will notice that men in fact have a heavy majority, the greatest example of course being the Lord of the Rings series. Despite this, the only direct fable retellings I've seen by men are the "Fables" series by Bill Willingham and the "Marvel Fairy Tales" series by Marvel comics. Obviously, these are not traditional books, they are comics and are most likely directed at a female audience. The only other example is the massively altered Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka (the satire of traditional, "embarrassing," tales is obvious) and, of course, Gregory Macguire of Wicked fame (a notable exception, to be sure). Apparently, men neither like, nor require the tenets of fairy tales, neither the fair damsel in distress, nor the brave prince on a quest. Fairy tales have become very female-centric, and men who would claim an interest would most likely be teased as being effeminate.
Here is one male blogger's view of the situation:
"Men don’t want to date princesses. Maybe there are some who do, and the women who aspire to be princesses deserve the brutes... Men do not want to be princes. Princes are born into success, men make their own. We want women who share that same ethic, however it is success is defined. It’s just not sexy to date a helpless princess with an aversion to peas and a bluebird fetish. Give us Sarah Connor in a black cocktail dress pumping a shotgun any day. I would never claim to be a feminist... But when I hear perfectly intelligent and willful women console each other with fairy tale mantras that promise, with a lot of persistence, they will find a well-heeled prince to care for them, I become conspiratorial...[I imagine the promoters of this media] sitting around an oblong table in a secret silo on a peninsula plotting how to reinforce absurd, medieval wish fulfillment fantasies in women. I imagine the meeting’s minutes going something like this:
[A]: “Next on the list: gender programming. How do we keep these modern day suffragettes from full romantic self-actualization?”
[B]: “Why don’t we fill popular cartoon movies with stories about princesses, and hope they want nothing more than to be the gilded property of a feudal dictator in pantaloons.”
Maybe one day you’ll kiss a guy and he’ll turn into a guy who’ll march through tornadoes to get you tampons, admit when he’s wrong, and eat ice cream naked in bed with you. The point is: give regular people you date the chance to be extraordinary without the maudlin fairy tale expectation. The favor will be returned."
All this considered, one question remains in my mind. We read many retellings this semester, and most of the stories had been altered to become almost unrecognizable from the original tale. The princess was bold and brave, resourceful and "sassy." The princes were rarely princes, and were often either flawed or at least characterized. If we don't like it for the "damsel in distress" or "passive princess" aspect (in fact, we may not even accept this any longer as we would view it as sexist), then why do we keep coming back to these stories?
So why is it that men are so underrepresented in the retelling business? They are more than present in the fantasy fiction business in general, but not in relation to fairy tales. If you look at the shelves in the fantasy section of any bookstore, you will notice that men in fact have a heavy majority, the greatest example of course being the Lord of the Rings series. Despite this, the only direct fable retellings I've seen by men are the "Fables" series by Bill Willingham and the "Marvel Fairy Tales" series by Marvel comics. Obviously, these are not traditional books, they are comics and are most likely directed at a female audience. The only other example is the massively altered Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka (the satire of traditional, "embarrassing," tales is obvious) and, of course, Gregory Macguire of Wicked fame (a notable exception, to be sure). Apparently, men neither like, nor require the tenets of fairy tales, neither the fair damsel in distress, nor the brave prince on a quest. Fairy tales have become very female-centric, and men who would claim an interest would most likely be teased as being effeminate.
Here is one male blogger's view of the situation:
"Men don’t want to date princesses. Maybe there are some who do, and the women who aspire to be princesses deserve the brutes... Men do not want to be princes. Princes are born into success, men make their own. We want women who share that same ethic, however it is success is defined. It’s just not sexy to date a helpless princess with an aversion to peas and a bluebird fetish. Give us Sarah Connor in a black cocktail dress pumping a shotgun any day. I would never claim to be a feminist... But when I hear perfectly intelligent and willful women console each other with fairy tale mantras that promise, with a lot of persistence, they will find a well-heeled prince to care for them, I become conspiratorial...[I imagine the promoters of this media] sitting around an oblong table in a secret silo on a peninsula plotting how to reinforce absurd, medieval wish fulfillment fantasies in women. I imagine the meeting’s minutes going something like this:
[A]: “Next on the list: gender programming. How do we keep these modern day suffragettes from full romantic self-actualization?”
[B]: “Why don’t we fill popular cartoon movies with stories about princesses, and hope they want nothing more than to be the gilded property of a feudal dictator in pantaloons.”
Maybe one day you’ll kiss a guy and he’ll turn into a guy who’ll march through tornadoes to get you tampons, admit when he’s wrong, and eat ice cream naked in bed with you. The point is: give regular people you date the chance to be extraordinary without the maudlin fairy tale expectation. The favor will be returned."
All this considered, one question remains in my mind. We read many retellings this semester, and most of the stories had been altered to become almost unrecognizable from the original tale. The princess was bold and brave, resourceful and "sassy." The princes were rarely princes, and were often either flawed or at least characterized. If we don't like it for the "damsel in distress" or "passive princess" aspect (in fact, we may not even accept this any longer as we would view it as sexist), then why do we keep coming back to these stories?
A little exaggerated, but something to consider:
Fun Fact: "In Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, a princess laments that she was not cursed at her christening. When another character points out that many princesses are not (even in the Chronicles' fairy-tale setting), she complains that in her case the wicked fairy did come to the christening, "had a wonderful time", and left the princess with no way to assume her proper, fairy-tale role."