Bluebeard

I found the question discussed in class yesterday about who was to blame in the story the wife or Bluebeard was really interesting. I think this idea is really the central theme of the story. And wonder if maybe the moral is that everyone is at fault for different things and all of these faults together are what make the marriage fail. Maybe it is a warning against both the man and the woman in the marriage that secrets and decetes make marraige treacherous and dangerous. I think the moral is to teach both men and women about the dangers that exist in the other sex and to not easily trust and feel comfortable aroung the opposite sex. For women it is a story of a violent and abusive husband. For men it is a story of a tricky and decietful woman. Why does it have to be a lesson for one sex or the other why can't it be for both?

Bluebeard Image

I decided to do a google image search on Bluebeard much as I have done for the other tales as I was curious as to what would come up. I was expecting, since to me the tale seemed obscure, for the search to reveal nothing relating to the tale but rather silly guys with beards they dyed blue. To my surprise however several images came up that obviously related to the tale. Apparently the tale is not quite as obscure as I had thought. I noticed in some of the images the art seems to be of a more non-western style and began to wonder if maybe this tale is just rare and unpopular in western cultures but still widley known in other cultures throughout the world.

Bluebeard First Impression

When looking over the sylabus this first day I knew every story we were going to study except for the story of Bluebeard. I has never even heard of the tale before so I was at a loss as to what it could be about. After reading it I am not really surprised I have never heard it before because it is certainly not something we would deem as "child friendly." It was interesting to read something so violent and then remember it is supposed to be a fairy tale but when we think of fairy tales we don't really think of exessive violence or fear. It was interesting however for the first time this semester to read a tale without already having a story or picture in my head. All the other tales have almost had a kind of bias as we remember them in a very particular way, often a Disney way. So reading a story with no prior knowledge was interesting and left me more open and receptive to alternative versions than I think I might have been to the non-Disney versions of the other tales. The violence in Bluebeard is quite startling in contrast with the other tales and seems almost like a scare tactic to the readers. The images presented reminded me not of a fairy tale but of a modern crime investigation show. We have taken the violence of tales and turned it into television entertainment.

Cinderella and Sex

I found the idea of the slipper and foot as sexual symbols really interesting in both of the readings. The mistranslation of velvet to glass was also very interesting and the affect that had on the sexual connotation. I found this image online and thought it was really interesting in bringing into effect the whole idea of the glass slipper as a symbol of purity and the subsequent breaking of it as a reference to the breaking of the hymen. This shirt seems to be a commentary that in our current day and age purity or glass slippers are not something we strive for but rather just protection in our impurity from diseases or pregnancy. There is also a certain connotation which was brought up in class and in the readings about the perfect fit concept where Cinderella is the phallic perfect fit for the slipper, this is also something people keep in mind with condoms because if it isn't the right size it might not work properly and thus not do what you need it to do. I found all of these things interesting contrasts between modern day sexuality and sexuality in Cinderellas time period. Metaphor to overt.

LRRH Video

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

Google Cinderella

I found using google images to be very interesting when doing my LRRH posts so I decided to use it again with regards to Cinderella. It was immediatly obvious Disney has taken over the market on Cinderella. When I googled LRRH comics with cute characters and halloween costumes with red capes appear. But when you google image Cinderella what should appear but a page of blonde girls in blue ball gowns! It is impressive how far Disney has franchised the character in that even the internet thinks immediatly of the girl in blue when you mention the name Cinderella.

Disney's Cinderella

Reading Naomi Wood's article about Disney's Cinderella brought back many memories of watching the movie as a kid. So I decided to go on youtube and watch the memorable "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" video clip. However, now after analyzing the text and reading the critics I saw it in a different light, ecspeccially within the concept of gender roles. I noted that in the begining of the song all the female animals are awake and dressed for the day while the male animals are slowly dragging themselves out of bed and one is even having to unknot a knot in his messy tale. You dont see any of the female mice having to do this now do you? No because the females are early risers and they are neat and tidy whereas males are lazy and unkept. I also noticed that when the morning chores begin to be done it is the female animals who make the bed and help Cinderella get dressed while the males are shooed out of the room. Because of course it would be completley indecent for a male mouse or bird to see a naked female. As a child these distinctions seemed commonplace and maybe are at the root of some of my own idead about gender roles, but now looking back it seems ubsurd that we should put these roles onto creatures such as mice and birds. Its almost like subliminal messages we are sending to our kids about what is what in the world of genders and stereotypes. Is this really what we want to be teaching them?

Link To Clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhTjnzlcIeI

Gender Reversal Scary?

I found it very interesting during the LRRH discussion about the critics many of the guys in the class became very uncomfortable when the concept of gender reversal became the topic of conversation. So much so that one guy even dropped the class. Why is it that women can so easily accept the idea of a gender reversal in a story or fairy tale whereas men have such an issue with the idea? I think fairy tales themselves have something to do with it, we are brought up on these fairy tales that instill a message that men are strong and capable and women are domestic, naive, and weak. This training continues on throughout a young males life, "men are stronger than girls," "men don't cry, or show emotions" etc. This installment of ideas has gone on their whole lives so then to have someone suggest a role reversal, a loss of the masculinity they are told to always have, it's just unacceptable to them. Maybe some of them even connect with the wolf as a symbol of masculinity strong, capable, never shows any emotions, so then to have him turned into a woman, his mouth into a vagina? Unacceptable.

Another LRRH

I also found this image and found it an interesting combination of both tricky LRRH of the older stories and the gory LRRH of Dahl's work.

The "New" Red Riding Hood

After my interesting image find yesterday I decided to use google images again today and see what else of interest I could find that linked to LRRH. I searched for a modern LRRH and this image came up. It is an interesting image. She, like Dahl's LRRH, has a gun and appears ready to use it to defend herself. However, she is now more than ever and image of sex, sex, sex. All she seems to be wearing is her panties and her red riding hood. This image is obviouslly catering to men as. I find it interesting that men are ready to give LRRH the power to have a gun but not the ability to wear some clothes. She is now a bad ass gun toting babe but for men to be okay with her power and dominance she must be scantily dressed and an object of their fantasies. We can take the innocent little girl out of the story, make her intimidating and agressive, but we sure as hell can't take away the sex.

Little Red Riding Hood

Today to find some things to put in my blog I did a google.com image search to find something about little red riding hood like a cartoon to post and discuss. Little did I know when you type in little red riding hood in google images the second image to pop up is one of a scantily clad girl with a red cape. Why is it that this is the second image to come up in a search? The more I thought about it the more I started to make some connections with what we looked at in class today. If little red riding hood is a metaphor for sex and the wolf represents a man, it then follows that little red riding hood is in some respects and image of sex. What does "innocent" really mean in the context of a story revolving around the idea of sex? Does innocent imply that she is virginal because the woman above looks anything but. Why is it that seemingly innocent fairy tale characters are constnatly turned into skimpy halloween costumes? Is this what men picture when they read fairy tales? That all the women are standing aroung scantilly clad waiting for prince charming, or the wolf? Is there something sexy about the naive, innocent little red riding hood of todays modern stories? Is she in some way a dream girl? Blindly following the wolf into his trap, or the man into his bed? This image both confuses and intrigues me. In a fairy tale written by a woman would the girl turn into a silly sex object or something more?