Fairy tales are some of the scariest stories in the world. Poisoned apples, life time lock-ups, evil wolves, trolls. Scary stuff to read to children. But what makes them scary for me is that we are implanting in children’s minds the ideas that you have to marry an handsome prince, and if you want to marry a handsome prince, you had better have red lips, white skin and beautiful hair. Does anyone in the world have red lips? I hope not, because I think they would look slightly creepy.
I think it would be nice if maybe the prince kissed Snow White not because he was blinded by her beauty, but because they had met before and had fallen in love because of their mutual love of star trek or something like that. Also, maybe the entire story could just be re-written, because kissing someone while they are asleep in front of a bunch of dwarves without the sleepers consent is a bit rapey for my taste.
Maybe Cinderella and the prince could fall in love because while dancing at the ball, they discovered that they both had a passion for politics. And when Cinderella runs away, the prince shouldn’t chase after her, because that is rapey too. He should have gotten her phone number at the ball.
How about the Beast falling in love with Beauty is not because of her beauty, but her love of reading (which is even mentioned in some versions). Maybe the Beast could stay a Beast, and Beauty and him get married. She already loved him, why did he need to become handsome?
I think our fairy tales could do with a bit of an edit. Why don’t we all have a bit of a go at editing them verbally? If we find ourselves in a position where we must tell a fairy story, let’s change them a bit. It could make a difference to the way people see the world.
Ursa
Lessons to be Learned
Smile... It confuses people 
“I think it would be nice if maybe the prince kissed Snow White not because he was blinded by her beauty, but because they had met before and had fallen in love because of their mutual love of star trek or something like that.” – I LOVE this!
I’m currently reading the Grimm Fairytales so all the points that you’ve made in this post are right at the forefront of my mind at the moment.
I find it interesting how all the evil female character in fairytales are ugly, and all the pure nice people a beautiful with long hair and red lips.
It is quite worrying seeing some of the messages that would have been fed to children and subliminarily affected their later lives. Some of the moral messages are good, but there are also quite a few that aren’t…..
Great post! 🙂
Thanks!
Yes, I’d forgotten about the ugly baddies. I especially dislike the war waging between the Queen and Snow White, because it is all centered around which one is more beautiful. Snow White of course!
Not to mention the horrid beautiful girl/pre-woman being taken as a wife for the King – so a 13 – 15 year old girl being taken away by a man probably in his 20s (at the earliest) to marry. Ew.
Plus all the violence is left in, and all the sex (consenual or otherwise) is taken out.
Yes, I hate that, it makes me go all squirmy. It’s bad enough when a woman is promised to someone if they complete some task for the king, even worse when that someone is a child.
This is so relevant for me. Thanks for posting. I ‘edit’ stories all the time as I read them to my two girls. It’s exhausting! It also makes me realise how much crap I was fed as a kid.
Thanks, my lovely mother always edited stories when she was reading them to my sisters and me, especially the ‘Narnia’ series.