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Author
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Comment
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OrtMasterStacy
Registered User
(4/18/03 10:04 pm)
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Sexual Aspects of Fairy Tales
Hello! I am writing a paper and I was wondering if anyone knew any websites on the sexual aspects of fairy tales.
I know that is probably a very broad subject but any info would help a lot.
Thank you.......
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Midori
Unregistered User
(4/19/03 5:51 am)
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sexuality
Yes...very broad. Why don't you narrow it down a bit. Trickster tales are often quite vulgar and about all sorts of sexual activity (apporpriate and inappropriate). Many girl's rites of passage tales have a sexual tension--such as an implied incest at the beginning of the tale--an event that forces them out of the home and into their journeys. (Donkey Skin, variants of The Armless Maiden). Early versions of "Sleeping Beauty" include a rape of Beauty while she sleeps. Those would be examples of where the sexual images are still more or less on the surface.
There have been past discussions on the board examining sexualized images of hair (esp. in Rapunzel) and shoes (especially in Cinderella). You might be able to do a search and find them. They were pretty interesting as I recall.
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Helen
Registered User
(4/19/03 9:13 am)
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Also ...
Little Red Riding Hood is another tale that pops to mind as an example of how the sexual mores of a time were explored in the fairy tale tradition: ditto Bluebeard. If you're interested in exploring the broad connections between fairy tales and sexuality, I'd reccomend that you also take a look at Afanasyev's collection, known in English as _The Secret Tales of Russia_ or _The Bawdy Tales of Russia_.
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DonnaQ
Registered User
(4/19/03 9:37 pm)
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Speaking of which...
You might want to have a look at:
- Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked -
Sex, Morality and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale
By Catherine Orenstein
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artsfan
Unregistered User
(5/10/03 6:06 pm)
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Sexual aspects...
Yes. I have read a version of Rapunzel in which is a bit different
from the standard version. When Rapunzel has a slip of the tongue
and asks the witch why she takes so long to come to climb up the
tower and the prince is up in a flash: well in this version she
asks the witch to help her with her dress because it is becoming
too tight around her waist. The witch understands that Rapunzel
is pregnant which reveals that Rap and the prince were actually
getting "busy" in the tower. Hope this helps. You can
actually find an anecdote of this passage in the back of Paul O'
Zelinsy's version of Rapunzel in which he explains the history of
this popular tale!
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Rosemary
Lake
Registered User
(5/25/03 7:27 pm)
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Red Riding Hood with female 'ogre'
I've posted about this recently, but you might look at how far back the sexual elements go in Red Riding Hood type tales. One collected in Italy in the 1880s has a female 'ogre' instead of a male monster, and it's a comic tale. The girl catches on, outwits the ogre, and excapes without help. There's a similar old French version online.
Rosemary
www.rosemarylake.com
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