|
Author
|
Comment
|
rjn14004
Registered User
(6/26/06 2:53 pm)
|
Positive Female Role Models
Hello ... I'm looking for fairy tales that have powerful, positive, female protagonists. No women that have to be rescued by the prince ... any recommendations?
Thanks!
Thank you all for your responses ... they have been extremely helpful! You are appreciated! :D
Edited by: rjn14004 at: 7/5/06 1:37 pm
|
ErmineLady
Registered User
(6/26/06 4:11 pm)
|
Positive role models
You can't get much more positive than the Norse folktale THE
MASTERMAID.
|
AliceCEB
Registered User
(6/26/06 7:00 pm)
|
Re: Positive role models
Well, there's a lot of them. VASILISSA
THE BEAUTIFUL and EAST
OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON are the first two that pop into
mind. Jane Yolen has a compilation of such tales (I'm forgetting
the title at the moment). Have you checked the archives? I'm sure
there are threads on this topic that should lead you to a treasure
trove of tales.
Best,
Alice
|
Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(6/26/06 7:00 pm)
|
Re: Positive role models
Try this
book: Maid of the North. The amazon page lists similar collections.
Also, look at Angela Carter's collections of fairy tales, Strange
Things Sometimes Still Happen, and The Virago Book of Old Wives'
Tales.
|
AliceCEB
Registered User
(6/26/06 7:07 pm)
|
Re: Positive role models
In addition to Veronica's recomendations, you should look at SurLaLune's FAQs page on Women and Fairy Tales. There's lots to go on there.
|
Monika
Registered User
(6/26/06 10:10 pm)
|
Re: Positive role models
I also recommend this book, which I absolutely loved as a kid:
Tatterhood
(note to self: I WILL learn how to embed links the right way!)
The quality of the writing is nothing special (which disappointed me when I rediscovered it recently), but it's a very good selection of stories. In addition to the strong woman heroes, it's also less Eurocentric than a lot of fairy tale collections. Of course, I wasn't actually aware of any of that when I was 7.
|
JenB
Registered User
(6/27/06 2:38 pm)
|
Re: Positive Female Role Models
I've always been fond of "Donkeyskin" (and its many variations) and even more fond of "Bluecrest" where the princess goes out and goes on a similar journey as the character in "East of the Sun, West of the Moon." In "Bluecrest", however, it wasn't her fault she lost her love and had to go on the journey.
|
Elizabeth
Genco
Registered User
(6/27/06 7:59 pm)
|
Re: Positive Female Role Models
I believe Kathleen Ragan's anthology, FEARLESS
GIRLS, WISE WOMEN & BELOVED SISTERS will be just the ticket.
(It has an intro by Jane Yolen, too.)
---
elizabethgenco.com
|
tolmentala
Unregistered User
(7/6/06 3:52 am)
|
Re: Positive Female Role Models
In Il Pentamerone, by Giambattista Basile the princess goes looking for the prince, rescues him from a curse and then from his wife as well.
www.surlalunefairytales.c...index.html
Or for the more relevant part:
www.surlalunefairytales.c...n1911.html
|
L Cully
Registered User
(7/6/06 5:37 am)
|
Re: Positive Female Role Models
The Snow Queen's
got nothing BUT female characters, it often seems. And they all
rock.
|
janeyolen
Registered User
(7/6/06 7:23 am)
|
Re: Positive Female Role Models
Not only the Ragan and Carter mentioned, but my NOT ONE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS, Susanne Barchers: WISE WOMEN, Doug Lippman: Folktales of Strong Women,Trina Hyman Serpent Slayer--among many others.
Jane
|
SecondQueen
Registered User
(7/13/06 1:31 am)
|
Re: Positive Female Role Models
surlalunefairytales.com/s...dtree.html
In a Celtic version of Snow White, Snow White is thought to be dead and put in a coffin somewhere in the castle. When the prince remarries, the second wife finds Snow White and wakes her, and then outwits and kills the queen.
|
pamina
Unregistered User
(7/20/06 10:35 am)
|
Re: Positive Female Role Models
Don't Bet on the Prince is a collection of feminist fairy tales edited by Jack Zipes. One of my favorite stories in there is "The Princess Who Stood on Her Own Two Feet."
|
balaustine
Unregistered User
(7/23/06 7:05 pm)
|
Re: Positive Female Role Models
"Tatterhood" and "The Girl who pretended to be a Boy" have great female protagonists.
|
pinkolaestes
Registered User
(7/25/06 7:37 pm)
|
Re: Positive Female Role Models
Hello there, back after an almost 4 year haitus, I think. And very glad to see you all.
just my two cents worth about positive female protagonists in fairytales ... I've noticed that the breed of femmes brought forward by some writers who seemed to and understandably so, want to configure 'stand alone' heriones.... perhaps in order to offset years of one-sided interpretation of the psychological and spiritual and spirit-ED motifs underlying heroines and heroic motifs faiytales... sometimes have forgotten to draw their characters to also have softness and foibles and vulnerabilities.
I find myself leaning toward the protagonists in works, prince/helper near or not, who display/grow in several directions, some strong, some not so strong, some downright pitiful... but all out of a stalwart root system with potential in all directions. I think all-sidedness is more revealing. In my deeply ethnic family, the fairytales that are classic in Western culture, are far darker, far more layered. This is just my two cent's worth. (And being a notorious bad speller... I do not know whether the apostrophe goes here, cent's... or here, cents' .
Help me not commit grammicide again...lol.
Mi Madre, ensenamé.
with kindest regards,
cpe
|
israfel
Unregistered User
(8/7/06 11:54 pm)
|
Strong heroines
Some of the Grimm fairy tales have (relatively) strong heroines. In The Robber Bridegroom the heroine escapes from the house of her cannibalistic fiancee on her own, and brings proof of his crimes. In Fitcher's Feathered Bird, the young bride of a sorcerer revives her two murdered siblings, helps them escape and then escapes to bring her fiancee to justice. Both stories are both variations of the fairy tale concept of which Bluebeard is probably most famous.
|
Meg
Fox
Registered User
(8/11/06 2:21 pm)
|
Re: Positive Female Role Models
Hi,
There is a Chinese Fairy Tale called "Li Chi Slays the Serpent" in which a young heroine saves her own life and, at the same time, ends the ritual sacrifice of young girls to the monster serpent.
I see that this post might be a bit late for your needs, but it never hurts to add another positive female role model to the list, and being passionate about the plight of baby girls in China today (though it is improving), I thought I'd mention this tale.
Best,
Meg
Edited by: Meg Fox at: 8/12/06 5:20 pm
|
mlcochova
Registered User
(8/23/06 2:28 am)
|
Re: Positive Female Role Models
I would also add "Black Bull of Norroway" which is a traditional english fairy tale. very nice, poetic story of 3 sisters, youngest of which saves her future husband.
In some versions of "Hansel and Gretel" she is the one who takes initiatives and saves them both.
Ashpitel, again traditional English fairy tale, is a version of Cinderella, where she is also active. For she meets her prince in a church and does not go to a dance.
And many all.
|
