"Sex and the City" - the column

I want to revisit the post about Samantha from Sex and the City, and how Carrie calls her fairy tale a "short chapter" in her life. I'm going to briefly take on the role of Carrie by doing what she does every episode - ask a rhetorical questions about relationships in her column, "Sex and the City."

When you're 21 it's hard to think of relationships in the long term for two reasons: you're young and most of your (my) relationships are short. But when a relationship does end, especially a particularly meaningful one, you have to ask your self -

Is this the end of a chapter or the end of the book?

The worst part of breaking up is of course, the rebound. And that is so bad because you don't really know where things are going from there... I mean, are you going to live "miserably ever after"? Or did you do the dump-ing and therefore think you'll live "happily every after"? Presumably, a certain breakup isn't really an end point or any sort of "ever after," it's just simply a speed bump on the road to grandma's house (and you're not walking, you're on a moped).

But what if it is? What if that was the last relationship you'll ever have and it's over? Now what, right? I suppose from here it could go either way, a happy or a miserable ending depending on what you make of your situation and what you think of the opposite (or same) sex.

But what if it's not? What if you're going to enter more great relationships ending in (possibly epically bad) breakups? When do you know you've reached your final chapter - when it's time to either seal the deal or break it off for good?

I guess for Samantha, a happily ever after is actually not a permanent state of existence within a relationship. She enjoys "the thrill of the chase," meaning meeting and sleeping with new men all the time. I think I'd put her break up in the "happily ever after" category because she'll probably be in a perpetual state of meeting, dating, and dumping men. In other words, that's her "end."

For me, though, it's a different story. Chasing someone is only fun for so long. So is dating someone, so is being single. Overall though, rotating through phases where life is defined by my relationships with a man are definitely a "miserably ever after," because I can define the chapters of my life in anyway I please, not necessarily on my relationships.

So the conclusion.... Maybe the chapter/fairy tale book analogy works in the fictitious world of Carrie Bradshaw, a writer, but for most of us, the sun does not rise and fall on our (lack of) significant other. I wonder what I should define my chapters by instead...

Fairy Tales as an Escape: "Pan's Labyrinth"

I was thinking about the lyrics that Greg posted last week, specifically the line “well you built up a world of magic because your real life is tragic.” When I was thinking about this line all by its self, it made me think of “Pan’s Labyrinth” and how the main character built up a world of magic as a way of coping with the harsh world around her. Granted, her magical world was rather scary at times (I still get all jumpy when she is running from the creepy monster with the eyes on its hands), but at least she has more power in her magical world. I don’t necessarily mean magical powers (she does have magical chalk though), but there are tasks that she can complete in order to achieve a greater goal and there is also a way for her to help her sick mother. Dealing with scary monsters that you actually have a chance of escaping from is better than having to cope with your mother’s illness that you have absolutely no control over in the real world. ***SPOILER*** And you can’t tell me that the ending where Ophelia is shot and murdered by her evil stepfather (for once it's not an evil stepmother!) is better than the fairy tale version where she is rewarded for protecting her brother: “And it is said that the Princess returned to her father's kingdom. That she reigned there with justice and a kind heart for many centuries. That she was loved by her people. And that she left behind small traces of her time on Earth, visible only to those who know where to look.” ***END SPOILER***

So basically my point is, sometimes a person can’t help that their life is tragic; there are some horrible events occurring around them that they have absolutely no control over. In these instances I can definitely understand turning to fairy tales as a form of escapism. Of course, “Pan’s Labyrinth” is a very extreme example. But I think that as long as people keep a firm grip on reality and don’t allow fairy tales to give them unrealistic expectations, there isn’t anything wrong with using fairy tales as a source of comfort or hope, or simply entertainment.

Here’s the trailer for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie. It sums up the power of fairy tales towards the end with the line, “In darkness, there can be light. In misery, there can be beauty. In death, there can be life.”

“The Spell Has Been Broken”

The 2010 Audi commercial, “The Spell,” sets up societal norms and conventions regarding car expectations as binding and constraining in order to promote the Audi brand as liberating and original. The first half of the minute-long commercial consists of stock characters of society who speak directly to the viewer about how they are supposed to want specific types of cars based on where they fit socially. The blank and unengaged expressions and tones with which they say this obviously hints that they are not satisfied with the way society has told them they should think. Suddenly an Audi drives by and the words “The spell has been broken” flash across the screen. All the characters’ faces light up as they see seemingly more exciting cars (all of which of course are Audis), and as the commercial would suggest they realize that there is more out there for them than what society has deemed appropriate and fitting.

Aside from the clear reference to magic in the use of the word “spell,” the concept of this commercial sheds an interesting light on the way society labels and determines certain things. If we relate such a notion to fairytales it could make sense to say something like, “All young girls aspire to be princesses because it is the norm of society.” Of course I know with this remark many people in our class would have a major issue, so I would just like to point out this is not my opinion but a way of thinking common to many people. It’s all about “fitting in” to the mold. I think it’s an essential point to realize the structure things like fairytales impose on our lives without the result being extremely blatant. The idea of breaking free from such a rigid system reminds me of fairytale satires, such as Shrek in which the hero is not the prince, as fairytales would normally have it, but the ostracized ogre living on the margins of society. In the case of the commercial, the characters long to live outside the box instead of following along with preconceived notions. The belief that the spell has been broken, however, is ironic because in the end it is still a car commercial trying to persuade viewers to buy a particular brand over another, thereby still following along with the socially accepted desire to own an attractive, chic vehicle.

Pink is for Battleships

In class on Tuesday, we discussed the social norms present in fairy tales and the effect they have on us. The feminist criticisms pointed to the stereotypical portrayal of women throughout popular fairy tales. During the discussion in class, we talked about girls wanting to be pretty princesses and such. I'm not entirely sure if anyone other than me mentioned the color pink used to identify girls from the moment they are born. I found an article/slideshow about the evolution of the color pink as a "feminine" color, and it fit almost perfectly within the impact of culture we were discussing.
Practical children’s clothing is often white or pale because of the frequent washings it is subjected to (children have always been messy little things). When color was used, pink used to be for boys, as it was a watered down version of red, a masculine color that invokes rage and passion. Girls would be dressed in blue to invoke the image of the Virgin Mary and because it was thought to be a calming color. The slideshows points out that the color pink was deemed an entirely female color after World War II, and this process was aided by feminists who instituted an antipink backlash. This backlash has now come full circle, as pink is the defining color of the breast cancer awareness movement.
The slideshow ends with a reference to "princess pink." But if we look back to fairy tales and even Disney movies, there is little to no mention of color or the use of pink as a purely feminine color. In fact, the only Disney princess with a pink dress is Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), and her dress is alternating between blue and pink at the end of the movie as the two fairies argue with one another. It did not become completely pink until the recent(ish) rash of Disney princess merchandise. I suspect even this was mostly out of convenience because Cinderella has a blue dress already. The color pink and the association with femininity (and princesses) is a cultural phenomenon, not something found in the female psyche. I believe this is the argument of Zipes in his introduction. Fairy tales, like the color pink, are a cultural phenomenon that forms our perception of the world around us. The feminist problem with the popular fairy tales of recent history is the "unfortunate" impact they have on the perception of women and their proper roles within a society.

http://www.slate.com/id/2245052/slideshow/2245085/fs/0//entry/2245067/

*I could not figure out how to embed the slideshow*

Valentine's Day

A bitterness similar to that found in a feminist retelling of a fairy tale struck me during the movie “Valentine’s Day” which I saw with a few of my girlfriends last week. Although I really did enjoy the movie, mostly for its humor and cute witty comments made by Ashton Kutcher, I found one scene in particular very troubling. I will try to depict the scene as best I can without spoiling the movie for those of you who still intend on seeing it. As you can guess, the entire film takes place on Valentine’s Day, on which there is tremendous pressure for romance put on the holiday. Jessica Beil’s character has thrown an “Anti-Valentine’s Day” party for anyone of her age who does not have plans on Valentine’s Day. So there they were, a bunch of single women in their late twenties wallowing in their sorrows together and ranting about how they have all been let down by men. They talked about how their day has been “ruined” because some man who they thought was their knight in shining armor let them down, and now they are alone on Valentine’s Day. It is not until the end of the party, when a friendly acquaintance turns into a love interest for Jessica Beil, that she finally becomes content again.

I found myself wishing I could enjoy this scene for its comedic relief, as the women thrashed the piñata pretending it was each of their exes, but unfortunately I could not because I was so distracted by the pathetic characterization of these women. In this film, Jessica Beil’s character is gorgeous, physically fit, and has a successful career. She should be confident, enjoying life, and having her pick of the litter as far as I’m concerned. But instead, she is depicted as miserable, running on the treadmill to burn off the calories of the chocolates she is simultaneously consuming, and desperate for a man to come into her life and save her from being alone and miserable. In this way, he film was sending out a rather odd message, I thought. Instead of empowering women to be strong, career-seeking individuals who have a mind of their own, it says the opposite. It’s saying, if you are a woman and a man hasn’t come to seek you out by the time you’re 28, then there must be something wrong with you.

To make matters worse, at the very moment that Jessica Beil’s character finally experienced her blossoming love, Taylor Swift ‘s “Today was a Fairy Tale” swooped in to overwhelm us all with romantic mush, suggesting that it can’t be a fairy tale until the woman has finally been found by her man. Thank you Hollywood, for reminding us that Taylor Swift really understands true love. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really DID enjoy this movie, but certain scenes such as this one were a bit troubling, and I had wished they’d done something more creative with the idea of Valentine’s Day than to show women wallowing over the absence of prince charming from their lives. However, maybe it was more of a feminist approach than I thought, as some of the characterization, in its cynical and realistic nature, was reminiscent of the feminist retelling of fairy tales.

Today's Reading - So True

In today's reading for class, Zipes goes through many different feminist retellings or new creations of fairy tales. Among all these different variations, he mentions at one point how, even to this day, much of our culture still exhibits remnants of fairy tale motifs. He specifically mentions movies in this. At first, I felt like this was a stretch, but last night as I was looking at my movie collection to see if this was true, I was surprised to find that his assertion was somewhat justified.
Many of the movies that I own that were released in recent years, and in particular comedies/romantic comedies, had one fairy tale motif in common - getting married and living happily ever after. Some of the most successful ones from recent years (American Wedding, Wedding Crashers, The 40 Year Old Virgin, etc.) all have this common theme. In each of them, the main couple always ends up coming through a ridiculous amount of drama, and once the wedding is completed, it is portrayed that the rest of their life will be nothing but bliss. I mean hey, why would it matter that Jeremy and John are lying about their identities, and have been for years, to have sex with as many women as possible at weddings? They seem like pretty upstanding guys. And hey, a guy has been lying to you about his reasons for not wanting to have sex with you (he never has) and is instead trying to make you think that he is just doing it out of respect for you (debatable). And American Wedding has too many issues to even list off here, but hey, once they're married everything is suddenly perfect.
While it is nice to think that this is how the real world works, in reality around half of all marriages end in divorce. While that shouldn't discourage someone from getting married, it is purely ignorant to think that suddenly all your worries go away. And I think most people know that. The fact that fairy tales can still have this much influence in pop culture was just surprising, and interesting, to me.

Are Disney's Fairytales Girly?

Disney has a new animated movie set to come out later this year that is based on the story of Rapunzel, and this was its original title (which is a very common trend in Disney movies), but it has since been changed to Tangled. From what I was able to find, this change was solely a marketing move made in order to give the movie a broader appeal. More specifically, they changed the name because what boy would want to go and see a movie which was named after a girl, who would obviously be the main character? I was also able to gather that Disney was trying to make it apparent that the male character has a very central role in the story.

I have never considered fairytales to be “girly” and even though there are stories where female characters are featured prominently, there are also stories focused on male characters (Pinocchio, Aladdin, The Lion King, Emperor’s New Groove, etc.). When I was little I saw all the Disney movies regardless of who the main character was, and I think that most of my male classmates did as well. I think that it may be the recent focus, and obsession, with Disney Princesses that has given Disney’s animated movies the stigma of being “girly” which they now must strive to get away from.

In class we have spent time talking about the audience that the authors intended for their fairytales, but only in regards to whether the target audience was adults or children. Now media has changed, and fairytales are often forced to pick a more specific target audience or find a way to broaden their appeal. Fairytales depicted in Disney movies are especially concerned with target audiences and use marketing to broaden the potential audience. It seems like this focus on target audiences and marketing is just another change that results from a story moving from one media (print) to another (video).

Fairytales from Grey's

While the mere mention that something intelligent may have come out of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy may make some people squirm, I find that in the two quotes from the episode “Save Me” from the show’s first season Meredith makes a good point about the way many people attempt to incorporate fairytales into their everyday lives. She describes how the transition from childhood to adulthood is coupled with the realization that you can’t always rely on fairytales to serve as models for life. She also points out that, regardless of the futility of holding onto a fairytale fantasy, most people still do not entirely give up their hope that their dreams will one day come true. In the final quote Meredith describes that it is often the case that reality is not exactly the perfect fairytale imagined but it can still be fulfilling.

The clichés are abundant, and the overall message still encourages viewers to hold onto whatever idealized reality they have imagined regardless of the fact that the happy ending is often not that easy to attain and maintain (as is clear by the fact that characters on shows like Grey’s often break up, get back together, and do everything in between in the meantime). I found the part about how people turn to things they can trust when they lose the support of a fairytale world interesting and potentially illuminating. Does it make sense to say that children who believe in fairytales draw support from the belief that life will follow the fairytale pattern? What then do adults lean on? I also think there is a greater sense of reality in the point that it is important to be happy in the present and not be so focused on the future and achieving the unattainable dream that you are unable to live in the moment and enjoy it for what it is now. Of course, it is undeniable that the writers of Grey’s cater to a specific (probably predominantly female) audience, so of course if the audience in mind calls for an uplifting end-tone to the episode that’s what they’re going to get.

Quotes:

Meredith Grey: You know how when you were a little kid and you believed in fairy tales, that fantasy of what your life would be, white dress, prince charming who would carry you away to a castle on a hill. You would lie in bed at night and close your eyes and you had complete and utter faith. Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Prince Charming, they were so close you could taste them, but eventually you grow up, one day you open your eyes and the fairy tale disappears. Most people turn to the things and people they can trust. But the thing is it’s hard to let go of that fairy tale entirely cause almost everyone has that smallest bit of hope, of faith, that one day they will open their eyes and it will come true.

Meredith Grey: At the end of the day faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don't really expect it. It’s like one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed. The castle, well, it may not be a castle. And it’s not so important happy ever after, just that it’s happy right now. See once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you, and once in a while people may even take your breath away.

Cinderfellas...?

http://nwitimes.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/article_f0610d59-60c5-5611-99dc-1119fc709ba5.html
We have been talking a lot about the conceptions of beauty as it pertains to this notion of the comprehensive identity of a woman. Marcia Lieberman in her lovely dissertation on feminism is quick to point this out noting, "beautiful girls are never ignored." Wow, this is so contrary to fact, you know, say in real life. Oh wait, it's not. In fact, there is a documented psychological bias known as the Halo Effect that describes this very phenomenon. Even more interesting is the fact that this is applicable to both MEN and WOMEN. "An alternative explanation for attractive people achieving more in life is that we automatically categorize others before having an opportunity to evaluate their personalities, based on cultural stereotypes which say attractive people must be intrinsically good, and ugly people must be inherently bad." However, I digress. I bring all of this up because a ballet in Chicago is currently challenging some of the traditional roles as they are played in fairy tales.
What is unique about this version of the classic Cinderella? Per the story, the ugly stepsisters are extremely ugly; however, this is taken to an extreme with men in drag portraying the classic roles. Thus, Cinderella is easily the choice sister emblematic of female virtue as the only female of the prospective prince's interests. My point in all of this is merely to comment that beauty as a virtue is not limited to either sex. We are quick to point out how all of the princesses are beautiful and that is their defining attribute. How are the men from fairy tales typically any different? Even those that start out ugly traditionally end up beautiful. Disney who is lambasted for his passive, merely beautiful princes does not fully develop his male characters to any great extent. They are similarly pretty faces in a crowd. In fact, in examining both traditional fairy tales and Disney fairy tales, one commonality emerges, a lack of character development. If we should indict the fairy tale creators or Disney for anything, it is for the generally flat seemingly stock characters that have no discernible personality. Fairy tale men are not interesting and neither are fairy tale women. They are both merely pretty pieces of decoration.

Are Fairy Tales to Blame?

I want to continue some of the thoughts that Maureen started about feminism and women in fairy tales. Maureen said:
"These women are the ideal and fit within the current popular definition of a beautiful desirable woman (although the fairy tales don't say anything about the size of Cinderella's chest and/or implants). Modern women devote a large part of their life trying to achieve the ideals that have been absorbed since childhood. The Cathy comic sums up the problem: a "fairy tale" life is unrealistic and unfulfilling for a modern woman."

Is it so wrong that women want to be attractive? I'm not really sure that this is a result of fairy tales so much as a result of anthropology, and I think we touched on this briefly in class. If you have taken a class with Professor McKenna, you have probably heard him harp on the idea that the things that men look for in a woman are very much represented in the "attractiveness" and looks of the woman. A healthy woman with a good hips to waist ratio means good reproductive capabilities. It's not to say that chest size (and other factors that play into attractiveness from culture to culture) is necessarily included in the anthropological calculation that men subconsciously make, but good skin, healthy weight and other outward proof of good health and reproductive abilities are definitely a result of more than just superficial cultural influences. (On that note, someone could discuss Matty's post and the anthropological factors that are important to women when choosing a mate...)

So back to being a modern woman. I think society has come to value more than just attractive women. Since we're in a class at a university, I would assume that the main concern is intelligent women... it might not be equivalent to the respect that intelligent men receive, but I think intelligent women have become much more respected. It is actually a fairly common fear among women that their attractiveness will make it difficult for them to be taken seriously in the business and/or academic world. In fact, many women have to downplay their femininity in order to feel as though they are on equal footing with men in the workplace.

Basically I think it comes down to things being relative... little girls might grow up thinking that they should be pretty and wear big pink dresses and be like a pretty princess (omg did anyone have that board game when they were little?! Pretty Pretty Princess? I just remembered it.), but for many people goals change as they grow up. And it can't be denied that attractiveness is important to women, but I think it's more about evolution and competition than superficiality.

So I heard another song this last week that immediately made me think of class (the first line is “Well she lives in the fairy tale”). The song was called “Brick by Boring Brick” and was by Paramore, an alternative rock/emo band. You can watch the video below … the song is definitely a commentary against the belief in a fairy tale romances. While Hayley Williams (the lead singer) is very much an emo singer and can be very dramatic, she has a point here. One line that is repeated several times through the song is “keep your feet on the ground when your head’s in the clouds.” This is obviously a warning not to get caught up in anything that seems too good to be true – it usually ends up letting you down. The chorus of the song is below:

Well go get your shovel
And we’ll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle.

It really adds to this theme of warning people against getting caught up in fairy tales – instead they should “bury the castle” and just live their lives. A later line, “well you built up a world of magic because your real life is tragic” pretty much sums it up. Some people can build up their perfect fairy tale romance in their heads and forget to live their real lives.

“Prince Charming’s Burden”: Why Fairytales Made Me Do P90X

Every girl in the class is going to hate me after this:

But first! Let me say that I love the feminist movement. It needs to work in the worst way. Both women and men have unbelievable pressure on them to look and act a certain way, and I’m sure Mina Loy is turning in her grave. In a socially equal society, maybe this pressure will be relieved, one can only hope. If for nothing else, I would prefer the social norms to change so that women start buying me drinks at the bar.

However, society and fairytales seem not be making any wholesale changes anytime soon. Therefore, there are a lot (not saying all) of women out there who will keep the mold of a “Prince Charming” as the guy they should be friendly with, date, and ultimately hunker down with.

Let me tell you how much this SUCKS for guys.

If a guy is to have a reasonable chance to get ANY girl, there is a lot of a Prince Charming criterion that needs to be filled. We’ve got to be able to make girls laugh and shave our man-beards cause they are “scratchy”. This is why we shop at J Crew (or at all). This is why we try not to yell at the TV during Celtics games. We suffer through MTV reality shows so we can go to parties and say, “Oh that Snookie, she’s such a (insert derogatory label here)!” We writhe in pain and watch P90X’s Tony Horton entertaining the thought of f***ing his own reflection so we can have bigger biceps (I’m on Day 2).

Not because WE like it, but because GIRLS like it, and that’s what a Prince Charming is supposed to be like. It’s part biological, but it's mostly society telling women that if he doesn’t have a Roth IRA and look like Team Jacob without his shirt, he’s not right. It goes both ways, guys everywhere are fruitlessly searching for their very own Heidi Klum. EITHER WAY, IT'S WRONG, but it’s how it is.

After about ten years of distance running, I can confidently say that most women do not gravitate to sarcastic, 135-pound guys that prance around in their underwear. Call me shallow, sexist, or cynical, but you have to agree there is a reason they call them “jersey chasers” and not “short-shorties”. Well, I'm retired now. So if you’ll excuse me, Tony Horton and I have to spend some “Ab-Ripper-X” quality time together.

T. Horton at his douchiest:

From a Five Year Old

I was at a loss for what to blog about today, so I called up my five-year-old cousin, Audrey. This child is definitely the light and the love of my life... that's really irrelevant to this post, but I wanted to put it out there anyway. Audrey and I (another irrelevant fact: we're both named for our grandma), had a nice conversation about fairy tales. I asked her to name a few and she mentioned Sleeping Beauty, and said that was her favorite. She also mentioned The Lion King, Cars, and "Ariel."

At this point, I realized that Audrey was not naming fairy tales, but rather she was naming Disney movies. I asked her if she'd ever read a fairy tale and she named off the same list of titles, implying that all of her fairy tale books are Disney movies written, illustrated, and bound (which they are, I know this because I've read each one to her countless times). From there, I wanted to test some of the topics brought up in class, such as whether or not fairy tales affect young girls' world views (this is especially relevant as we move into a discussion about feminist retellings and criticism of fairy tales). I asked Audrey what her favorite parts of the movies were, to which she responded, "Pretty dresses and crowns." Her least favorite part, she says, is "that there has to be a bad guy... they're weird and kind of scary." After a little prodding from me, Audrey told me that although good guys are both boys and girls, bad guys are almost always girls, except in "Jasmin."

I then asked her a very gender-pointed question, "Who is the hero of the fairy tales?" For The Lion King she responded Simba, which was no surprise. For Cinderella she mentioned the fairy godmother, which did kind of surprise me. For "Ariel" and Sleeping Beauty she called the princes the heroes.

As I reread Audrey's answers to my questions three things become apparent. To her, "fairy tale" = "Disney movie," and the title of the movie is synonymous with the princess's name. Also, she seems to fall victim to the various stereotypes found in fairy tales that are criticized by this week's readings (and some members of the class), that women are portrayed as oppressed by other women and passive, while men are portrayed as the heroes. Although Audrey loves Disney movies and "pretty dresses and crowns," I hesitate to say that she has been lead to believe false things about the real world from these media. Audrey is incredibly intelligent, independent (by a five-year-old's standards), and has a vivid imagination.

In conclusion, I think that my interview questions were biased toward Audrey being a five-year-old girl. I could have asked her what she thinks about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Packers, and Bernie Brewer (all also big entertainment staples in her household). Instead, I asked questions that I knew the answers to, and neglected to ask questions that would assess the impact of literature and movies on Audrey's life in a balanced, accurate way. I fell victim to the common assumption that sexist themes in fairy tales permeate the minds of young children, especially girls, and neglected to consider the variety of pop culture influences that Audrey experiences on a daily basis. As some proof that Audrey is not 100% consumed by Disney princesses, I included this picture of her from Halloween. She is dressed as Super Girl, who is arguably the opposite of the passive, oppressed Disney princesses.

A Feminist Fairy Tale Cartoon

This Cathy comic strip ran in the Chicago Tribune and other national newspapers last week. The comic pertains exactly to what we are discussing this week in class. In the comic, the sales woman is trying to sell Cathy the latest and greatest fountain of youth. Cathy asks what happens when it wears off, and the sales woman's response directly relates to Cinderella. The idea is that fairy tales offer unrealistic ideas to girls, and those ideas carry over into actions within adulthood. Cinderella is forever a youthful, beautiful blonde who captures the heart of the handsome prince. The beauty industry sells this idea through the constant barrage of wrinkle removers and other rather frightening products that have even more frightening side effects (no discoloration of my eyes and random hair growth for me, thanks).

Feminist criticism of literary fairy tales centers around this exact idea. Women in popular fairy tales are passive, youthful, beautiful, dutiful and prudish women. These women are the ideal and fit within the current popular definition of a beautiful desirable woman (although the fairy tales don't say anything about the size of Cinderella's chest and/or implants). Modern women devote a large part of their life trying to achieve the ideals that have been absorbed since childhood. The Cathy comic sums up the problem: a "fairy tale" life is unrealistic and unfulfilling for a modern woman.

Perspective and Fairy Tales

So while I was googling various topics that we discussed in class, I stumbled upon the “Proppian Fairy Tale Generator v1.0.” This tool allows you to select the different Proppian functions, click generate, and voila! You have a fairy tale! If you keep the same functions selected and click generate again, the story changes a little bit, or you can change the functions up and get a totally different story. You can even select some preset fairy tale story lines on the side of the page, such as “Cinderella” or “Hansel and Gretel” and the generator will automatically select the correct functions for you. As I read some of these different stories, something seemed wrong (I mean aside from the huge story gaps). At first I couldn’t quite figure out what it was…but the stories generated definitely did not seem like fairy tales to me as I read them.

I finally realized that all of the fairy tales we have read so far in class are written from the 3rd person perspective whereas the stories created by the “Proppian Fairy Tale Generator v1.0” are all from the 1st person perspective. So my question is, why did this different narrative voice make these fairy tales feel so wrong? Previously I was not consciously aware of this aspect of the fairy tales we have read so what is the big deal? I think that this perhaps has to do with the common “Once Upon a Time” feeling of fairy tales; the sense that they occurred at some indeterminate time in the past and in a magical place. Putting fairy tales in the 1st person definitely diminishes this effect and makes the stories seem less surreal.

Even though this is not an instance of differing cultures, I think that this also demonstrates what we were talking about in class in terms of understanding things better by looking at “the other.” I'm not sure it would have occurred to me that the 3rd person narrative was such an important aspect of the fairy tales we have read so far if I had not read these “other” fairy tales that the “Proppian Fairy Tale Generator v1.0” came up with.

Annie Leibovitz - Disney Dream Portrait Series

These photographs make up a series released in various parts over the past few years done by a very famous photographer named Annie Leibovitz. The series is called the Disney Dream Portrait series, and it recreates Disney's classic fairy tales using famous celebrities. The people in these photographs range from people like Scarlett Johansson (Cinderella), David Beckham (Prince Phillip), Gisele Bündchen (Wendy), and Tina Fey (Tinkerbell) to Julie Andrews (the Blue Fairy), Michael Phelps (a Merman?) and Whoopi Goldberg (the Genie). These photos display intricate detail and a lot of neat special effects. I found them a few years ago online and have been really interested ever since, whenever a new installment came out. These ads appear in magazines for women, such as Vogue, which indicates that they are geared toward an adult audience. This is interesting because it seems as though the aim of these photographs is to re-create in adults their love for Disney and fairy tales in general. It is an attempt by Disney to draw the wives and mothers into the idea of taking their children to Disneyworld, to reinforce their advertising geared towards children. In using beautiful or very famous celebrities as the characters and including such phrases as “Where every Cinderella story comes true” and “Where you’re the fairest of them all”, Disney is attempting to make Disneyworld appear inviting to adults and especially to women. The Disney princesses or heroines are portrayed by very beautiful women – Scarlett Johansson, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Biel, Gisele Bündchen, Jennifer Lopez, and Beyonce – which mirrors the way Disney portrays women in their cartoon films as well. It is really interesting to see or think of the cartoon versions of these images that are geared towards children and then compare that to the real-life version directed towards adults, and to note the changes that have been made. Also, the choice to use real people and real locations also sends the message that in Disneyworld, these fairy tales are real, and that the adventures and the fairy tale endings that happen to Disney's princesses could truly happen to you. While these photographs are very beautiful to look at, it is also extremely interesting to study Disney’s intentions behind them.

Influence in Interior Design

One of my many eclectic hobbies is searching for the latest trends and styles in architecture and interior design. The main blog that I follow is called Freshome.com, and out of curiosity I looked up whether or not there were any articles that were related to fairytales. The two main categories of articles that popped up were:

1. little girl bedroom decorations such as castle beds and princess-esque rooms, and

2.sculpted furniture that related to fairytales through their wood/nature/elf-inspired designs

Take a look...

"“these beautiful play beds reminding of childhood fairytales…are meant to stir up the imagination of young ladies and cause them a delightful transition into dream land….The mini-castles feature classic story elements but also practical parts, such as shelving systems and other types of storage spaces. For little girls, having their own private castle is probably their biggest wish. However, the prices for these designs are really steamy, some of the beds costing of $20,000, which makes us reevaluate the latter sentence and advise parents to come up with alternative ways of stimulating creativity and imagination.”

"When I look at these chairs they seem to be from a fairytale, a king elf throne, or something"

If you're interested in more of this kind of stuff, check out the page at:

http://freshome.com/?s=fairy+tale

These articles give us yet another example of the influence of fairytales in our culture today. Fairytales have gone as far as to inspire the styles of furniture that may be in our own homes! First, we have castle beds meant for stimulating the creativity little girls. It is interesting to note that the designs of these beds emphasize the previously mentioned "girlyness" of fairytales; the castles are pink and cream-colored, the ambiance is light and bright, the sheets on the bed are made of satin, the bed is surrounded by innocent forest creatures, and each feature a tall winding staircase. Aside from the outrageous prices, these beds are over-extravagant and reek of "spoiled child". But hey, for $20,000 they come with storage spaces.

The second category of articles were composed of mostly wood-based furniture designs. Their descriptions included inspiration from elves, fairies, and dwarves. It actually please me to see these articles, because they focus on an aspect of fairytales that are generally overlooked in popular culture. We commonly think of princesses and romance when discussing fairytales, but most tales are centered around magical and otherworldly characters such as talking animals. These characters often guide and aid the protagonists of fairytales and are essential, if not more important parts of these stories.

On a more positive note, the fact that interior design has taken a page from the creativity of fairytales highlights the aspect of "escapism and fantasy" in the fairytales that we read. Some fairytales evoke a sense of nationalism in the reader, and others may be written as ethnographic studies of certain cultures. But, the fairytales from our childhood primarily allowed us to escape into wonderful new worlds, and we shouldn't forget that.

Who is prince charming?

http://www.dramacrazy.net/japanese-drama/yamato-nadeshiko-shichi-henge-episode-3/
(the part that I'm referecing to in my post is from 5:42 to 6:50)

I was watching this Japanese drama online the other day, and there was this scene where a shy, plain looking female character was set up by her friend to go on a blind date with a guy whom she has a huge crush on. When her friend left the two of them alone, the girl started daydreaming away, imagining herself as a snow white and her crush as a prince charming who was offering to escort her safely to her grandmother’s house. They both were dressed in ridiculous costumes, so at first I just found this really silly. But soon it struck me as really odd. I had never given a thought about what my idea of prince charming is before.
As we can see from the video clip, the costumes the actors wore were very distinctively Disney’s snow white, and the lines clearly referencing to the western fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood. Most importantly, they were playing out characters borrowed from western fairy tale, with the boy wearing a blonde wig and westernized clothes. If this drama is targeting school-aged Japanese girls, why is it incorporating the fairy tale themes that are so absurdly and distinctly Western?
Although Disney versions of western fairy tales are prevalent in my culture, I didn’t watch TV very much until I got older, so I grew up being relatively less influenced by Disney movies (By the way, I was born and raised in Korea ;p) When I try to visualize what the female characters from western fairy tales look like, however, I still come up with the stereotypical, Disney version of princesses like Cinderella or Snow White. The same goes for the princes. When I think about “prince charming,” I find myself associating the particular word with a handsome Caucasian male. Maybe it’s a cultural thing, so I turn the switch off and start thinking about “a prince riding a white horse,” a commonly used phrase that has equivalent meaning as “prince charming” in Korean. Again, a handsome “white” man coming to save a miserable but beautiful “white” princess on a white horse. I can’t help but wonder what is our (if not just my) typical stereotype of prince charming and why is this the way it is?

Long Cat is LOOOOONNGGG

Because no one got the joke today, I thought I'd take it upon myself to enlighten you all. These images are from the popular (or so I thought) blog, http://icanhascheezburger.com/ an affiliate of failblog.org .

American Dream= Fairytale

Video, because ESPN is a jerk and won't let you embed...

This is a story about Sasha Doran, who is an 18 year old high school football player in Minnesota. What makes his story so special is the fact that when he was six, he ran away from his home in St. Petersburg due to an abusive father. He lived in the streets for about a year before he was found and taken to an orphanage where he reunited with his two sisters, who he no longer recognized.

In 2001, he and his two sisters, were adopted by John and Mary Ellen Doran. When they went to Russia to meet their new children, John brought a football with him. Sasha loved the gift but didn't understand why someone would want an oblong shaped ball. In May 2002, they finally moved to Minnesota with the Dorans. He didn't know any English when he arrived. One of the ways in which Sasha learned English was through sports, football especially. He ended up falling in love with the game.

Now he is a high school junior and the starting quarterback for Wayzata. He took his team to the state quarter finals but ended up losing. With the help of ESPN, Sasha returned to the orphanage where he lived for a few years before he was adopted. He took toys and hope to the children who were living there. His sister Elena describe his journey from being a runaway to being a starting quarterback at Wayzata as a fairytale and the American Dream. Sasha himself describes it as the American Dream.

Elena's labeling of the American Dream as a fairytale is kind of fitting. It does take the shape of a classic rise tale. One of the differences between a fairytale and the American Dream story would be the fact that in a fairytale the transformation is usually the result of magic or of great luck. I guess you could say for Sasha's story it was a case of luck that the Dorans adopted him and his sisters, but in the traditional American Dream story, such as Abraham Lincoln or Ben Franklin, it is through hard work and acting for oneself that one achieves their meteoric rise.

Elena could have also been calling the American Dream a fairytale, because for her, who didn't grow up in this country, if she had heard this story, she probably would have thought of it as just that, a story. I think for Americans we don't really see the American Dream as a fairytale because we have seen or read so many examples of it that it almost seems natural for it to happen to us. A fairytale is something that entertains and is just made up. For those children growing up in a Russian orpahanage, the American Dream may seem like that. Its was an interesting perspective of the classic American Dream story and one that puts it into a cultural context.

Is There Ever a True Fairytale Ending?

Every year, Europe holds a continent-wide competition to determine which country can produce the best musical performance, with as many as 40 to 50 countries competing. This past year, the above performance was the winner (it also set a competition record for highest point total ever): Alexander Rybak's "Fairytale", courtesy of Norway. Although many of us may not find the song to be that great, its treatment of the idea of a fairytale strikes me as a interesting commentary on just how obsessed people today can become with wanting their lives to be a fairytale. With people insisting on everything from "dream weddings" to the Princess-inspired engagement ring line we saw in class, the idea of the fairytale live has taken over our way of life. And while that might not be a horrible thing in and of itself, the song does a wonderful job of illustrating the negative effects that come hand-in-hand with an obsession for perfection, particularly in the song's chorus:

I'm in love with a fairytale
Even though it hurts.
'Cause I don't care if I lose my mind
I'm already cursed

Alexander shows us that seeking after the fairytale not only may cause pain, but it truly leaves us cursed. Understandably, people want the best in life. And yet, the curse of seeking the perfection is that, without knowing it, we may just pass up the best in life. Everyone is seeking that perfect fairytale, but perhaps they should recall Madame D'Aulnoy's tale The Ram. After all, not every fairytale has a wonderful and happy ending.

I Can Only Hope They Were Stoned...

http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-white-castle-wedding,0,45021.story
Given the preponderance of girls in our fairy tales class, it should come as no surprise how many either have been enchanted by or utterly opposed to the so-called construct of the fairy tale wedding. In a recent story that could only stem from the classy state of New Jersey (fist pump for the Jersey Shore and beating up the beat), the latest example of a fairy tale has come to light in the form of a “White Castle Wedding.” By its nomenclature, a “White Castle Wedding” would seem to suggest the beautiful and elegant world of Disney princes and princesses with magic in the air. Of course, those familiar with one of the finest teenage/stoner comedies of recent years (Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) would know otherwise. That’s correct. Two people got married at White Castle, a restaurant known for its small burgers called sliders and fries. I can only suppose that McDonald’s wasn’t open or was potentially too high class of an establishment. The now happily married couple (coming to a trailer park near you) were married on Valentine’s Day as a result of winning a radio contest where the illustrious DJ Chunky served as best man. In the accompanying article, the groom is even described by his new bride as her “Prince Charming.” If the fact that this institution of marriage can be defiled by both a radio contest and took place in a fast food restaurant bothers you, then I suppose you are shaped by those ridiculous fantasies of love that, of course, are propaganda of Walt Disney and fairy tales. Hint: That was sarcasm.
To the lovely couple’s credit, they do seem to be extremely in love as expressed by the bride’s statement that she was “thrilled to be marrying the love of my life. I would marry him anywhere.” Good for you, sweetie. I can only assume you will thoroughly class things up and head down to the Jersey Shore for your honeymoon as I hear the Motel 8 is accepting reservations and now has 32 cable channels including HBO! I am not saying that life has to be rainbows and butterflies and grand romantic gestures, but honestly you got married at a f*$@ing White Castle. Seriously? You are going to tell your kids and grandkids that you got married at a White Castle. Even if I am one of the few left in the world, count me in for a meticulously planned, utterly gorgeous fairy tale wedding…that does not involve cheap burgers and the accompanying diarrhea.

Alice In Wonderland - Following the Spirit of Disney?

Alice in Wonderland is set to be released in theaters on March 5th. I for one can not remember any other time in my life (at least not since I was a very young child) that I have been so excited for the release of a Disney movie. Following in the similar footsteps of Avatar, it will be released in 3D as well as shown in Imax theaters. After experiencing the visual phenomenon of Avatar, I'm anticipating a similar experience with Alice. Not to mention Johnny Depp...he is just the man in somewhat twisted, goofy roles.
The more I think about this movie, however, the more I realize it is jsut the latest development in the tradition of Disney movies, namely, to push the envelope with more technological developments. As Walt Disney himself so proudly and vainly exhibited in the early years, Disney is attempting to keep one step ahead of the curve, this time with stunning 3D used to portray "real" human beings along with animated characters.
I can't help but wonder what Walt Disney would think about this latest development. For him, the inventions of smoother animation, color animation, sound, talking, etc. were the sources of his greatest pride. Would he see this as yet another proud development that stems from his creative legacy, or a corruption of the animated movie? Perhaps most controversial in his mind would be the use of actual human beings in an "animated" movie. While most people, including myself, know the basic plot line of Alice in Wonderland, I know the prospect of seeing it with real humans is far more exciting than a reproduction of the older versions with simply better graphics for the animation. I would like to think that he would perhaps feel the same way, but I can't help but doubt that perhaps he would see this as a move away from the true spirit of animated Disney movies.

"A Dustland Fairytale": Why Taylor Swift Should Go To Rehab

This past summer, the Killers song “A Dustland Fairytale” hit the airwaves. I’m not a huge Killers fan, but the imagery in this song is hard to overlook:

The scene sets two white trash kids in a 1960's trailer park, an “American Prince” and a “Cinderella in a party dress”. She’s looking for her prince charming, and finds him with his “smooth brown hair and foolish eyes”. They fall in love. She says “she always knew he would come around”. They are poor, but they’ve got faith (“God gives us hope”). Happy ending, cue credits, start writing acceptance speech for Kanye to cut...

Not so fast: “I saw the ending when I turned the page”. Trailer park Romeo takes their money and runs off, so much for prince charming. We hear about a place where “the dreams are high”, but "the good girls die”. Singer Brandon Flowers asks Cinderella, “is there still magic in the midnight sun?” He admonishes the dejected princess, “I wouldn’t dream so high”.

Reality, cold and true. Flowers reminds us that fairytales are just well-conceived fiction.

Look at it from the other perspective: everyone has heard Taylor Swift’s ballads about fairytales finishes (“Love Story”, “You Belong With Me”). Yawn. This coming from a person whose only adversity in life comes when the air is too humid for her hair. It’s pretty easy to write about happy endings when your entire life has been a fairytale. Talent (check). Looks (check, albeit, sort of like an alien). Fame, fortune, and respect (check). She’s the one in a bajillion.

Taylor shouldn’t be allowed to write about fairytales till she’s seen it from the other side. Let her have a terrible relationship. Let her fade into ambiguity for a while. Let her get friendly with Lindsay Lohan at a coke party and find herself in rehab. Give her ANY real glimpse of REALITY. Would she be singing the same tune?

Point is, don’t get our hopes up, Tay Tay. Fairytales are often criticized for building people up for something that just does not happen, and this is no different. I’m not saying happy endings don’t happen, just that we should consider our sources.

Depressing? Maybe. More realistic? Rock on. You got to grow up sometime.

"A Dustland Fairytale"

A Real Life Fairy tale: Happily Ever After...then what?

For a class, we were required to watch a film that depicted historical events in an entertaining way. I decided to watch a personal favorite “The Queen” starring Dame Helen Mirren. The movie depicts the life of The Queen and the Royal Family dealing with the week following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

The movie uses actual footage and interviews that were on British television during that week. One piece of footage is retelling the story of the wedding between Prince Charles and then Lady Diana Spencer. In the footage the commentator says how many people viewed this as a fairytale wedding. If I were to pick an event that most resembled a fairytale, I would agree that it would be this wedding. Diana was a “commoner” when she married the heir to the throne of the United Kingdom and became Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. However, the Happily Ever After is missing from this fairytale. This story ended in adultery, divorce, and the tragic death of Princess Diana in the summer of 1997.

Thinking about this made me wonder what happened in the fairytales after the final sentence. What happened after the ride off to the castle, what happened after Happily Ever After? Is Cinderella still content with Prince Charming, or has the magic died? Is Snow White still with her prince or is she again living single in a house full of dwarves? People seem to throw around the word fairytale wedding, but never fairytale marriage. Before one goes and compares their lives, or the lives of others to fairytales, consider what happens after the magic of the fairytale ends and the reality of life begins.

I was listening to the radio the other day when I heard a song referencing fairy tales. I heard “This Kiss” by Faith Hill (yes, I am a fan of country music). I was amazed at the fact that I have heard this song many times, but never noticed the reference to fairy tales. It really shows how fairy tales (even the classic tales we’ve been reading) have permeated our culture. The part of the song that stood out for me was this:

Cinderella said to Snow White
"How did love get so off course?
All I wanted was a white knight
With a good heart, soft touch, fast horse.
Ride me off into the sunset,
Baby I'm forever yours"

Now, this is obviously a misrepresentation and artistic take on the stories. Both Cinderella and Snow White do ride off into the sunset with their respective “white knight.” Maybe Faith Hill took these artistic liberties to relate to her audience more. Maybe she wanted to appeal to the many women who wanted a fairy tale romance, but hadn’t found one yet. I don’t know. I do find it fairly interesting that this popular country song refers to two popular fairy tales, but portrays frustrations that do not exist in the stories. You can listen to the song here if you'd like...

Prince Charming?

After a perfect Valentine's weekend with my boyfriend (my real-life prince charming), I debated what an appropriate blog topic would be for class. I thought about the fairy tale character of "prince charming" and how he was never what I wanted when I was growing up. Every prince in my fairy tale books and in Disney movies seemed so boring. They never had personalities, they were just pretty boys with geeky combed hair who showed up at the right time. I always wanted a strong, brave, tough kind of guy... definitely NOT one who looked like he walked out of a Broadway makeup room.

To get a bigger picture of what was out there, I looked up "prince charming" online. The experts at wikipedia gave me this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Charming

Not a whole lot of information, but notice that he's called a "stock character" and it is noticed that he isn't developed very much. This is an interesting addition to our discussion about women in fairy tales being passive; in fact, the men seem flat and somewhat passive as well. Just because Snow White's prince came along and kissed her doesn't really make him much of a hero. Even when the prince does do something semi-heroic, he's more of a function than a character. The female protagonist has to be saved, so he shows up to do the saving.

As a female who grew up with fairy tales, I was never confident that the standard prince charming was what I wanted...I wasn't blindly convinced that just because all of the fairy tales I read provided a perfect, boring, coiffed guy that he was the ideal man.

So, to sum it all up:

The "Who got the better end of the deal?" Game

Also known as the Beauty and the Beast game. We all do it subconsciously. Joe Jackson's refrain "Is she really going out with him?" hits it on the head (though sometimes it's the other way around). While we generally think a cute girl ends up with the studly guy, this isn't always the case. I could point out some pairs at Notre Dame, but to avoid controversy i'll stick to celebrity couples. Beyonce and Jay-Z immediately come to mind. I love Hova, but Beyonce is at another level. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas fit the bill as well. And perhaps the "King" of the beasts is Hugh Hefner, but I suppose there are other things at play in that situation.

So what leads people to decide to date "below their potential". Almost every story we've read thus far ends with two virtuous GOOD LOOKING people together. Maybe since fairytales were first written (or told) we've realized there are more important things than the appearance of our significant other. But isn't this counterintuitive to the general public opinion that too much emphasis is placed on physical appearance? So which is it? Do you think we care more or less about looks today?

An Original Fairy Tale from Phoenix, Arizona

Once upon a time, there was a lovely maiden, who lived with her father and stepmother. After some time, the young girl, through little fault of her own, was banished to a small room in the house. The young maiden’s father frequently beat her with metal rods and forced her to exercise until exhaustion. The maiden spent all her nights sleeping on the cold, tiled floor covered in a thin blanket. She regularly disposed of her bodily waste in a 5 gallon bucket. After two months, the maiden hatched a plan. She would escape to the attic of the house, climb out the window, and ride her bike to safety. On the fourth day of the second calendar month of the year, the maiden carried out her plan. She rode her bike to a nearby movie theatre, where she received $50 dollars from a concerned couple. Then, she rode approximately 13 miles to a shopping center and bought water, food, a backpack, and clothes. Finally, the girl rode to a small coffee shop and asked the kindly owners to call the police.

This true tale happened in Phoenix, Arizona. On February 4, 2010, the 14 year old “maiden” escaped from the bathroom of her parent’s house. As of February 11th, Scott and Andrea Bass, the maiden’s parents, told investigators that they locked the young girl in the bathroom because she stole food from their kitchen and cheated on a home-school test. This story immediately jumped out to me as a fairy tale for a variety of reasons: 1). The maiden is persecuted under false or unreasonable claims; 2). The stepmother (possibly) tricked or deceived the birth father into turning against his own daughter; 3). The maiden eventually escapes (though typically she is aided by handsome prince or another helper); 4). The maiden meets a donor (or two in this case) and receives some assistance; and 5). The villains are apprehended and, hopefully, punished. This tale is a classic restoration tale. However, to what degree is the maiden restored to her earlier status in society? Though physically, the young girl may be restored, she may never recover fully in terms of her mental and emotional health. This is one aspect that is rarely covered in fairy tales. To what degree is Rapunzel scarred from her secluded life in the tower? Does Little Red Riding Hood experience night terrors from her encounter with the wolf? If these emotional/psychological issues were discussed, fairy tales in the US would often end with the following phrase: “and the doctors believed she would live happily ever after, as long as she continually met with her psychiatrist and took her prescribed medication.” Though truthful, this ending would hardly satisfy most readers. As a result, the common phrase “happily ever after” predominates, allowing readers to believe that even if one suffers a horrendous experience, he or she will be “normal” and free from anxiety, depression, or other mental disorders. What are the consequences of this belief on modern American society?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123594091

Pretty Woman aka Cinderella aka Julia Roberts

This classic Julia Roberts film, in which Roberts plays a prostitute in Los Angeles, tells an archetypical Cinderella story combined with a modern version of "My Fair Lady." The film portrays Vivian, Roberts' character, as Cinderella and Edward, played by Richard Gere, as the prince. The audience may also see Roberts herself as a modern version of Cinderella, due to Americans' obsession with celebrities.

For those who have not seen this film, here is a brief synopsis: Vivian, a prostitute, is "picked up" in Los Angeles by Edward Lewis, a rich business man in a fancy, expensive car. He takes her to a lavish hotel and offers to pay her to accompany him to various social events with his colleagues in LA. Vivian agrees to help Edward, undergoes a makeover from tramp to sophisticated lady, and falls in love with her benefactor. Edward, similarly, undergoes an internal makeover as Vivian calls attention to his sketchy business practices and work-laden lifestyle, and falls in love with Vivian.

As Vivian is undergoing her transformation and falling in love with Edward, she is visited by her friend and fellow prostitute, Kit. Vivian tells Kit about Edward, and complains that there's no way her situation will end well. She lists some of the beautiful things that Edward has bought her and asks Kit something like, "who gets all of that and everything she wants?" To this Kit replies, "I dunno.... Cinderella!?"

At the end of the movie (spoiler alert), Vivian returns to her run-down apartment and former way of life. Edward come to profess his love to her in a white limo, using an umbrella as a sword, and holding a bouquet of flowers. He climbs the fire escape to Vivian's window, kisses her, and tells her that he loves her. This scene was previously described to Edward by Vivian, when he offered to put her up in a penthouse in New York City and she refused. She told him that the "fairy tale" didn't consist of Cinderella being put into a fortress to wait for her prince, but the prince rescuing Cinderella from the fortress on a white horse (or limo in this case).

Interestingly, Vivian's description of a true Cinderella tale comes completely true - down to the white horse. The audience of the film might also see Roberts herself as a Cinderella figure (in a very general sense) because of her rise to stardom, marriage to Daniel Moder, and twin children. She appears to be living a modern version of "happily ever after," working on her successful career and enjoying her family life.

Here's the end scene (edited to play the song "Pretty Woman" in place of the dialogue, but you get the idea...)

Sleeping Beauty a Prostitute?

Next month, production will begin on a Julia Leigh’s modern take on “Sleeping Beauty.” What I think is so interesting about this upcoming version of the fairy tale is that it is nothing like Disney’s romanticized version that is clearly targeted to children. It will use the sexual and darker aspects of “Sun, Moon, and Talia.” Actually, it makes these components of the story much more prominent and extreme.

This new take on the old tale will certainly not be for children. There are no wicked fairies in this version of the story that put the title character under a curse. So what exactly happens to this girl to make her a sleeping beauty? Actually, she turns herself into a sleeping beauty, intentionally and repeatedly. The main character is a student who turns to prostitution to pay her bills. Her specialty as a prostitute is catering to men with a fetish for having intercourse with sleeping women who can’t remember anything afterward. The protagonist brings her customers to a “sleeping beauty chamber” where she drugs herself. People discussing what is known about the plot online comment that they are not sure how it relates to the fairy tale of the same name. Clearly, they have not read the version where the title character is raped while sleeping. I was not able to find any information indicating if Julia Leigh is actually familiar with “Sun, Moon, and Talia.” It will be very interesting to see how this version of the story ends and if it has any other similarities with the fairy tale.

http://www.cinematical.com/2010/02/10/emily-browning-will-be-a-sleeping-beauty-for-hire/

Modern Princess

As Cameron Diaz labels it, there is definitely a “new breed of princess” in the world today. In a Cameron Diaz Shrek 3 ad regarding the new and improved style of Princess Fiona in the Shrek series, Diaz explains how once princesses were thought to be prim and proper but now they have become independent, capable, and strong women (of course, as she says). “It’s not all crowns and gowns anymore,” says Diaz. In an interview with the actresses who provided the voices of the princesses in Shrek 3, the actresses state that the message of the fearless, fighting, no-longer-damsels-in-distress princesses is one of empowerment. Girls should come away from the film with the confidence that they don’t need to wait around to be rescued-they can do it for themselves.

In an age and society in which gender is not considered an issue that should be debilitating, it makes sense to afford female characters traditionally understood to be passive and in need of rescue a very different role in the twisted Dreamworks version of a fairytale. I’m sure many people were very happy to see girls dressed up as Princess Fiona at Halloween instead of Cinderella or Belle. It is interesting to consider the extent of the development of the fairytale’s involvement in modern culture and society. Some people are so concerned with bestowing the true ideas on life and reality on the youth, while others try to keep the harsh realities of the world at bay for their children as long as possible. I think it is definitely a positive influence on young audiences to have a strong heroine who actually takes care of herself. At the same time, I don’t think that means we need to throw all the other princesses and female characters out the window.

Fox News: A "Real-Life" Sleeping Beauty

I found this incredible news item online about a “real life” sleeping beauty. A 15-year old girl in the UK was recently diagnosed with Kleine-Levin syndrome, which is an EXTREMELY rare neurological disorder that causes one to sleep for days without waking up. Only about 500 people in the world have it, and doctors do not know the cause of this condition. The only suggested treatment is familial support. The longest people with the disorder have been known to sleep without waking up is EIGHTY DAYS. Seriously, look this stuff up online, the numbers are crazy.

The girl featured in this particular video, Louisa Ball, has been asleep for as long as 13 days. When she wakes, she tries to eat and bathe herself, and she describes herself as generally being very “out of it”. Fox News has dubbed her as a real-life “sleeping beauty” and has slapped their name, “Sleeping Beauty Syndrome”, on the disorder.

I thought this article was relatable to class not only due to the headline of the story, but also due to the fact that this disorder is a serious medical condition that negatively affects one’s life and does not end with a handsome prince at one’s waking. Upon further research of this condition, it is widely recognized by those with this condition that sleeping for days (although it may seem appealing to college students) is a huge deterrent to a normal life. Men and women usually develop deep depression when they are awake, and many are only awake for a couple hours a day.

Giambattista Basile’s “Sun, Moon, and Talia” is a version of Sleeping Beauty that brings reward to the protagonist. Perrault’s idyllic Sleeping Beauty in the Wood maps out a journey of sweet and true love. The Princess ends up with a perfect life with an honorable and valiant prince. Those diagnosed with Kleine-Levin syndrome will certainly not wake up to a fairytale ending. Huge chunks of one’s life will be missed due to sleep. Life around us does not halt as it does in some Sleeping Beauty tales.

A story like Louisa Ball’s is quite the opposite of a fairytale, yet both share the same story title. This only enforces the fantastic nature of fairytales and emphasizes why fairytales do not match up with real life. Are fairytales to blame for promoting far from real life scenarios? Of course not. But perhaps Fox News is to blame for choosing such an ironic headline.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/health-15749655/real-life-sleeping-beauty-tells-tale-18048539

Alice Kim, a modern Cinderella?

In 2004, Actor Nicolas Cage tying the knot for the third time made the headlines of tabloid magazines. Even in my home country Korea, the actor’s wedding was one of the “it” Hollywood events of the year. And behind the story making front pages of every gossip magazines, there was Alice Kim, Cage’s allegedly 20 years younger bride who was reported to be of Korean heritage.

When the news was first reported, all there was known about this lucky, young bride was that she was a former sushi waitress in LA. There was much speculation about who she is and where she is from, but the general agreement seemed be that she was a poor immigrant who successfully turned her life around by marrying a rich man. The wedding in some sense seemed to be symbolizing the American dream coming true, and people took the story and turned it into a modern fairytales, calling it “The True Cinderella story” with romantic, sugarcoated words.

But the truth was that yes, Nicolas Cage being a world famous Hollywood star may make him something like a Prince Charming, but Alice Kim was no Cinderella who went from rags to riches through magical fairytale wedding. It was revealed that she was in fact born into a much respected family, her grandfather being a big figure in banking industry in Korea and her father a successful business man. Even after the truth has been reported, however, for some reason there were people who still believed that this marriage was the representation of a modern rise tale.

Stretching from Justin’s earlier post about Tiger Woods, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that we live in the society where everybody is at least subconsciously frantic with turning not only celebrity stories but even ordinary success stories into fairy tales. The nature of the media is that it is deeply concerned with stories or topics that have entertaining, attention capturing components. I think this encourages people to fall into the habit of romanticizing every story into a fairytale, even if it means leaving out important facts or distorting the truth. But I have to wonder, if it’s the media that causes this or is this just people’s natural obsession with fairy tales that media exploits, leading to a vicious cycle?

The (Sporting) Cinderella Story: Fairytale Flawed

One of the most overused metaphors in sports is the notion of the “Cinderella Story” to characterize an underdog team on a championship run. Anyone who has ever tuned their TV to ESPN around March has seen Dick Vitale bubbling up like a frat boy’s smoke-piece at the thought of a low seed making a tournament run (maybe I’m being harsh, both his daughters went to ND). Yet at its basis, the “Cinderella Story” is a restoration tale in which the protagonist falls from power, and then ascends once again in unlikely fashion.

The fundamental flaw in the title; the teams that are true “Cinderella” stories are NEVER in a position of power. These underdogs rise from the depths of the unknown without any expectation from the audience. There tends to be no basis of judging on past success, since there is none. Otherwise, it’d be about fulfilling a legacy. I’m talking 1980 US Hockey gold medal, 11-seed George Mason in the Final Four, and the ’04 Red Sox winning the Series. So call them “Sleeping Beauty’s” instead. Doesn’t have the same ring, does it?

Furthermore, the analysts that use this metaphor try to spin it both ways. When an underdog is winning, it is Cinderella on its way to a "fairytale finish". When that team loses, its “clock has struck midnight” and will be “leaving the dance”. You can’t have it both ways and still be loyal to the story. Cinderella is a restoration piece, so that makes the Yankees this year’s Cinderella team. ← Ugh, I hate to think that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhH8n_Atn1A

Little Red Riding Hood Revisited

In the 2007 Disney Film Enchanted, there is a scene in which Gisele, the stereotypical beautiful singing princess, tells the “real” version of the Little Red Riding Hood fairytale to Robert’s daughter Morgan. According to Gisele, Little Red Riding Hood chased the “poor wolf” around his grandmother’s house with an axe, thereby reversing the traditional victim-villain character roles. In a film that continuously pokes fun at the more unrealistic elements of Disney fairytale films this rewriting of a traditional story fits right in.

While some may believe that the Walt Disney Company is purely focused on giving its films’ audiences unrealistic ideas on life, love, adventure, etc., it is refreshing to know that from the studio’s origins in the 1920s to its overwhelming popular commercial status today Disney has been able to recognize some of the more ridiculous elements of fairytales as seen from a modern perspective. The first cartoon series produced purely by the Disney studios was called Laugh-O-Grams, and some of the featured stories around which animators modeled the cartoons were in fact fairytales. After reading the original Perrault and Brothers Grimm versions on Little Red Riding Hood it is quite interesting to watch Disney’s early take on the story.

In the Laugh-O-Gram cartoon of LRRH, LRRH is summoned by her mother to take doughnuts to Grandma. LRRH drives her car out of her garage, suggesting that she usually performs a type of delivery service. On her way to Grandma’s she meets the wolf character: a man in a bigger car wearing a top hat who gawks at her and seemingly (there is no dialogue) tries to convince her to come with him wherever he is going. She rejects him, and he speeds off to Grandma’s house. Grandma is away at the movies so the “wolf” goes inside to wait for LRRH. Her arrival and entrance into the house is followed by what seem to be puffs of smoke signaling a fight along with the worlds “HELP!” The house then begins to rock uncontrollably and jump around as if a major struggle is occurring inside. Meanwhile LRRH’s dog runs to a young and handsome pilot who he convinces to come save LRRH by pulling the house up, saving LRRH, and dropping the man in a lake. The cartoon ends with a kiss between LRRH and the pilot.

The first thing I noticed was that the “wolf” is no longer a wolf but a man. This immediately reminded me of the moral at the end of the Perrault version, which warns about tame “wolves” while really meaning men. It seems as if Disney is directly calling attention to that element of the story. Another point of interest was the events occurring from the point when LRRH enters the house to the end. Is the physical rocking of the house meant to be sexually suggestive or is it just meant to tell the audience that LRRH and the man are fighting? The lack of explicit dialogue leaves the mystery unsolved. Finally, the change from the huntsman who saves LRRH and her grandmother because he had previously been after the wolf to a prince-like pilot who ends up with the princess character in the end was extremely interesting. Perhaps this shift foreshadows the future role of the prince in Disney’s full-length animated features beginning with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.

While it is often easy to write off Disney productions as having the same cliché formula of “happily ever after,” considering the beginning stages of Disney animation can often serve as an interesting insight in adaptations and story development.