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Fairy tales

I have recently taken on reading fairy tales. Yes, C already enjoys them, or at least she often falls asleep as I read them continuously - maybe it is just the sound of my voice but I like to think she is listening.

Anyway, the first three I read got me thinking maybe I should do some edits to the end. Surprised? Well let's see - the frog prince it is about a princess who is rewarded by actually having broken a promise but being lucky that her king father makes her keep it. The frog is converted to prince if he is tendered for a nice princess for 3 days and 3 nights but it is not like she takes care of him, she actually quite despises him. Then, Jack and the Magic Bean is about how much this little boy Jack stills from the Ogre and is never told of by his mum as he gets greedier and greedier. And then, when he gets caught he cuts the tree and the Ogre dies and the boy and the mum live happy ever after. Since when is stilling a feat to be celebrated? Just because he is stilling from a 'bad' ogre? And the list goes on - the 2 little kids who get rid of the old lady kidnapping them by putting her in the oven, the queen who is obsessed about her beauty mirror and tries to kill her stepmother again and again, the boy who is bored of his one legged soldier and tosses it in the fire?

There are key features in all of them which make it so fairy that it is unbelievable, and I am not talking about the wonderland of kings and fairies and ogres - the princess is always beautiful and beauty comes before kindness or intelligent (see the 10 gifts given to Sleeping Beauty), the prince and the princess always immediately fall in love, the weddings always happen the same day or the day after (clearly the author never got married) and the parents always allowed it on the spot (clearly not southern European). Oh, and I am convinced the fairy tales are the key to the hatred of stepmothers around the world - they are always evil!

The more I think about it the more I think these stories should be editable.



- from my iPad

Comments

Anonymous said…
... and here I thought I was the only one who thought these stories were unPC!
Bravo.
16 June, 2013 20:37
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