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Beauty and the Beast

I have long been fascinated with portrayals of gender, sexuality, and gender roles within literary mediums; genres that aim towards children are of particular interest to me, as well, due to the nature of the socialization process. I find Beauty and the Beast to be an especially fascinating medium to explore these terms, especially in regards to the capital-O Other.

Derived from the work of second-wave feminist Simone de Beauvoir, otherness is understood to be a quality possessed by any group outside of a socially-designated “norm”, oft selected by the leading group of power. Throughout history, this leading group has been heterosexual and cisgendered white men – anything outside of this is other to the norm. And you know what Rudolph says...

Beauty and the Beast is interesting in these regards; in nearly all versions of this, both the Beast and Beauty (whose names are used as normalized definitory markers for the characters found throughout adaptations) are both “other” than normal; Beauty is a woman, and the Beast isn’t even human. You could even go as far as to say that the Beast, at least in the Disney version, is a queer-coded character; he has emotions and interests that deviate from standard practices of his biological sex, he was forced into exile by society due to his aberrations, et cetera. And no, the new live-action retelling of Beauty and the Beast was not a win for Gay Rights, as much as the Disney corporations would’ve wanted you to believe as such. This? This was just bad.

Either way, despite the Beast’s otherness, his good character wins out and he gets what he wanted the whole time.

Either way, I think depictions of otherness and rejection are part of why the Disney adaptation appealed to me as a child; that, despite the otherness that I felt and the rejection I endured, I could have a happy ending. And also, the idea that my moral character was stronger than the negative societal forces surrounding me is a pleasant one to this day; the validity of such a statement is questionable, however. Regardless, Beauty and the Beast is an interesting exploration of gender roles no matter what way you look at it – and I didn’t even get to discussing Beauty’s role in all of this. Ah, in classic fashion, the man gets all the screen time and the woman gets ignored. Whups.

Another win for feminism? 

[fairiesandfishes]

The Little Mermaid

I was often fond of Disney fairy tales as a child, though I can’t remember one that stands out to me as much as The Little Mermaid does now. I didn’t connect with this fairy tale on such a level until I learned about a lot of the history behind both the Disney version and the original Hans Christian Anderson version.

                                                   The Little Mermaid

As you may or may not know, Hans Christian Anderson was a Danish author who lived from 1805 to 1875. Anderson was a prolific writer, and today he is most known for his fairy tales which total 156 stories in all. Many of his stories are deeply embedded within our modern-day culture in America, and are most likely familiar to you even if you don’t know his work; stories such as The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, The Princess and the Pea, and perhaps most famously, The Little Mermaid.

One other thing about Anderson is that he is largely thought to be a bisexual or gay man, according to modern times. Some of these letters were love letters to other men. Anderson is also often thought to have fallen in love with many a woman, hence the modern assumption that he was sexually and romantically attracted to both women and men. However, throughout his life, Anderson remained celibate for reasons that are thought to be due to his moral and religious values. Additionally, elements of Anderson’s life are thought to have been incredibly traumatic to both his emotional and sexual life.

             Hans Christian Anderson

When adapting this story, Disney did an incredibly good job with the themes of Anderson’s original story during an incredibly scary time for same-sex attracted individuals in the United States. While the original story deals heavily with themes of spiritual redemption for one’s wretchedness (how Anderson saw himself), the Disney story deals with rejection, identity, alienation, acceptance, family, reconciliation, and love. Additionally, on the creative team of the 1989 Disney adaptation was Howard Ashman, a gay man living and fighting with AIDS. While not directed by Ashman, it has been stated that Ashman was the driving force behind the character writing and direction, as well as the lyrics within the songs. Huge swathes of both Hans Christian Anderson’s version and Howard Ashman’s version apply thematically to my life and my discovery of my own identity, and the Disney version is a life I hope to live myself. While the themes Ashman injected into the new version of The Little Mermaid are different than Anderson’s original work, they still heavily relate to the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals in the current era. While the plots and endings of the two stories are very different, I believe that Anderson would be happy with Ashman’s work and see the new happy ending as an ideal of his own.  

                 Howard Ashman

[fairiesandfishes]

Little Red: Into The Woods

Or perhaps, more aptly: Little Red: Into The Wolf

 Into The Woods is one of Stephen Sondheim’s most well-known and well-produced musicals. In this tale, the characters and plots of numerous different Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault fairy tales are spun together to create a riveting and moving story. Many of the main characters in Into The Woods are taken from Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Jack and the Beanstalk. Originally, Into The Woods premiered on Broadway in 1987. If you never get the chance to see it in person (which I would highly recommend), there is a filmed version of the original Broadway cast (minus one original Snow White) available online.  

Into the Woods has Little Red Riding Hood and her famous Wolf as key players within the overarching story. For this blog, I’ll be focusing solely on Little Red’s arc in the show as is relatable to the Brothers Grimm version of the tale.

 To detail her story from Into The Woods: Little Red Riding Hood is a young, naïve, snarky, and selfish little girl. She is sent by her mother to town to buy bread and sweets from the baker, and then to bring those goods to her grandmother in the woods. Little Red pays the baker, but makes off with more than she paid for. It’s very funny in the show, but it sets an interesting tone for her character.

Little Red then heads into the forest and meets the Wolf. Little Red, in all her youthful naiveté, tells the Wolf her plans to meet her grandmother, which marks the beginning of her fall from innocence. In this version of the tale, the Wolf is a muscular, bipedal canine, wearing nothing but a long blue coat and the large amount of fur on his body. In the original 1987 Broadway production, the Wolf’s costume also features a wolfish penis and a large set of testicles swinging between his legs – a particularly unsubtle nod to the inherent sexuality the character of the Wolf has in some versions of the story, and something that most certainly did not make it into the Disney film adaptation. 

When The Wolf hears about Little Red’s plans for the day, he sings a song about how perfect, fair, plump, and delicious she looks. He also devises a plan wherein he can eat both Little Red and her grandmother, and convinces Little Red to take the long route to her grandmother’s house, where she picks flowers and eats most of the food meant for her grandmother. Due to the Wolf’s conniving instincts, Little Red takes the long path to her grandmother’s house, but the short path to her loss of innocence. https://youtu.be/kqCsQCsinK4?t=1091 (Into The Woods - Hello, Little Girl)

Now, due to the interconnectedness of the fairy tales within Into The Woods, this is where the plot heavily diverges from the Brothers Grimm version of the tale. On her way, the baker from before spies Little Red and her “cape as red as blood”. Because of an unfortunate curse from a witch (Rapunzel’s adoptive mother, actually) that causes the baker and his wife to be unable to have children, the baker desperately needs this cape so he can lift the curse. He steals it from her, but Little Red cries so much that our sympathetic baker gives it back.

After promptly smacking the baker in between his legs, Little Red arrives at her grandmother’s cottage only to find the door open. She tentatively heads into the building to find a very strange-looking version of her grandmother. Our caped crusader comments on the unnaturally large size of her “grandmother’s” ears, eyes, hands, and “terrible, big, wet” mouth, the final comment prompting the Wolf to throw off his disguise and devour Little Red whole. Satisfied with his meal, the Wolf falls asleep. 

After being painfully reminded by Little Red about his curse, the baker from earlier resolves to steal the cape from Little Red again, but this time for good. He rushes to the cottage, only to hear very loud snoring. He smartly guesses it is the Wolf so he grabs his knife and cuts open the Wolf’s stomach, freeing Little Red and her grandmother. Red’s grandmother, despite her age, feistily describes the way in which she is going to murder the Wolf, which is exactly the same as the method of murder from the Brothers Grimm story.

Little Red sings and reflects on her follies that lead her to the dark pit of the Wolf’s stomach. This song echoes much of the same message that Charles Perrault’s story had, including the details about how nice and gentlemanly the Wolf seemed. Unlike Perrault’s version, Little Red actually lives to grow from this lesson. Little Red also echoes much that would be in favor of a psychoanalytic approach to the story. She sings about how the Wolf showed her things she had never seen before, which was exhilarating, but also incredibly frightening. This adds onto Little Red’s overall theme in the show, which is a loss of innocence. Much of the song points to the Wolf being Little Red’s first sexual experience, which is further corroborated by the earlier sexual imagery of the Wolf’s appearance. Watch the song – it’s excellent, and includes one of my favorite lines from the show, which is that “Nice is different than good.” https://youtu.be/kqCsQCsinK4?t=1910 (Into The Woods - I Know Things Now)

Now, how does the Brothers Grimm version of Little Red Riding Hood match up to the one concocted by Stephen Sondheim? In all honesty, surprisingly well. We have the mother’s warning, the Wolf’s seduction, the fatherly male savior, and one alive, yet probably traumatized, Little Red. The main differences are how overtly the sexuality is displayed and how the moral is Perrault’s. In the Brothers Grimm version, the sexuality is much more subtle than even Perrault’s tale. In this version, the sexuality is out in full swing, particularly between the Wolf’s legs. What I find most interesting is that, despite having the arc of her story and many of the details be exactly the same the Brothers Grimm version, it is Perrault’s moral of distrusting those who display themselves as kindly gentlemen that survive. The Grimm’s moral of obeying one’s parents is hardly there, although present, and instead we hear Little Red sing that the Wolf “seemed so nice”, so she believed and listened to him.

The version of Little Red’s story we see here has interesting things to say if peered at through a psychoanalytic lens. Later into the show, we meet Little Red again, but this time she is wearing a wolfskin coat and brandishes a knife. Now, I don’t know if you know this, but in Freudian psychology, a knife often symbolizes a phallus, and sometimes in a sexually aggressive light. Now, I apologize for this sentence, dear reader, but a Freudian analysis demands it: in Into The Woods, Little Red grows her own penis. In other, less awful words, Little Red gains power and the ability to choose her own sexual experiences, as opposed to being naively lead into them. She also carries along with her the literal skin of someone who tricked her, displaying how she triumphed over a trickster and has learned from the experience.

One other interesting facet of this story, and particularly Little Red’s song, is that she was thrilled by the experience she had with the Wolf. She even goes as far to say that it is nice to know so many new things, although she does quickly backtrack to say that it’s a little unfortunate to have all the knowledge, too. This somewhat favors a common psychoanalytic take on the story, which is that Little Red wanted to be seduced by the wolf. Personally, I’m unsure if that analysis is applicable to the Into The Woods version of her story, though it does fit in well with the theme of a loss of innocence. I prefer to say that Little Red didn’t really lose her innocence; instead, she gained knowledge and capability. And anyway, I’ve always had somewhat of an issue with a psychoanalytic approach to the story. If you aren’t careful, if sounds like you’re excusing sexual assault, and it goes without saying that that’s a pretty awful thing to do. Freud, whose ideas I have been using as an analytical tool, has a history of saying that those who experienced sexual assault (from adults, generally parents) as children imagined it as an oedipal fantasy, entirely disregarding the trauma that his patients had been through.

In all honesty - I don’t know what the intended message of this iteration of Little Red’s story is. It combines both Perrault’s rape allegory and the Grimm Brother’s moral of listening to authority and learning from your mistakes into a bit of a confusing message. In the end, I do find it comforting: Little Red knows how to protect herself, and she is assured in who she is. 

That’s the show and the comparison, and a touch of psychoanalytic psychosis for you. Thanks for reading! Additionally, if you’d like to see the REST of Into The Woods, you can find it here in all it’s 1987 glory. Personally, I don’t know what to think about this version, but it is pretty famous. Nothing like a good live production of it, in my opinion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqCsQCsinK4 (Into The Woods - full 1987 Broadway version)