huh. You know it's weird....

[lyssie]

Trying to gender-swap Cinderella is difficult. Not least because Cinderella's whole goal in life is... to marry the prince. ?

Her role is to be the abused daughter, to cook and clean and sew and drudge for her stepsisters. If you make Cinders a boy, it's... suddenly less right. I automatically wanted to have him chopping wood and mucking stalls. And making Cinders' whole goal in life to marry the princess at the ball seemed laughable.

Not to mention, what the hell DID Cinderella and the Prince talk about while they danced?

Comments

[theta-g.livejournal.com]

I can't even begin to tell you how common the character you're trying to fathom is in this world.

[karma-aster.livejournal.com]

...shoes?

honestly, I've never liked Cinderella all that much. Especially the Disney version which I re-watched recently because she is SUCH an emotional victim throughout.

Basically, she spends the whole story hanging out and letting things happen to her and then, for no real discernable reason, some odd, flighty chick shows up and gives her a nice dress and some probably-uncomfortable-as-hell glass slippers to go off and meet he-of-the-foot-fetish and rather than having Cindy say, "and just where the hell have you been, lady? And how about helping me give these horrible relatives of mine the boot instead of the stupid shoes?" she goes off to the dance anyway.

Now, the German version, Ashenputtel, is somewhat redeemable because rather than just letting things happen to her, she actively changes her fortune by being kind and clever and true to the memory of her dead mother. And that's the one that Sondheim based his Cinderella on in Into The Woods. Also, the Chippewa version, The Woman Who Loved A Bear, makes her way through the story with the courage and fortitude that allows her to strike out on her own, flee the tribe that captured and enslaved her, and make her way back to her own people while also protecting her companion, a shape-shifting shaman who takes the form of a bear.

But...eh. I always liked Beauty and The Beast better anyway.

[angualupin.livejournal.com]

While I dislike musicals because I dislike that style of musicl, I actually love the story of Into the Woods because in many cases it goes back to the older versions (although still not the oldest), and it goes beyond the end of the fairy tales to show what happens to them after "happily ever after"^*. Where the princes are shown not to want the girls themselves, but the idea of the girls, so that once they have them they quickly get bored and go after new ones. Or where the baker and his wife learn that having a child is a good way to put a stressor on a marriage. Or where giants ravaging the countryside actually has consequences in real people getting hurt. (I'm reminded, as I so often am, of a Terry Pratchett quote: She’d never really liked the book of fairy tales. It seemed to her that it tried to tell her what to do and what to think. Don’t stray from the path, don’t open that door, but hate the wicked witch because she is wicked. Oh, and believe that shoe size is a good way of choosing a wife.)

I also love the part of the song she sings with the baker's wife. The baker's wife is very overwhelmed by the idea of dancing with a prince, and sees it as some epitome of romance, whereas Cinderella is rather skeptical of the prince and whether he's really interested in her or just the idea of her. "He's a very nice prince," she says, but he might not be much more.

[the-jackalope.livejournal.com]

Breaking fairy tales down to their most basic elements can lead to a raised eyebrow, especially if you switch roles, or setting it in a historical context. For example, my favorite one, Beauty and the Beast, makes me pause quite a bit when I think about it too hard.

There is a man who looses his money. He then trades away his only/favorite/prettiest (depending on the tale you read) daughter for safety and/or a rose (which could represent all sorts of things, protection, wealth etc.) to a 'beast'. The 'beast' could be a couple of things: a foreigner, and that makes sense; or he could also just be a really terrible man. And Beauty 'tames' her 'beast' through love. So you either have a story about loving those who are different, or a story to tell women that if we just love our abusers enough they will change?

Sketchy, no?

[scarfman]

I liked at the end of Ever After when the prince shows up to find her scumbag would-be slaveowner already out cold and tells her, "I, uh, came to rescue you." (Ever After is the one with Drew Barrymore innit? Yeah.)

[centerspire.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking Wesley in The Princess Bride.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Which is really sad.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

You could make the wolf a cougar. Or even a fox, since female foxes are supposed to be wily...

Never heard of Into the Woods. And Ever After annoys me, even though it does a good job in pointing out the stupidity inherent in the original tale.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Not to mention, B&tB also had the Moral of "pretty prince pisses off a woman who curses him".

*cranky*

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That was worth it.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

hrm. Possibly.

[jim-smith.livejournal.com]

I don't see the problem. You make her a boy, you have her stepbrothers give him wedgies and call him gay all the time, and he spends all his time running an obsessive Princess Charming website, complete with "countdown to 18th birthday" clock and fanfic about how he would have sex with her.

[foenix.livejournal.com]

And strangely enough, this gets solicited from Marvel today:

SPIDER-MAN FAIRY TALES #4 (of 4)
Written by C.B. CEBULSKI
Art and Cover by NICK DRAGOTTA & MIKE ALLRED
You've never seen a Cinderella story like this one! In search of a husband for Princess Gwendolyn, a costume ball is thrown for the suitable young men of the Kingdom, but when the mysterious Spider Prince arrives, that's when the trouble begins. Who is this noble knight no one has ever heard of? What grudge do the soldiers in the Goblin Brigade hold against him? And just why does this dashing Spider Prince need to depart before midnight? Will he fall victim to a pumpkin bomb?

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Bwahahahahah.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

...that is wacky.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Yes, well, unfortunately, 95% of the women out there love those gender stereotypes and don't care. So she probably wouldn't flee. Sigh.