"It's one of Western culture's immediate visual signifiers: beauty equals worthiness, ugliness equals wickedness."
THE PASSING PARADE OF PRINCESSES
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves:
Disney's first animated feature gave the world the archetypal Disney princess. She is hardly a feminist role model, but the continuing demand for Snow White merchandise suggests the list of her admirers extends way beyond the dwarves and Prince Charming.
Sleeping Beauty:
All the Princess Aurora had to do was lie back, close her eyes and ... wait. Eventually her prince did come. Life should be so easy.
Beauty and the Beast:
Belle soothes the savage Beast, and even prefers this ugly brute to the handsomest man in her village (the latter was a cad, you see). She is much braver and more assertive than Snow White or Aurora, and her reward is to end up as a princess, too.
Mulan:
By Disney standards, Mulan is revolutionary. She's not European, for a start, and holds ideals of demure maidenhood in contempt. A sort of Chinese Joan of Arc, she dons man's garb, saves China from the invading Huns and restores her family's honour. Unlike Joan, she lives happily ever after.
(http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/20/1092972730414.html 15:23)
October 27, 2009
Other Ideas...
Fairy Tales
Okay, so I think I've come to a conclusion about which fairy tales from the 10 most neglected I am going to use. The Top 10 Most Neglected Tales are;
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Hansel and Gretel
- Cinderella
- Little Red Riding Hood
- The Ginger Bread Man
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- Sleeping Beauty
- Beauty and the Beast
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears
- The Emperor's New Clothes
The three I have chosen are in bold. The reasons for me chosing them are varied. I felt it was important to do the number 1 most neglected tale, as the reasons for it being neglected needs a lot of research and I have a lot of ideas around the actual tale.
The second tale I have chosen, because it is the focus of the traditional tales I will teach while I'm on placement.
And the third I chose because of the "Disney" version. It was a choice between Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast, I still am not certain if it is actually Sleeping Beauty on which I would like to focus. Disney Princesses is now a world wide phenomenon, which I believe teaches children the wrong things about life. I am yet to figure out exactly what I believe is wrong about the teachings.
I have been reading into feminist views on Disney Princesses and this idea stood out to me;
"You may laugh when your daughter says she wants to be a princess when she grows up, but what is she really aspiring to? Wearing pretty dresses and being rescued all the time? We all know there's no knight in shining armour. REAL relationships are about communication, mutual respect and spending time with each other."
(http://feministtruths.blogspot.com/2008/11/disney-princesses-capitalism-and.html 15:14)
I'll leave you with that thought.
October 14, 2009
Sophie Ryder
Sophie Ryder was brilliant. Her work on "Lady Hare" inspired me. She creates mythological forms, which I was quite interested in, and the YSP information explains; "Ryder’s work draws on human, animal and mythological forms, melding the attitudes and instincts of each to create a series of hybrids."
