I'm Blue Dabadi Daboodi

Old song by Efiel 65 which no one really ever knew the true lyrics to but one interpretation goes" I'm blue dabodi dobodi, if I was green I would die, if I was green I would die." I image the blue beard as being a grey bearded man ( because as a child you think that grey sometimes looks blue) of wealth and power but beer bellied and pretty unattractive. In the world we are in, looks do not matter because money is power and power is power.

Fairy tales like these does not change a womans want for being wanted. We see it all too often that women face torment and hatred just to be wanted 10 percent of the time.

WHUPPIE

Over the weekend I was trying to partake in the educators discount, being a poor college student who teaches part time that enjoys reading but hates the cost that it takes, and I came across a book that said it was about birth order and how it defines who we are. Upon reading that I tried to decide what my birth order was: birth parents: only child, live with parents: middle child, mother in another state: oldest child. So I have decided maybe I am all in one and buck all trends and should stop reading titles to silly books that think they can define you.

I wonder what the book would have said about the people in the story of Molly Whuppie?
First Woman to think about would be WIFE. WIFE is in the story with no specific speaking, but there is a lot of physiological background in the one line that speaks about her. WIFE is willing to leave her three youngest children behind. Maybe she was a middle child- harm from the older and younger gave her detachment issues allowing her to leave the unacknowledged behind. This wife acted with herself in mind and not as today's image of mom. Mothers in today culture do not like letting people out of their eyesight. We have taken this over loving to the term s"mother'. Wife did not smother.

Then there is the giants wife, afraid of the man. A very typical middle child reaction. 

Molly's two sisters were quite. Both would be considered as middle sisters, but change rolls in the story when the three are neglected and they become the oldest and middle, as defined by the King. Neither of these sisters have voice in the story, and they allow the baby to take control.

Baby Molly Whuppie saves the day. Without Molly, all three girls would have died at the hands of the giant. Molly was selfless multiple times.

Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales (London: David Nutt, 1898), pp. 125-30

Creeping in the dark

When I was four years old, I would wake up with my dad at about 2:00 am ( during the summer) and we would grab a bottle of water and jump in his big truck. We lived in an apartment complex that was surrounded by land that had not been developed yet( I say yet because about 12 years later we moved back into this area and the house my dad lives in is apart of the once fields). We would pull the truck ( with the lights off) up into the field and watch nature. Sometimes it was deer feeding, but we would often see coyotes/wolves stalking prey. I remember knowing that they lived in the woods, but during the day there was a path that walked through the woods and my babysitter would take us down the path and back. From then on, I had this notion that wolves only attacked at night, that is when I respected sunset and would go home before it was dark.
Our society has lost that respect, and there are more attacks by "wild animals". We do not see as many wolves, but men have taken this role and attack their prey at night.

HOOOOOOWWWWWWL

I remember knowing at a young age that men whistled at women. Men also whistle, pucker their lips and bark/howl at women. There were stereotypes of which men would do this to women, but in my experience I have learned it comes from every race. Then the movie "The Mask" came out and he was doing all kinds of dog motions to flirt with women. I think that a man acting like an animal to pick up a woman makes the woman like prey. He uses his "charm" to lure her in, and then pounces her to make her his.

I have no idea why we think this is okay. I know that we are seen by some as primate, and thus animals as well but I think we could treat each other better.

Painted Beauty

"My lady, I turn bisclavret;
I plunge into that great forest. In thick woods I like it best.
I live on what prey I can get." When he'd told her all the story

She asked, inquired one thing more: he Undressed?2 Or what did he wear?
"My lady," he said, "I go all bare."
"Where are your clothes? Tell, for God's sake." "My lady, I won't say this, no;

For if I lost them by this mistake,
From that moment on, I'd know
I'd stay a bisclavret forever;
Nothing could help me, I'd never Change back till I got them again.
That's why I don't want it known." (Bisclavret)

Humans have a flaw that they do not like being seen undressed of the things that represent who we are. We use fashion, animals, cars and food to define us and we feel that without them we are empty and do not want to be seen. This is why the Bisclavret did not want to be seen in transition or as the monster that he turns into. He did eventually ( as noted in this text) trust the one he loves with this knowledge.I think you know that love is pure when you are willing to be seen pure and naked( not physically).








"Bisclavret" . Marie de France.

Poor Husband

In the decade where infidelity is skyrocketing, I sadly understand the sadness of the Bisclavret. I think the wife was needy, and did not want the husband to be happy in any situation that did not involve her. Then in being afraid the wife gives up on the great relationship she had because someone else showed her attention. There are many reasons that there is infidelity, but none of them are good. I actually think the real wolf in the story is the man wooing the Bisclavets wife.

Disney is not the only one

During this weeks reading, I found that Disney is not the only one who makes children go though life with only one parent. Being a child who grew up with a single dad ( and then step parent and siblings), I think that I find situations with other single parents very quickly. There are things that you learn from both parents, the reason that nature ( and God ) plans for all children to have one parent of each sex. I know that there are things I did not gather from the lack of woman influence in my life, I bet Red suffers from not learning outdoors smarts from a father. In the Grimm version of LRRH the mother tells the daughter to stay on the path to not break the bottle of wine she was being sent with, but the mother said no other warning. Since a story like this does not tell the whole life story, you do not know what LRRH knew from previous experience but that is any story, and any life- you learn with age and experience or a mom and a dad.

Grimm. "Little Red Cap." Little Red Riding Hood. Print.
Grimm. "Little Red Riding Hood." Little Red Riding Hood. Print.

Do I want to grow up?

The stories of Grimm allow a person to take a break from reality, and pretend. When a child wraps their head around the child plot and meaning, they begin to day dream and pretend this could be them. Where do we draw the line of letting a child have dreams and crushing things that can not happen? Maybe this is why I am not yet a mother, but I have worked in pre-school for two years now and I am actually the least likely candidate to crush any child dream. I knew when I was younger that I would end up in New York, some way some how, and look at me- I am going to school in New York ( online of course but who is really checking?)

Maybe Grimm ( and all the other writers/dreamers/ creators) were right, we need to take a break from the serious, let our minds wander, and see where our hearts really want to be. With that said, I have spent my entire afternoon contemplating this blog and applying to work for Conde Nast in New York City.

Irrelevant

From reading my awesome peer reviewers notes on the road it got me to thinking. I am very connected to fairy tales. I parallel each part of my life and story to fairy tales and that is alot of the reason that I chose to take this course. I had an evil step mom who made me Cinderella, I was locked in my tower (Repunzel esk) to do school work, and prince charming (husband) wisked me off my feet. I think that is why I am so excited to talk about these stories and I have so much to connect- its real life.

Make Believe Theory

Walt Disney knew what he was doing. He wanted stories to live on, and maybe he even knew that books would die to the later generations and that his movies would be the only thing that sparked interest into the once classic fairy tales. Now television shows are catching teenagers and adults alike that wanted to be princesses when they grew up and reliving the "princess" stories in adult form through Grimm and Once Upon a Time ( as I sit here watching OUAT!)

Bibbidi Bobbidi Booooo

I remember singing the song from Cinderella over and over again in elementary school. I even took time today to search for the lyrics of this song, and what I found brought a huge smile to my face. Even as a 23 year old woman I was singing the song with the wrong words, but it is not the words that I am getting at as much as the things going on during the words.

We all know that a pumpkin can not turn into a real carriage, maybe a carriage for a mouse but not for Cinderella. When I was 6 I would talk to my hamsters hoping that one day they would find their voices. When I would fall ( or be pushed) into a puddle, I would wonder where my new pair of clothes were going to pop up.

Magic. The church condemns that talk of words like that, and I have found a new reason why. Where did Disney get the idea that it was going to sell movies if we add magic to make everything better. I think that these movies should have encouraged hard work, dedication and the moral that we do not always get what we want. This is where my pessimism comes in again.

I think that the written ( and spoken) versions of these stories teach one lesson, and the Disney portrayals paint a totally different lesson. The problem is that the Disney story has magic, and the real world does not.

Disneys Spell

I think that many people see the good in things, and sometimes I choose to find the pessimistic side of things. Growing up Disney movies were the only thing that connected me to being a child. My parents were divorced, my first step dad abused me(pre-kinder), my mother moved to Arizona with my third step dad(4th grade), my mom then moved to Alaska with a forth husband(9th grade) then to another city getting married to husband number five about a month before my wedding which she did not attend. I will not go any further into my history because that is not nessesarily what this blogging assignment is about. What I am trying to get to is what Zipes speaks about on the closing page of our reading. Disney borrowed stories that were kind of gruesome and turned them into this beautiful images that to the viewer could be seen as how things should turn out in life.
I realized young that these stories were fake, but I would go back to them thinking that maybe there were scenes of horror and that things would turn out great after all. The problem with that thinking is that Disney doesn't show what happens after Happily Ever After, as I think we have touched on a little.
I also realized that not every little girl gets to be a princess. My dad is from England and in the midst of all my childhood drama we would escape to England to see family. When I was in England I was awestruck by the castles and jewels. One of the times I was in England I was able to see the whole family outside, it was the Queen Mums birthday and she came out and greeted people with birthday signs and while we were out there the young Princes and Princess Di came up in a town car. I was obsessed from that point on. Which didn't help my mind from thinking that there are true fairy tales because of Di, but I was old enough when she died to understand what was going on- and saw how real happily ever after was not.

Do you need a man to be a woman?

The stories of both Snow White and Sleeping Beauty both paint the need for men to rescue them. Due to the ongoing nature of this theme in fairy tales, it has become an on going theme in movies, and now in every woman's life. Women think the only way they have a life is by finding a man. I work at a Baptist school, and in the Baptist church you marry early, have kids early and eat alot. Well a principal at our school recently told me that she had always dreamed of a husband, 2.5 children and a house but that was not Gods plan for her. It is an interesting thing to think about though- going through childhood we are told that we have to find a prince and he has to take care of us- but does that have to happen? No, a woman can live life without a man.

Snow White and Sleeping Beauty

Today I read about 5 different versions of two classic princess movies- Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. In these stories, they did not go by such names but after a few lines you realize that you have heard a similar story before. I think that you take for granted the story that is truely being taught in the "princess" stories because it ends up being about the "Happily Ever After". How often do you sit down and think, " Wow, why did the hunts man not stand up the to the queen and behead her for the threat on Snow White?, or What made Sleeping Beauty's family believe in the faeries?"

I have come to see that all stories have flaws, but they also have history and a message. The image being painted in these stories is that rulers who remarry never make a good choice, husbands do not trust a second wife, Snow White/ Sleeping Beauty be smart about who you trust. ( That's just to name a few)

Today one of my students said that he got mad when his female friends were passive on feminism. I then expressed that I thought that all women have a little bit of feminism but in some it is not visual to ANY man. Women need to learn that they can be in charge too, and they need to become their own hero and watch their backs.

What is this all about?

I am taking a class in Folk and Fairy Tales in my final semester at CUNY- SPS. This is my final elective and I am super excited to be studying the things that we will be reading this semester. The blog is going to be based on the question:

"What image of womanhood is represented in this piece and how does that image uphold or subvert expectations regarding the female gender?"

My hope and expectation is to have a better understanding of the misinterpreted "princess" stories we hear growing up and live by. Enjoy : )