Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Monday, February 7, 2011

Margaret Atwood's "Unpopular Gals"

These are vignettes or maybe even shorter glimpses into the psyche of the "unpopular girls" of fairy tales. The evil stepmother, the ugly sister, etc. It's a short fun read and it's Atwood. Read it!

Excerpt:
"You can wipe your feet on me, twist my motives around all you like, you can dump
millstones on my head and drown me in the river, but you can't get me out of the story.
I'm the plot, babe, and don't ever forget it."


Read it here.

What Fairy Tales Teach Us

Alysa directed me to a couple of pictures that say a lot. And here they are:

(credit: http://survivingtheworld.net/StudentPresentation6.html)

Friday, February 4, 2011

Sydney White and the Seven Dorks - Discussion


Okay, unfortunately we didn't get to discuss as much of the movie as I wanted to but hey, at least we saw it all, eh? Anyway, if there's anything you have not talked about, here's the part to do it.

For instance, I know we covered this briefly in class, but why do you think the "Evil Stepmother/Queen" was taken out of this retelling. Keep in mind that according to some academics, the fact that the stepmother is older is significant because it shows a certain fear of old age and being replaced in the father's affections. By making Rachel Witchburn Sydney's contemporary, if we read from the perspective of the academics and focus on the "replacing" bit, can we not interpret that a large part of Rachel Witchburn was the fear of being replaced, of her popularity being eroded? If you agree, what does this say about modern society? Is it a constant competition to remain on top of ...the game?

And I know that ostensibly the movie is all about "girl power," but is it really? When compared to men, I mean. I know it's working on stereotypes but the fraternity dudes are not shown in as negative a light as the girls. And out of all those girls, there is only Sydney who dares to fight back. Are the negative things being said about women justified by Sydney? Or am I reading too much into it and need to lay off the pineapple.

Anyway, these are the lines along which you should be thinking. It's called Fairy Tales Retold for a reason, you know. :P