Fairy Tales: Why the Glass Slipper Fits More than One Foot

Cinderella came out this week: in anticipation of this, there has been a pitched war between the bloggers and movie critics who say it represents a dangerous return to 1950s assumptions about womanhood and female desirability or that it’s a refreshingly straightforward reminder of belief in kindness and achieving impossible dreams. I haven’t seen the movie yet, so I won’t argue where on that spectrum Branagh’s effort falls. However, I would like to point out that both sides are using the phrase “fairy tale” …

Fractured Fairy Tales and the American Dream

“And now for something we hope you’ll really like!” If you read that line the cheery voice of Rocket J. Squirrel, you are probably a fan of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.  And you probably know that after that announcement, a short fairy tale segment would begin– hello, Fractured Fairy Tales. Fractured Fairy Tales, like The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, was full of biting wit and satire. Most of the satire of the Fractured Fairy Tales segment poked fun at the American entertainment …

La Llorona versus Appalachian Jack: Assigning ATU numbers to International folktales

All of the fairy tale references in television in this database are categorized by a number from the Aarne Thomspon Uther index. This is an extensive list of mostly European fairy tales. Categorizing tales using these numbers was essential for the software that would show us the prevalence of specific tale types, but it also presented an endless rabbit hole of interesting questions, most of them dealing with the very broad question of what a fairy tale really is. This post …