Once Upon A Time. At the end of a six-season run with a well-established finale, on the brink of a new curse to reset season 7, we meet as viewers, as scholars, as audience members and fairy tale enthusiasts, to discuss this show’s past, present, and future. Is Once Upon A Time a high-profile breakthrough for the widespread audience appeal of fairy tales for all ages, moving them out of the realm of children’s media? Is it a harebrained concept that uses …
Tag Archives: Cinderella
“Fairy Tale Weddings”: The Examination of a Misnomer
Week three of Applied English guest posts comes to you from Emma Anderson. This was written for Dr. Rudy’s 394r class from Winter semester, and similar posts will be continuing throughout the summer. Hope you enjoy! Sunlight glistening through the ivied trellis. Flowers in full bloom. Birds chirping their sweet songs. A three-foot-tall pastry dressed in elaborate icing. A procession of satin, lace, and tulle along a pathway freshly strewn with petals. A long, graceful gown with a grandly …
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Do Blondes Really Have More Agency?: A Cinderella Case Study
The following is a guest post written by Hannah Earl, a freshman in the English Department. This was a final writing assignment for Dr. Rudy’s Late Summer Honors course entitled Agency, Media, and “Tale As Old As Time,” then was workshopped with the FTTV team for publication on the blog. We hope you enjoy! Blonde hair, blue eyes, a blue dress – these words describe millions of girls all over the world. This description also typically calls to mind the …
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Cinderella’s Sidekicks and their Choices, or Lack Thereof
When Cinderella is adapted into other mediums, especially when these adaptations are intended for children or families, the animals barely in the original tale become sidekicks with a lot more screen-time. So what happens when you take a plot point and turn it into a character? You give it the ability to make choices within the story — you give it agency. Betty Boop’s Poor Cinderella is, for my purposes, the first time these animals are given any characterization. And …
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Weight-Watching Fairy Tales
A new year means a new weight-loss goal, right? Many of us make resolutions to lose weight or get in shape because we know we’ll feel better when our bodies are functioning properly. We make plans to transform our bodies into a calorie-consuming furnace. With three fruits and two vegetables in our tummies, we hope to win money for our “Before” and “After” pictures in the next six weeks. Some of our favorite fairy tales sponsor programs to help us …
Glass Slippers and Small Screens: Rags to Riches and the American Dream
This is the powerpoint from Madeleine Dresden’s presentation at the 2014 American Folklore Society Conference in Santa Fe. Glass Slippers and Small Screens: Rags to Riches and the American Dream
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” …
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