{"id":5167,"date":"2017-07-20T10:06:27","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T08:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=5167"},"modified":"2017-07-20T10:11:53","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T08:11:53","slug":"rebel-girls-and-rapunzel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/5167\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebel Girls and Rapunzel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My research assistant has directed me towards <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/rebelgirls\/videos\/1750367894991198\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this video<\/a>, created by an outfit called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rebelgirls.co\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rebel Girls<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Frebelgirls%2Fvideos%2F1750367894991198%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=400\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nWhere to begin?<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, if a couple of Italians want to replace fairy stories like Rapunzel with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rebelgirls.co\/products\/good-night-stories-for-rebel-girls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">books<\/a> containing sanitised biographies of famous women and they&#8217;re crowdfunding to do it, good luck to them. Nothing wrong with that. Nor do I see much wrong with exposing young girls to stories about real-life, successful women.<\/p>\n<p>What I don&#8217;t get is why this is considered rebellious: the books are called <em>Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls<\/em>, which makes me think this is more about the parents than the kids. I had an older sister and a childhood containing lengthy periods of extreme boredom, so I am familiar with girls&#8217; annuals such as <em>Bunty<\/em> and <em>Judy<\/em>. They were full of stories of brave, strong girls and women, some of them featuring real-life heroines. I believe <em>Bunty&#8217;s<\/em> longest running strip was <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bunty#The_Four_Marys\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Four Marys<\/em><\/a>, and although old-fashioned it hardly portrayed girls negatively, or weak and in need of a man&#8217;s help. Indeed, friendship, cooperation, and resourcefulness in the <em>absence<\/em> of men seemed to be the main theme. Were girls who read Bunty back in the 1960s and 1970s considered rebellious? Probably not.<\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s clever marketting. What modern, third-wave feminist wouldn&#8217;t want to boast at an Anti-Trump protest march that her five year old daughter is a rebel and taking on the Patriarchy? Sadly, we only really hear feedback from the parents who insist their kids love it. Would they tell us any different if it weren&#8217;t the case? It reminds me of posh yummy mummies who went to uni together insisting their kids are &#8220;besties&#8221; even though they fucking hate each other.<\/p>\n<p>That said, there&#8217;s no reason why kids shouldn&#8217;t love the books and if their parents say they do, who am I to argue? But why the knocking of Rapunzel? According to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rapunzel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wikipedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Rapunzel is a German\u00a0fairy tale\u00a0in the collection assembled by the\u00a0Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812 as part of\u00a0Children&#8217;s and Household Tales. The Grimm Brothers&#8217; story is an adaptation of the fairy tale\u00a0Rapunzel\u00a0by\u00a0Friedrich Schulz\u00a0published in 1790.The Schulz version is based on\u00a0Persinette\u00a0by\u00a0Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force\u00a0originally published in 1698 which in turn was influenced by an even earlier tale,\u00a0Petrosinella\u00a0by\u00a0Giambattista Basile, published in 1634.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Rapunzel&#8217;s story has striking similarities to the 11th-century\u00a0Persian tale\u00a0of\u00a0Rud?ba, included in the epic poem\u00a0Shahnameh\u00a0by\u00a0Ferdowsi.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If a story has maintained its popularity across an entire continent for around 350 years, there might be something to be said for its universal and timeless appeal. The two women in the video seem to think the idea of a woman being locked away somewhere and dreaming of rescue is ludicrous, which is indicative of what they know about history and the world at large.<\/p>\n<p>It also shows a staggering lack of understanding of literary allegories: young girls <em>are<\/em> prisoners to some extent, of their parents. Girls can relate to having their freedoms restricted, and whereas some may wish to bust out on their own by murdering their parents (now <em>that<\/em> would make for a rebel), most simply dream of an easy escape in the arms of a handsome prince where nobody gets hurt and everyone lives happily ever after. Far from a woman languishing in a tower being ridiculous, the story&#8217;s very success is proof that it resonates with a lot of girls, particularly those reaching sexual maturity but whose family or culture doesn&#8217;t yet allow them to explore it.<\/p>\n<p>If I can work out the allegory of Rapunzel in twenty minutes of a Thursday morning, what excuse do these two women have? They not only appear to be a bit dim, but some humility wouldn&#8217;t go amiss, would it? Declaring timeless and universally liked stories to be ridiculous might appeal to loudmouth feminists in dungarees, but it&#8217;s indicative of a certain lack of class. Perhaps they&#8217;re right that men wouldn&#8217;t be portrayed in the same way, but why didn&#8217;t they run that to its logical conclusion by writing a story where a princess wanders the lands seeking random men to rescue from a life of back-breaking servitude in the master&#8217;s fields? I know why, and so do they.<\/p>\n<p>Whether they like it or not, most young girls are interested in princesses, castles, and brief misery followed by rescue at the hands of a handsome prince. Not so many will be interested in a book about Malala Yousafzai, Frida Kahlo, and Simone Biles. To be fair, they might like the page on Beyonc\u00e9, but I&#8217;m unsure how she helps young women reject gender stereotypes:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Beyonce.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3112\" src=\"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Beyonce.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"309\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Beyonce.jpg 309w, http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Beyonce-232x300.jpg 232w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 309px) 100vw, 309px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Some of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Good-Night-Stories-Rebel-Girls\/product-reviews\/014198600X\/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_hist_3?ie=UTF8&amp;filterByStar=three_star&amp;reviewerType=avp_only_reviews#reviews-filter-bar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reviews<\/a> are interesting, too:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I wasn&#8217;t really expecting to have to explain gender reassignment surgery at this point in her life, so I am glad I read ahead and can skip that particular story.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Keep in mind, a 6 year old doesn&#8217;t exactly understand the concept of gender identity. So since there are multiple stories in here regarding gender identity pioneers, it&#8217;s awfully strange to have to explain to my little girl that it&#8217;s perfectly ok to just be herself, she doesn&#8217;t have to change because the person in the story did.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There are much better books written for girls. This book was more about politics &#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Not sure if the story of a transgender kid should be included in a children&#8217;s book<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>My advice to parents is stick with Rapunzel; your kids will thank you one day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My research assistant has directed me towards this video, created by an outfit called Rebel Girls: Where to begin? Firstly, if a couple of Italians want to replace fairy stories like Rapunzel with books containing sanitised biographies of famous women &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/5167\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21,79],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5167"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5167"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5170,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5167\/revisions\/5170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}