Feminist Fairy Tales

Rating:
Summary: mixed messages
Review: Although Walker says that she was tired of hearing about "beautiful princesses" waiting to be rescued by princes, I noticed that almost all of the illustrations of her heroines depicted lovely young women, albeit wielding swords or looking competent in some way. Also, I was hoping to give this book to a younger cousin, but after reading it, I decided against it. In several of the stories the women are sexually harrassed and/or assualted. Although women do face these threats, I think I'd approach the subject a little differently with children. Still, I will say that I enjoyed most of her stories. The "Goddess" and "wiccan/natural theology" themes were incorporated in many stories. Some of these retellings were clever, others predictable. Bottom-line: good for earth-mother, liberal, or literature-focused feminists and fairy-tale fans looking for more modern adaptations, bad for younger audiences, or conservative, traditional fairy-tale fans.

Rating:
Summary: A Mixed Bag
Review: Barbara Walker's "Feminist Fairy Tales" is definitely worth reading. The art by Laurie Harden is lovely, and some of the stories are marvelous, in a variety of ways. "The Three Little Pinks" is cute, "The Descent of Shaloma" is mysterious and romantic, and "Ugly and the Beast" is a touching retelling of the old story that Disney mutilated and crammmed down our throats. However, several of the stories really drag, and some of the others are thin veils for Walker's "Female Power GOOD! Patriarchal Oppression BAD!" message. Still, with all its flaws, it's a good book that makes many good points, and a nice change from the "Beautiful submissive women are the only worthwhile ones" message many other fairy tales have. I only wish Walker had focused more on the stories and less on the morals.

Rating:
Summary: A Mixed Bag
Review: Barbara Walker's "Feminist Fairy Tales" is definitely worth reading. The art by Laurie Harden is lovely, and some of the stories are marvelous, in a variety of ways. "The Three Little Pinks" is cute, "The Descent of Shaloma" is mysterious and romantic, and "Ugly and the Beast" is a touching retelling of the old story that Disney mutilated and crammmed down our throats. However, several of the stories really drag, and some of the others are thin veils for Walker's "Female Power GOOD! Patriarchal Oppression BAD!" message. Still, with all its flaws, it's a good book that makes many good points, and a nice change from the "Beautiful submissive women are the only worthwhile ones" message many other fairy tales have. I only wish Walker had focused more on the stories and less on the morals.

Rating:
Summary: excellent and pleasent surprise
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It put a new light on some old favorites. Wickedly, wild women! Especially liked Snow Night and Ala Dean and the Wonderful Lamp. Of course it did put to ease any doubt about Barbidol. All in all a great bedside book.

Rating:
Summary: nice attempt
Review: On the whole, a fun book. I bought it initially for reading to my cousin on an upcoming trip to Di$ney, to try to counteract the typical feminine stereotypes. Ashley, age 8, didn't get it. I liked most of the stories, especially the ones from different cultures, but often felt unsatisfied. Ms. Walker occasionally just reverses the stereotypes instead of truly creating unique characters. But a few of the stories' twists really work, especially "Snow Night" and (i'm blanking on the name, the one that's a take off of George and the Dragon).

This book might be good for teachers (from 6th grade -> college level students) to illustrate how familiar tales can be retold, perhaps encouraging the class to do likewise.

Rating:
Summary: READ FEARLESS GIRLS, WISE WOMEN AND BELOVED SISTERS INSTEAD
Review: This book was terrible. The women in it are not anymore powerful than in traditional fairy tales (and they are involved with both attempted rape and domestic violence because they pick the wrong guys--they are sooo powerful because they kick men in the crotch to escape!). Plus, it seems that it is ok to say that men who are ugly are not as good as men who are attractive--basically she is advocating being a sexist as long as it is not against women. She also seems to have missed the fact that lots of "negative" aspects of traditional fairy tales (esp wolves) serve an allegorical purpose and taking them all so literally only makes her new stories very dull and wooden as she tries so hard to correct thses "mistakes". Please, please read Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters by Kathleen Ragan instead--far and above the best book with strong female heroines in a fairy tale/folktale setting!!

Rating:
Summary: READ FEARLESS GIRLS, WISE WOMEN AND BELOVED SISTERS INSTEAD
Review: This book was terrible. The women in it are not anymore powerful than in traditional fairy tales (and they are involved with both attempted rape and domestic violence because they pick the wrong guys--they are sooo powerful because they kick men in the crotch to escape!). Plus, it seems that it is ok to say that men who are ugly are not as good as men who are attractive--basically she is advocating being a sexist as long as it is not against women. She also seems to have missed the fact that lots of "negative" aspects of traditional fairy tales (esp wolves) serve an allegorical purpose and taking them all so literally only makes her new stories very dull and wooden as she tries so hard to correct thses "mistakes". Please, please read Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters by Kathleen Ragan instead--far and above the best book with strong female heroines in a fairy tale/folktale setting!!

Rating:
Summary: Good fairy tales gone bad
Review: This collection of fairy tales proports to support the feminist ideal. This goal might be accomplished, but in the process, what were intended as cautionary and moral fables get turned into boring, monotonous drivel extolling the virtues of strong females. Understand that I am a feminist. I belive in equality, and am going into a still male dominated profession. However, I found this book of fairytales to be uterly wooden, and repititious in their extolling of how strong and wonderful and save the day women can be. In the process, our heroines lose all of the emotional growth they achive in the originals, and are reduced to a female carbon copy hero.

Rating:
Summary: Good fairy tales gone bad
Review: This collection of fairy tales proports to support the feminist ideal. This goal might be accomplished, but in the process, what were intended as cautionary and moral fables get turned into boring, monotonous drivel extolling the virtues of strong females. Understand that I am a feminist. I belive in equality, and am going into a still male dominated profession. However, I found this book of fairytales to be uterly wooden, and repititious in their extolling of how strong and wonderful and save the day women can be. In the process, our heroines lose all of the emotional growth they achive in the originals, and are reduced to a female carbon copy hero.