Feminist Theory: Lecture 8: Amanda Moffat

http://wetellstories.co.uk/stories/week3/
Like Andy, I too chose the Fairy Tale option as I thought the male/females roles would be fairly clear-cut along traditional lines and also because I enjoyed reading Hans Christian Anderson stories when I was younger. I decided to ask my 9-year old son if he wanted to help me do my homework and he obliged, although somewhat begrudingly (possibly because I used the dreaded word 'homework'), so we read through the story together and he made the all the decisions.

As Andy has already provided an excellent summary of the story (and clearly went into it in far more detail than I did) I'm not going to repeat the plot, but instead provide a couple of quotes which I think link to Braidotti's point about the persistence of gender stereotypes and repetition of old themes and cliches in the realm of this 'new' technological form of story-telling;

1. 'No!' Danielle sobbed, for the Wicked King's son, the Ugly Prince, was a foul and evil man.

2. Danielle stood her ground, angered by his insolence, and when he came to her, staggering drunkenly on his feet, she grasped the dagger from his hand and plunged it into his evil heart.

Characteristically, as in many fairy tales, there is battle between good and evil. In this story the male characters are depicted as inherently evil and the female lead role is the binary opposite, although she is portrayed as a victim (sobbing) who stands up to her male protagonist, but who ultimately fails in her quest (sorry to spoil the ending). To see how it would effect these gender stereotypes I thought it would be fun to switch the roles (and add some humour as Braidotti suggests) so I chose a third quote and transposed all the references to male/female characteristics:

'He wore fabulous dresses and the finest gold jewellery, and he ate the richest food and slept in the softest beds. But it did not make him happy. For the Starmaker was a charmless woman, and she worked him very hard and treated him very harshly. But, worst of all, Daniel had no one to talk to. He had no one to share his riches with. And although his mother was very poor and her father very greedy, he began to miss them terribly. And after a while he became so forlorn and miserable that he completely lost his mind. And early one morning, while the Starmaker was still sleeping in her bed, Daniel chopped off her head with an axe and ran away back to his poor little hut in the shadows of the great black mountain. But the Starmaker's death was soon discovered, and Daniel was taken from his poor little hut and imprisoned in the Wicked Queen Dark Ride's dungeon.'

I think this is a much more interesting than the original version:

'She wore fabulous dresses and the finest gold jewellery, and she ate the richest food and slept in the softest beds. But it did not make her happy. For the Starmaker was a charmless man, and he worked her very hard and treated her very harshly. But, worst of all, Danielle had no one to talk to. She had no one to share her riches with. And although her father was very poor and her mother very greedy, she began to miss them terribly. And after a while she became so forlorn and miserable that she completely lost her mind. And early one morning, while the Starmaker was still sleeping in his bed, Danielle chopped off his head with an axe and ran away back to her poor little hut in the shadows of the great black mountain. But the Starmaker's death was soon discovered, and Danielle was taken from her poor little hut and imprisoned in the Wicked King Dark Ride's dungeon.'