The Three Little Pigs? Or The Three Little "Pigsies" (aka Pixies)?

Henry Justice Ford - The Three Little Pigs: The Fox Carries Whitey Off To His Den - Green Fairy Book Andrew Lang 1892

Sometimes we come across the greatest fairy tale connections in the most unusual places. Looking up the folkloric connection for pixies, to create a more fleshed-out background for a Dungeons and Dragons playable character, we came across a great little video that exposed a curious idea. UK-based YouTuber "Arcane Forge" is an avid player and researcher, who loves comparing and combining folklore and real-world history with Dungeons and Dragons lore and (published canon) history. He casually mentioned an earlier spelling and pronunciation of "pixie" in connection with a well known story...

We're transcribing the relevant section for you below:

Pictured: a pixie. (Artist unknown)
(Also known as pixy, piskie, piksy, pexy, pigsey, or pigsnye.)
Pixie was originally just the Cornish term for a fairy. The exact etymology
is unclear. It's been connected to everything from Picts to Puck.
Anna Eliza Bray's A Peep at the Pixies (1854) uses the word for
all sorts of fairy beings of varying size and appearance:
will o' the wisps, fairy godmothers, brownie-style house elves,
and ghostly phantoms.

"The stories of pixies were often adapted after widespread Christianity, and Christian belief took hold of Britain, and these stories were written/adapted to fit Christan beliefs. It was said that pixies were the unbaptized children who had died, and rather than haunting people like ghosts, because they were children they still had childlike temperaments, and played pranks and tricks instead. Clothes were often burned and as a result they would often need to find natural things to cover themselves in the afterlife.  

A collection of Cornish folktales features
the lore of the mysterious and invisible
tiny spirits as based on stories that
have been handed down from generation to
generation.

But pixies even made it into some of the world's most enduring stories. in the Cornish dialect "pixie" used to be pronounced "pig-zxeez" (or "pizgzees") and spelled p-i-g-s-i-e-s* (or p-i-s-g-i-e-s). It's believed that the story, The Three Little Pigs actually featured "pigsies" rather than pigs. it was only after a dialect shift, and subsequent retellings of the story that resulted in the version that we now all know."

*You may see an in-between spelling used too: "piskies"

We had forgotten all about the pixie variant (or possibly ancestor) of The Three Little Pigs!

There is an English tale (specifically Dartmoor), very similar to The Three Little Pigs, which is known as The Fox and the Pixies. The notes on the linked page mention that "Katherine M. Briggs includes a version of this story in her A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, part A, vol. 2 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970), pp. 528-30." (from D. L. Ashliman's folk texts) It's a pretty delightful read and uses one smart pixie's trickster antics wonderfully in the tale to outwit his nemesis. (Note: pixie is spelled "pixy" in the online text here.)

Then there is the version of The Three Little Pigs in Andrew Lang's Green Fairy Book, (which the illustration at the head of the post is from). The antagonist here is also a fox - a fox with a litter to feed. The pigs in this tale all have names: Browney (likely called such because he was covered in mud, was lazy, and dirty, and had a house made of mud), Whitey (a clever but greedy little she-pig [we would say 'sow' but that term is given to the mother who is in the first half of the story, worrying about her piglets], and she gets a house made out of cabbages) and the third is Blacky (who was black, good, nice and the ceverest of them all, and made a house of brick). Blacky not only outwits the fox but goes and rescues his terrified brother and sister from the fox's den at the end of the story too.

So we go from a Fox and Pixies, to a Fox and Pigs (Piggies?), to a Wolf and Pigs. What we really want now, though, is to read a revised, contemporary tale of the Three Little Pisgies that harks back to the tale's rumored roots...

You can listen to Arcane Forge's whole video on pixies HERE (and watch as he draws one too). His approach is so intriguing, we think we may just have to mine some of his other videos on 'monster lore' too, just in case there are more fairy tale connections hidden there too.

Henry Justice Ford - The Three Little Pigs - Green Fairy Book Andrew Lang 1892

Reflection: Whatever Happened To That Enchanted Ball of Yarn?

Leimomi Oakes - textile and fashion historian and seamstress,
in a Ramie (nettle linen) smock she created, based on the story
of the Wild Swans and historical research.

Note: Our Fairy Tale Newshound was doing some research last month and wandered down a rabbit hole, only to find newish information that put a well-loved tale in a different light. Here are her musings on The Six Swans, weaving shirts out of nettles and that enchanted ball of yarn we lose track of after the beginning of the tale. We thought you might enjoy the thread...

Whatever happened to that ball of enchanted yarn?

Was it made of nettle-fibers, spun fine as royal linen*?

Was its thread then woven to silence your brothers?

Was it the example left for unraveling the curses' sting?

Was it all of these?

(Gypsy Thornton - March 2018)

*Nettles have a fiber which, when extracted can make something like linen, only much finer, called Ramie. It was one of the main sources of plant fiber in Europe for most of history. Many garments thought to be linen are now being discovered as made from nettles! Raime is specifically made from stinging nettles – urtica dioica - though there are many kinds of non-stinging nettles too, which could be used. The pain from the stinging nettles is clearly important to the story though, so urtica dioica is the plant it likely was. Interestingly, people who work with these fibers seem to often refer to them as 'silk'.

Nadezhda Illarionova

In the Six Swans a king secretly hides his children, six boys and a girl, from his new queen, and can only find them by unraveling and following, an enchanted ball of yarn.

I got to thinking: what if that yarn-of-secrets was more key to the story than we've thought before? What if the yarn betrayed the hiding place one day to the jealous (aka evil) queen? What if that yarn was made of the finest quality at the time, which we now know would likely have been by using nettle fibers, and inspired a cascade of tragic events?

The witch-daughter-queen makes more balls of enchanted nettle-yarn, which not only is bound to the family so the King can find his children, but she then weaves it into fine, royal-linen-quality shirts? Shirts that look like priceless gifts but are also designed to be binding, transforming traps? Being so enchanted and family-bound, the shirts bind themselves to the actual forms of the princes as they put them on, cruelly changing them to become silent swans**. The unspoken family secret, once revealed, bites them in the back and becomes their compulsive silence.

But enchantment likes to work in circles...

It may be that those magicked, fine-threaded, nettle-yarn balls also held the key to the princess finding her brothers again and unbinding them from their curse**.

Of course it would make sense that to create the reverse of this spell it would have to be done in silence! And it makes sense that the princess would have (be given/gifted/discover!) a prototype of nettle-yarn on hand so she would know when she had beaten and refined the fibers of that spell enough for it to work.

So she would know when it was time to weave the shirts.

So she could be certain her spell would work.

So she would be reunited with her family, again.

But there's one more relevant bit of history for this story, and it's related to the bittersweet ending where the youngest prince is left with one swan's wing. It's one of the reasons this story pulls at our heartstrings so very much.

Apparently, there was a revival - of sorts - in creating ramie during the 1980's, that is, linen made from nettle fibers. The linen created was finer yet more durable than hemp and creased more precisely too. One of the concerns that reportedly came up was that nettle fibers were often so long and fine that they could become nearly invisible (!º) and could easily catch alight if they came close to an open flame.

In The Six Swans (and related tales) the Princess, (Elisa in The Wild Swans^), is hurriedly working on finishing the shirts on her way to be burned at the stake for witchcraft. (Full circle indeed!) We read the story as that the shirt for the youngest prince was unfinished and only had one sleeve, but perhaps it was less straightforward than that. Perhaps it was hurriedly done so the fibers weren't woven so well together as they ought to have been. Perhaps the sleeve hadn't reversed the curse weaving quite enough and perhaps the fibers, loosely woven on that final portion, hadn't yet been transformed themselves from the fine weavings of the not-easily-visible, to the weft of obviously a finished fabric form, and so that sleeve caught alight as it neared the flames.The undoing of the spell vanished in a puff of smoke, and the consequences of those loose threads remained forever.

Anna & Elena Balbusso

** Side note: in medicine of 'yore' and now, nettles are used to treat joint pain - something I imagine would be extremely prevalent in transformation! Nettles are also used to treat hay fever, bleeding, eczema and alopecia - all symptoms easily connected to transformation.
º Invisible thread?? That sounds like the inspiration for another tale. Or inspiration for the tricksters of another tale at least.
^And The Shape of Water! Consider this an Easter Egg. ;)

Sources used: 

• Nettle-A-Long, harvesting stinging nettle yarn
• Textile materials from the Stone Age (lots of pics!)
• The Dreamstress: A Smock of Nettles
• The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm - The Complete First Edition - Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, Translated and edited by Jack Zipes/ Illustrated by Andrea Dezsö
• 5 Proven, Remarkable Stinging Nettle Benefits

A Look At The Ash Lad With Translator Simon Hughes

Ash Lad and the Troll by Thomas Gronbukt

At first glance, a name like 'Ash Lad' might lead someone not familiar with Norwegian tales to think this popular character was just a male version of Cinderella. While the two characters share some aspects beyond the name similarities, such as a lowly position in their household and caring for the fire, Ash Lad has much more in common with the English Jack and the Russian Ivan. In their respective folklore and fairy tales, all three of them, while usually considered a little dim, or naive, are not necessarily the idiots the rest of the village (or family) would say they are. Sometimes they are quite smart, but also sometimes not, depending on the tale. What can be agreed on though, is that they're all, very, very lucky.

Interestingly, the Wikipedia article on Ash Lad (Askeladden) adds this little nugget, explaining partly why we make the Cinderella association, though the earliest known tale uses the name Askefis*:

In Asbjørnsens's first edition (1843), the name is rendered as Askepott, which in Norway is commonly associated with Cinderella. This was later turned into Askeladden by Moltke Moe.

Our guest blogger today, Simon Hughes, looks at how the name Ash Lad came to be, and why it can be confusing, even, at times, misleading.

The Ash Lad

(Behind the Name)

by Simon Hughes

(re-posted in full with kind permission)

The protagonist in a good number of Norwegian folktales, Askeladden (often translated as “Boots”, or “the Ash Lad”) is an apparent naïf, though he subsequently shows himself to be witty, shrewd, and fantastically resourceful. The oldest recorded form of the name is Oskefis (“ash-blower” - although “fis” has evolved to mean “fart” in modern Norwegian), denoting one who blows the embers to keep the fire going, a job often reserved for the lowest member of the household. Later oral traditions give the name Oskeladd, Oskelabb, Oskelamp, or Oskefot, where the second stem (-ladd, -labb, -lamp, -fot) denotes a rough woollen sock or slipper, suggesting this character has his feet in, or close to, the hearth.

Theodor Kittelsen - The Ash Lad Poking in the Ashes
(FTNH Ed: We like how he is being creative with the embers!)

In some tales, Askeladden's forename is given as Espen, Svein, Halvor, Lars, Hans, or Tyrihans. Tyrihans is a household function, though, like Askeladden: “Hans who looks after the "tyrived”, tyrived being the resin-laden pinewood used as kindling. This name suggests that Askeladden has complete responsibility for the fire, from collecting kindling, to lighting it, to tending it - quite an important job on the farm, in fact.**

Thanks Simon! 

You can read more of Simon's project of translating Norwegian Folktales (that is, to complete the translation of all of Asbjørnsen and Moe's collected tales to English), at his blog HERE. Here's his explanation of the project to inspire you to explore the ever-growing treasure trove there:

About the Norwegian Folktales Project by Simon Hughes 

The collection 

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe collected and published Norwegian folk tales and legends in the middle of the 19^thcentury. Whilst some of the tales are very well known in the English-speaking world, such as "The Three Billy-goats Gruff," many more are completely unknown, never having been translated. Imagine! All the trolls and hulders and nisses you may not have read about, yet. 

(FTNH Ed. As an example, The Pantheon Fairy Tale & Folklore Library edition of Norwegian Folktales contains 36 of the 110 listed as being collected, not including the 31 additional tales from the 'Round the Yule Log' collection, which doesn't count the variants of a few of those either. All other A&M English collections we've found have the phrase "selected from the collection of" in the subtitle. Even with the final tale numbers being a little difficult to count in light-research-mode, it's clear most English collections fall far short of including the bulk, let alone all, of Asbjørnsen and Moe's collected tales, so we're very excited to learn of this project!)

The project 

My intention with this project is to give the collection the treatment it deserves as a part of our world literature, and translate and publish the folklore that Asbjørnsen and Moe collected, in English analogues to the original publications. I am beginning with Peter Christen Asbjørnsen's Norwegian Hulder Tales and Folk Legends (1845/ 48), which has not appeared in English before.As I progress, I will continue to publish each tale on this site, when I have edited it enough to call it a final draft.

Simon (click his name to learn more about him) has a mailing list to keep you in the loop for updates and new tales, which we highly recommend joining. He also has a newly published, intriguing book of Norwegian tales...

You can click on the image above to be taken to the book options.

Every purchase supports his work!

Simon is also translating the Norwegian literary fairy tales of Regine Normann! Simon writes: "She wrote two volumes of literary fairy tales, and two volumes of legends set in the north of Norway. None of these volumes has ever been translated into English, and so the English-speaking world has no idea of the riches it has been missing, for the last eighty years." Here's a small summary on Regina Normann from the Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folklore and Fairy Tales (her name is highlighted):

You can find his Regine Normann project HERE.

It's probably easiest to find Simon on Twitter HERE - something we also recommend. Personable and with that true "folklorist-joy" of discussing all things fairy tale (but particularly those of Norwegian origin), he's a continual delight to tweet with. His comments and insights are most commonly seen being retweeted and discussed on our favorite day in social media each week, #FolkloreThursday.

Askeladden who got the princess
to say he was lying ( Asbjørnsen & Moe)
Artist: Erik Werenskiold (1855-1938)

Sources for Askeladden/Ash Lad:

• https://snl.no/askeladden
• https://snl.no/Askefis
• https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskefisen
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Askeladden
• http://www.nob-ordbok.uio.no/perl/ordbok.cgi?OPP=ladd
• http://www.nob-ordbok.uio.no/perl/ordbok.cgi?OPP=tyri

* Askefis is the name of the joint Nordic Askeladden. The name denotes one who blows on the embers (from fisa: blow, breathe) to get the fire to flare up. In some places in the Nordic region Askefis denotes a supernatural being that is located in the firepit, "the firepit spirit"; it is likely that the fairy-tale name of the disdained, but always fortunate son, who lingers by the fireplace, is a transfer from here, but probably affected by one or more foreign names of the fairy-tale "lier-in-the-ashes". The name Askefis (Norwegian most often "Oskefis") first appears in Nordic literature in the 1400s (in proverbs). (From Norwegian Encyclopedia - updated 3/3/18 from our original posting using Google Translate, to a much better translation, with special thanks to Simon Hughes)

** Important job?! Absolutely! This is Norway we're talking about. Pre-modern technology, a family would likely freeze to death much of the year if the fire in their hearth went out! [The hottest month in Oslo, the capital, averages 64°F (18°C) while the median lowest temp in Winter is 27°F (-3°C). Brr!]

Coming in October: 'Tales of Wonder: Retelling Fairy Tales through Picture Postcards'

We need this! Since the advent of Pinterest (our happy place on the internet), people have collected all sorts of obscure fairy tale postcard images from auction sites, Ebay and their own scans. There have been so many new-to-us images, it's like a portal to how painters at the turn of the century (in particular), viewed fairy tales, not to mention just how very many there have been over the years, that we had no idea existed until quite recently. We're sure this new volume will have much more than just these (we are talking about a Zipes book where, so no doubt there will be tons of chewy informational goodness as part of the package) but we're looking forward to filling in the gaps on how fairy tales have been visually represented - and spread around the world, via airmail in particular (so traveling from country to country), over time, and what impact that has had on how fairy tale impressions and images have been disseminated.

Take a look at the juicy description. (We are so excited about this study! And note the bonus Marina Warner input):

The most familiar fairy tales call to mind certain images: Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty. Yet these visions often merely reflect illustrations encountered in classic tellings of the tales. The postcards gathered here by one of the world’s foremost scholars of folk and fairy tales tell another story—of the remarkable range of interpretations and reimaginings these tales have inspired, captured, and conveyed picture by picture in this singular form. 

A pictorial history of fairy-tale postcards from the late nineteenth century to the present, Tales of Wonder presents a fascinating look at how key scenes of fairy tales have been rendered over time, suggesting a rethinking and reliving of the tales through the years. 

Drawn from the author’s collection of more than three thousand fairy-tale postcards from around the world, these five hundred beautiful illustrations reproduce oil paintings, watercolors, photographs, ink drawings, and silhouettes—all evincing the myriad ways popular artists and their audiences have reimagined these tales. After an introduction and general history of fairy tales in postcards, the book features Jack Zipes’s own translations of the most classical fairy tales in Europe and the United States, including versions by Charles Perrault and by Brothers Grimm. 

The fairy tale is not just once upon a time: it is, as fairy-tale postcard, a particular if not peculiar expression of a time, created by talented artists and innovative publishing companies. Tales of Wonder tells this intriguing history of the postcards as well as providing new perspectives on familiar stories.

Aside: Whoa. Jack Zipes has more than three-thousand fairy tale postcards from all over the globe?! How awesome is that?

(Translate: we are a little jealous and wish we could visit, have tea and look at every one!)

'Tales of Wonder: Retelling Fairy Tales through Picture Postcards' will be available October 10, 2017 but you can pre-order now.

Note: artists of fairy tale postcards aren't always easy to figure out. Click the images to enlarge to full size. Most have an artist signature of some type, though they're not always straight forward to interpret. These images do not represent the content of the book. They are meant as examples of genuine fairy tale postcards only.

'Beauty and the Beast' 2017: MORE 'Best Thought Provoking Articles' About the Movie on the Internet (Pt II)

This is likely the last post focused on Disney's current billion dollar (!) hit, the live action Beauty and the Beast. These are the remainder of the articles and summaries not included in the first list (you can find Pt I HERE), as well as a few new ones that have been written since then. The focus is a little different too. We dig into history as well as looks at parallels with the present day political and social climate, and look at the timelessness of the tale and the resonant issues that have been implied in every version (along with why they're still relevant).

From "5 Bo-Po, Feminist Things We'd Like to See in Beauty and the Beast"
(article written before movie release by social justice advocate,
who promotes awareness & education on issues of
mental health, and on violence against women)

We really like how many of these articles are using the opportunity to expand on the most-tired-&-talked about subjects - it makes for a nice brain stretch and something fresh to discuss!

We've included the link, the origin (either online magazine/newspaper, website or blog & writer), and a brief summary and/or excerpt to give you a taste of why we think it's worth a look.

Enjoy!

Note: All art images (bar the cartoon at right & a couple of instagram captures below) are from the Gallery Nucleus Show "BE OUR GUEST: AN ART TRIBUTE TO DISNEY'S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST" (of which we shared  preview HERE), showing from March 11, 2017 - April 2, 2017. 

You can see the rest of the art at Gallery Nucleus HERE.

INTO THE FOREST
Ha Gyung Lee

SMACKDOWN: Jordan Peale’s GET OUT vs. Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST - Maria Tatar's blog Breezes From Wonderland

"It’s rare to have a moment when two high-wattage cultural events collide to bring back a story–in this case Beauty and the Beast. One of those blockbuster films, Disney’s live-action version of that story, “smashed records,”...
Then there was Jordan Peele’s Get Out, a Beauty and the Beast story that pulls out all the stops and gives us what horror movies do best, exaggerating and amplifying our cultural anxieties, and putting what Frank Bruni of the NYT called a “fantastical, grotesque spin” on things. Get Out (budget of $4.5 million) as a Beauty and the Beast story? Yes, it’s that and Bluebeard too. Only in this case, the monster is Rose..."

BEAUTY IN THE FOREST
Justin Gerard

'Beauty and the Beast' Comes From a Long Line of Stories About Women Hooking Up With Animals - Jezebel
"...the confluence of modern fan culture and the big business of viral content have conspired to cram every possible remix of the Disney princesses onto your newsfeed. Every new blockbuster and every new article picturing Ariel, Belle, and Aurora as hipsters or breastfeeding moms or activists binds the fairy tale even tighter to Disney, obscuring the source material that little bit more. It behooves us to pause and look at one particular tale’s long history of retellings and consider what we lose by letting Disney dominate.
... The tale we know today is likely descended from the story of Cupid and Psyche. 
The tale is part of a broader, deeper tradition of stories about women and men disguised as beasts..."

GASTON AND LEFOU'S ARRIVAL (FRAMED)
Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Belle’s costumes don’t fit the live-action Beauty and the Beast, but they fit her brand - vox.com
"Belle is the jewel in Disney's crown, and her success is so important that not even the costume design around her is going to stand in her way, even if it doesn’t make sense for the setting or the character. Belle's iconic costumes — in particular her simple blue day dress and her voluminous golden ballgown — are great for the brand; they’re more awkward for the story.

But Belle doesn't look the part, and she was arguably never really meant to. She was designed top-down as a princess, dressed as a brand rather than a character — which makes her a living glimpse into Disney's nostalgia machine.

It's possible (costume designer Jaqueline) Durran has been clear about where credit's due because the dress disappoints on film; it's more an Emma Watson dress than a Disney wonder. ...The major thing this gown tells us about Belle is that Emma Watson plays her."

TALE AS OLD AS TIME
Cécile Carre

Beauty and the Bestiality - The New Yorker
Not as lewd a discussion as you might be led to believe from the sensational-making headline. It largely talks about the issues of falling in love with one form (the beast) that is then transformed into something else entirely (a man). It centers on the differences between Cocteau's underlying themes and commentary (including the "give me back my beast!" finish), versus Disney's, and also discusses Maria Tartar's new book on Beauty and the Beast, along with a number of 'beastly-bride' fairy tales - most of which regular fairy tale readers will be familiar with, even if they're not well known otherwise. We like that they finish with The Crane Wife.

"In Anthony Lane’s review of “Beauty and the Beast” for the magazine, he noted the glint and tug of sex in Jean Cocteau’s 1946 “La Belle et la Bête,” in which the Beast, after becoming a man again, says to Belle, “It’s as though you missed my ugliness.” Lane writes, “The lady preferred the animal. Such thoughts are out of bounds, needless to say, in the Disney garden.” And still, at the end of the remake, as Belle is dancing with her prince, who wears powder-blue pants and a hair ribbon, she asks him, flirtatiously, if he’d consider growing a beard. He looks back at her knowingly, and gives a short, beastly roar.
The “Beauty and the Beast” story may originally have held appeal because of its relatability. “Many an arranged marriage must have felt like being tethered to a monster,” Tatar writes. 
The animating question behind these tales of beastly alliances, however, remains: Which desires are quashed, and which are awakened? What is the heroine robbed of, and what is she given—both in the manner in which her story is told and within the story itself?"

SOMETHING THERE
Heather Theurer

Would The ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Characters Have Died In The French Revolution? - uproxx
This is both a fun article and good food for thought, focusing on the faux-period the movie is sort of set in. The writer is fully aware of both how absurd this 'fictional investigating' is, as well as bringing up some great points about what war Gaston and LeFou have returned from, general forms of dying at the time (which, has become a more common question with both Belle's mother and the Prince's mother given 'death' stories in the new film), The Sun King and where he might fit into the aristocratic picture, as well as whether or not Belle and the Beast would have survived the French Revolution or not.

REMEMBER ME
Jonathan Lau

The Fairy Tale That Won't Die: Beauty and the Beast - Disney Revives the Fantasy of Captivity and Monsters for Young Girls - bitchmedia.org
Written by someone who isn't a fan of the Disney princess machine, this article comments on the current political climate and parallels between it and the French aristocracy of the 1700's. Not as balanced in its argument as it could have been, this nevertheless highlights some different issues some people see as problematic in the film.

PURSUIT
Sophie Li

Beauty and the Beast: feminist or fraud? - The Guardian
Looking at the film with a critical eye - how feminist is this really? - the article delves into a few different areas, prodding at whether the 'feminist updates' are on point or if they're really just ineffective tokens. 1) incomplete subversion of the genre, 2) glorification of male domination, 3) surrendered filial relationship, 4) the great lacuna where Belle's character should be and 5) Palpable fear of ugliness. We would have liked this article better if they had paid better attention in the remake as some of the protests (eg make Belle's father less useless) were actually addressed, and addressed well, but it does bring up some excellent points we haven't seen discussed elsewhere.

'TIL CHAPTER THREE...
Phillip Light

*How feminist was Disney's original Beauty and the Beast? A critique with hindsight. - Glosswitch at NewStatesman

This article is one of our favorites. It outlines what feminism really is and how the contemporary view/idea of feminism is actually working against the principle - many examples of which can be seen in the new Beauty and the Beast if you look closer than the surface.

TIME TO GROW
Amei Zhao

The Beauty of Jean Cocteau’s ‘La Belle et la Bête’  - FilmSchoolRejects
"Forget Disney’s recent reiteration of the classic fairy tale and instead look back at where the tale’s magic began on film, with Jean Cocteau." This essentially explains why Disney's classic BatB as well as the new one still don't eclipse Cocteau's film - and why people will continue to return to it. Comparisons to the 2017 film are used but not dwelt on, for good reason, as you will read in the article.

FELT PRESENCE
Eliza Ivanova

'Beauty And The Beast' Follows A Tradition Of Animal-Human Love Stories - NPR with Maria Tatar (audio)
Transcript included. "TATAR: One reason that we relate to this story, we love it so much, we embrace it as our cultural story is that it tells us about the other - about the other who can seem beastly and terrible. And it proposes that we make a move in the direction of empathy and understanding, rather than revulsion and horror and fear."

BELLE VISITS THE WEST WING (FRAMED)
Beauty and the Beast (2017)

'Beauty and the Beast'-Lord Voldemort Mash-up - PistolShrimp comic video. It's said that "Harry Potter fans are guaranteed to hate this", but we disagree. We think, although done for comic effect, it perfectly illustrates some of the issues people are concerned about. And it's funny.

ENCHANTED WINTER
Alina Chau

Why Belle Should Have Chosen Gaston - Observer.com - Belle will definitely have been sent to the guillotine with the beast.

This article comes to a different conclusion about Belle and the Beast during the French Revolution - with good reason. Broken down into easy-to-digest Power Point presentation pages, this one is being circulated by well known scholars. Both hilarious and excellent, it attempts to get the facts straight (and extrapolate about likely story development 'after the movie' for various characters) about the time period, including what choosing the Beast over Gaston would have resulted in. Reading this made us not want Belle to choose Gaston, but find some other way to be truly feminist and make her own destiny, rather than getting embroiled in the likely futures of either Gaston or the Beast as the story currently stands. (Note; we're not saying she couldn't have ended up with the Beast - just that more change is needed there if she/they are to survive the inevitable future of the Revolution.)

A PECULIAR GIRL
Grace Kum

Gaston Arrogant Villain or Misunderstood Hero? -  Gradient.is
A roundtable with men arguing both sides, which although done in humor and a little parody here and there, hits close to home for today's males.

MORNING LIGHT IN THE PALACE (FRAMED)
Beauty and the Beast (2017)

"Beauty and the Beast" is a pretty film disguising the ugly beast of misogyny - qz.com
"Stop calling this a feminist movie." Worth reading for a discussion of what can be called 'half-hearted feminism' in society today, including Hollywoods's current efforts in filmmaking, casting and storytelling, and the disquieting image of Ivanka Trump's supposed feminism as she works in her father's White House/office.

DANCE
Alina Chau

Indian Artisans behind 'Beauty and the Beast' dress revealed - by Manveena Suri, CNN Threadwork of Belle costume has roots in Gujarat. The unreported stories of the Indian influence on designing Belle's wardrobe, as well as a look at the process it took to create an ethical and eco-friendly, sustainable costume. That the workers themselves haven't been reported and credited except by local press is ironic - though this isn't commented on with regard to the messages of the movie. There's an unwritten story in Belle's costumes waiting to be told... this article doesn't delve into that side, but it does raise awareness of some of the "little people" (as Belle would call them) who were involved in the film.

               

Why Is Belle Indecent? - DocInBoots
The animated film was not, needless to say, historically accurate and there’s no reason for the (current) film to be so. However, the film does reproduce the intricacies of eighteenth century fashion, so Belle’s fashion choices do strike me as overtly anachronistic. No wonder the villagers thought she was odd!
... One of the things that struck me in the (2017) film was that Belle was often running about with her underwear showing! How embarrassing! This was, of course, an effort to create a more ‘feminist’ wardrobe for the active heroine, but for a viewer familiar with fashion history, it could be perplexing. There were a flurry of articles about Emma Watson not wearing a corset, ascribing this to her desire for Belle to be unimpeded and active. However, corsets of the time were designed to support women’s activity and… basically… to support their bosoms! There were no bras. Corsets helped prevent painful bouncing situations.

SOME LIGHT READING
Katie Huon

Getting Gaston Right - DocInBoots
Gaston's popularity isn't something we realized until we saw the lines to meet the character at Disneyland. What is it about such an obviously-despicable character that has women (for the most part) dreaming about him? (And what does this say about women today?)

"It’s difficult to pin down why Gaston is such an attractive figure, despite being completely awful, malicious, and terrifying. I remember speaking to one actor who had played Gaston and he professed to being very confused about the women who gathered at the stage door to see him! Yet, there it is. "

WHAT A GUY, THAT GASTON
Julieta Colas

Beauty and the Beast Time Loop Theory - from Reddit, one for the fans.
Perhaps the village is stuck in their own mid-18th century Groundhog Day... The theory neatly ties up  few odd issues, even while it brings other questions to the fore.

ENCHANTED
Janice Chu

Let's talk about the weird psychosexual energy in Beauty and the Beast - TheWeek

"...the original (Disney movie) was built around distortions of masculinity that are tough to replicate live — from a rakish talking candelabra to a literal sexy beast to a man who ate 48 eggs every morning to help him get large. It takes secondary sex characteristics to a truly troubling extreme, sexualizing feather dusters and repeatedly showcasing the contrast between tiny-waisted Belle and her giant-biceped muscle-suitors. It asks you to regard inter-species love as redemptive while begging you not to think too hard about it, and tricks you into kind of hating that redemption when the poor castle servants recover their former shapes. (I'm sorry, but human Mrs. Potts isn't half as charming without her teapot face...)

But by acknowledging the stranger aspects of the original, Bill Condon's live-action adaptation is an appropriately uncomfortable delight. "

HER JOURNEY
Milsae Kim

Belle's Tax-Funded Fairy Tale Life - FEE Foundations of Economic Education
Another great article looking at practicalities of the setting. Turns out the "little people" in Belle's town are anything but rustic, backward and ignorant. They're actually very successful business folks and specialists in their thriving trades (so much commerce and produce for one little town!) The 'boujee' castle (ie. elite) and court of the Prince/Beast is contrasted with the town and one begins to wonder if the town wasn't better off with a Beast instead of a Prince. But Belle's aptitude for invention may be the way forward... A well researched and entertaining read.

WOLVES IN WINTER
Sara Kipin

In Fairy Tales, Less Is More - The Straits Times Culture Vulture Column
The problem of getting too specific in a classic tale is both the number of details required for it to make sense (and the inevitable issues that don't) but even worse is that the sense of adaptable magic - magic that has its own form for anyone who hears or reads the tale - is in danger of being lost because of the specificity. The magic of the story, and therefore its resonance, is no longer as accessible to as wide an audience.

"Spelling things out for the audience can cause stories to lose their magic.

Not too long ago, I revisited an illustrated book of fairy tales I used to love reading when I was a kid. Leafing through its dog-eared pages, I was struck by how sparse, nondescript, the illustrations were compared to how I'd remembered them.
A sketchy rendering of anything - a rose, a water pump, a library - can expand into something larger than life if it captures a child's imagination.
But do films with such high-definition and sweeping cinematography give children the same scope for imagination that more "primitive" mediums such as books, cartoons or even older films used to offer?"

PROVINCIAL TOWN
Celine Kim

The Feminist Message of the New Beauty and the Beast Has Always Been Part of the Story - Time.com
“... ever since its first publication in 1740, the story has had another, perhaps even deeper takeaway: the importance of a woman's right to choose her own husband.

"... It’s a story written and published by a woman, with a strong female character at its lead, who is very reflective and intelligent and she makes her own choices, which is not something you saw in French literature or in French society at the time,” says Paul Young, associate French professor at Georgetown, who teaches a course on 17th and 18th century French literature."

SOIS NOTRE INVITÉ
Tiffany Le

What 'Beauty And The Beast' Teaches Us About Girls' Education - MoviePilot

"... having the release of Beauty and the Beast at this particular point in history brings the focus back onto the subject, particularly at a time where there are calls to make mainstream feminism more intersectional and address issues that women in minority groups face. It infers to us, the audience, that the disapproving glances Belle receives on her daily trips to the library can manifest in far more aggressive ways for many girls across the world who don't have access to primary or secondary education. This could be through violence or an arranged marriage. But, this can be changed if they are sent to school, and consequently given the opportunity to decide what they want to do with their own future."

THE BEAST
Grace Kum

Found an article worth sharing that we missed? Let us know - either by mail or in the comments - and we'll update this post, with thanks and finders-credit to you. :)