"I don't want the next best thing."

This post is a slightly edited version of a paper I once wrote which is appropriate to this page. I just thought I would share it because I wanted to talk about the subject of this paper, the song "Fairytale" by Sara Barielles, on this blog, and this is the easiest way to do so. "Fairytale" is a song that directly addresses the subjects of this blog by exposing the false expectations set up by the patriarchy and giving us the real "ever after" rather than the happy one.

Since I'm talking about the song, I figured it would be

good to include it.

“Fairytale” satirizes four fairytales in the first two verses. The song begins with Cinderella “sitting on her bedroom floor.” (Barielles) “Feminists have long been aware that the role of Cinderella, which patriarchy imposes on the imagination of young girls, is a destructive role because it equates femininity with submission, encouraging women to tolerate familial abuse, wait patiently to be rescued by a man, and view marriage as that only desirable reward for ‘right’ conduct.” (Tyson 88) In the story we hear as children, after enduring years of being treated poorly by her step-mother and step-sisters, Cinderella gets her happily ever after with a prince who swept her off her feet at a ball.

In Bareilles’s version, Cinderella is a house wife with “a crush on the guy at the liquor store cause Mr. Charming don’t come home anymore and she forgets why she came here.” Instead of living happily with the man who saved her, she is stuck with an absent husband who, one can assume, spends his time working rather than loving her. When one thinks about it, this is to be expected. She married a prince, the epitome of a man whose work is his life. She went into her marriage expecting the romantic man who saved her to last forever, but people change, especially people who get a big promotion and have to spend a lot more time in the office, or, in Mr. Charming’s case, throne. Now, Cinderella has come to the point where she can’t even remember wanting to have the life she does. After all, what’s the point of marrying a man you never see? It’s an ending for which she wasn’t prepared. She’s turned to drinking as a result and visits the liquor store enough to have developed feelings for the clerk, possibly because he’s the one who supplies the alcohol and therefore, escape.

The next “ever after” we hear is that of “Sleeping Beauty.” Sleeping Beauty does have a name, Aurora, but few people seem to actually remember it. When most people familiar with the story refer to Aurora, they merely call her “Sleeping Beauty,” which is probably why she’s not called by name in the song. The name “Sleeping Beauty” is in and of itself patriarchal. The use of the word “beauty” instead of the name of the character emphasizes that the heroine’s beauty is important. It also minimizes the importance of the character’s name, which minimizes the importance of the character as a person. In “Fairytale,” “Sleeping Beauty” is tired of the demands her prince continually makes of her. The high point of Sleeping Beauty is when her prince kills a dragon, the story’s typical “bad girl,” and rushes to the tower to kiss Aurora and wake her up. “This ending implies that the proper patriarchal young woman is sexually dormant until “awakened” by the man who claims her.” (Tyson, 89)

Whether the demands of Aurora’s prince are sexual or not is left undetermined. One could interpret the line about how he “keeps her from dreaming” (Barielles) as he keeps her from sleeping and therefore, from having actual dreams. This is supported by the line in which she says, “None for you dear prince, I’m tired today.” (Barielles) In this context, the phrase “none for you” has a connotation that implies the person saying it is talking about sex as American culture uses many similar phrases to talk about sexual encounters or lack thereof. Some examples are “get some” or “not getting any.” However, it is possible that, in addition, the “dreaming” that she is talking about is dreaming in the sense of wanting or hoping for something. This is especially likely when one considers that the full line says, “I’d rather sleep my whole life away than have you keep me from dreaming.” (Barielles) In “Sleeping Beauty,” Aurora is supposed to spend eternity sleeping after pricking her finger. This is depicted as a terrible destiny. However, in the song, she would prefer it to living a life stripped of dreaming, wanting, hoping.

Snow White’s depiction in “Fairytale” is possibly the most satirical. As I mentioned in a previous post, one of Snow White’s most important factors is her purity. However, in “Fairytale,” Snow White is certainly not pure. Somehow, she is back with the dwarfs. Perhaps in this version her prince never came. Maybe she’s divorced. Either way, she is now stuck looking after a bunch of men rather than being married to one. Her lack of purity shows itself after the dwarfs go to bed when she “calls up a friend/ Says will you meet me at midnight?” (Barielles)

On the surface, the idea of calling someone to relax with after a hard day of washing dishes and watching after “seven itty-bitty men” (Barielles) can be innocent. However, when one takes the culture in which Sara Bareilles is writing into account, it is definitely in no way innocent. In current American culture, if one person calls another in the middle of the night to meet, it is generally assumed that it’s a meeting of a sexual nature. The use of the word “friend” emphasizes that this person is not a spouse or even significant other. This person, presumably a man, is merely a friend with whom Snow occasionally meets to have sex. This is about as far from the patriarchal view of pure as a girl can get. Bareilles has taken Snow White from virgin to whore. What’s more, it seems as though her actions as a “whore” are the thing that keeps Snow White from complete boredom with her life, which completely opposes patriarchal ideology.

The last fairytale Barielles chose to address is “Rapunzel.” Rapunzel was locked in a tower and never allowed to cut her hair, since climbing it was the only way for her witch of a foster mother to get to her. She was, once again, saved by a prince, and once again, in Sara Barielles’s version, she wishes she wasn’t. In talking about her hair, she reveals she “would have cut it [her]self if [she] knew men could climb hair.” (Barielles) Before she was rescued, all she wanted was to get away from her tower. She wanted to be free from that one room, her prison, but now she’s so tired of the life she’s ended up with that she wants to “find another tower somewhere and keep away from the windows.” (Barielles) She got freedom, but doesn’t seem to feel any freer.

The first two verses are a rebellion through satire, but the last part of the song is far more outright. In the third line of the third verse, Barielles says to “go and tell your white night that he’s handsome in hindsight. [She doesn’t] want the next best thing.” Through most of the song, the chorus calls out the typical fairytale ending as temporary. “You’re so worried ‘bout the maiden though you know she’s only waiting on the next best thing.” (Barielles) This says that, once, the ending that the girl or princess has now was the best, but it isn’t anymore. Now, she’s just waiting for the next “best thing” that she can find. However, in the last verse and chorus the phrase “next best thing” holds different meaning. In the last part of the song, the phrase “next best thing” doesn’t mean “next” as in one best thing following another. It means second. She is tired of settling and has decided to find the real “best thing,” implying that the “happily ever after” prescribed by society was never best at all. She takes a stand in the last two lines of the third verse. In fact, the lines hold images of the narrator of the song literally breaking barriers. She “hold[s her] head down and [she] break[s those] walls round [her],” saying she “can’t take no more of [their] fairytale love.” (Barielles) By including this image, Barielles is telling women that they need to break out of the prisons, towers, or houses they’re being kept in, whether literal or metaphorical. She persists with the idea that it’s time to change expectations in the last chorus of the song.

The last chorus has two added lines between the phrases “you know she’s only waiting” and “the next best thing.” The first of the added lines, “spent her whole life being graded on the sanctity of patience and a dumb appreciation,” (Barielles) outlines the unfairness of the “virgin” expectation. Women everywhere are judged by their purity, how nurturing or submissive they are, but, as the lyrics continue, “the story needs some mending and a better happy ending cause [she doesn’t] want the next best thing.” (Barielles) These lines support the stance that she takes in the second half of the third verse. The narrator of the song is sick of accepting what some man is willing to allow her. Moreover, she’s ready to break out of the stereotype and change the meaning of “happily ever after,” but she needs others’ help. The song wouldn’t have been written if she didn’t.

The only way that women will ever come close to true equality is to challenge the patriarchy, together. In Barielles’s fairytale endings, the women are real, not forced into the “good girl” image of the patriarchy. “Patriarchy continually exerts forces that undermine women’s self-confidence and assertiveness, then points to the absence of these qualities as proof that women are naturally, and therefore correctly, self-effacing and submissive.” (Tyson 86-87) Women have learned to defy the forces of patriarchal and take control of their confidence and, in most cases, their bodies. The idea is spreading that it’s okay for a woman to want for herself, to search for sources of pleasure not just procreation. These days, the ideal “good girl” is rare, and that is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s rather good.

Sources:

"Fairy Tale" by Sara Barielles

Critical Theory Today: A Friendly User's Guide by Lois Tyson

Pictures from Disney's Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Tangled

No One Mourns the Wicked

The part of the above video relevant to this post 

begins at one minute, 30 seconds.

"No One Mourns the Wicked" is the title of the opening song of the popular musical Wicked. Wicked is a back story for the witches from The Wizard of Oz, mainly the Wicked Witch of the West. In it, the wicked witch is exonerated from her crimes with an explanation of how she became the way she was and how she was not truly wicked at all. Too bad not all wicked witches and step-mothers get meaningful back stories. Instead, they are left as vain, petty, jealous women determined to tear others down for their own victory.

As you may have gathered from the above introductory paragraph, in this post we're going to take a break from the princesses and talk instead about how the wicked characters in fairy tales deserve perhaps a little more sympathy.

One of fairy tales' main problems is that they participate in the "good" girl, "bad" girl dichotomy. Of course, the good girls are the near perfect princesses. The "bad" girls are the wicked women. These are the women who fail to conform to patriarchal ideals, largely by being imperfect. They are not the prettiest. When they are beautiful, they feel the need to be most beautiful, like the evil queen in Snow White. The evil queen is also a good example in her jealousy and vanity. They don't take kindly to being slighted, like Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty whose revenge is enacted because she wasn't invited to the christening of the princess. In other words, these women have faults. They are imperfect, as all people are.

Other traits these women also tend to have are ambition and aggression, which in moderation are not negative traits in a person. Men are often applauded for ambition or aggression, but a woman who shows it is turned into a monster. In these stories, ambition is often tightly tied to greed. Consider the evil queen again. She has greatly exaggerated ambition and aggression and a great deal of greed. She wants a throne and is willing to kill for it. Being beautiful is not enough, she must be the most beautiful. There is also the wicked step-mother in Cinderella who is determined for her daughter(s) to marry a prince so they can all become rich and royal. She doesn't care about love, only money. They are also occasionally worldly or more outspoken in their sexuality. The first princess story villain to come to mind with this particular trait is Ursula from The Little Mermaid, especially in the Disney version. If you aren't sure what I mean, take a look at the video below.

Notice the shimmying and pay special attention to

the lines at four minutes, 25 seconds.

The final thing these women share is that they are all severely punished. They are defeated, often by a man. They do not behave they way in which they should, so they are cast out or imprisoned or killed. In a way, they are the cautionary tale within fairy tales. The princesses encourage patriarchal gender roles because they are everything women "ought to be," and they get rewarded. In contrast, the wicked women of fairy tales are imperfect. They do not obey the rules, and they are punished. It's a "be like this or you end up like this" sort of mentality.

One of the worst parts that these characters are so incredibly flat. They have no interests beyond their revenge or goal. At least princesses are allowed to have hobbies like singing or sewing or befriending animals. Granted, these are sweet, acceptable pastimes, but they are pastimes nonetheless. The wicked women are the villains. They aren't allowed any hobbies. They really aren't allowed a back story, nothing that could make a reader or watcher or listener sympathize with them.

Luckily, in today's pop-culture, we do have a few instances of sympathy for the wicked woman. In the new Disney version of Rapunzel's story, called Tangled, Mother Gothel keeps her vanity and her greed, but she also shows some legitimate tender moments for Rapunzel. She does seem to have developed legitimate feelings not just for Rapunzel's hair but for the girl as well. This gives her a slightly rounder character than most Disney villains. There's also the popular television show Once Upon a Time, which gives back stories for the evil queen from Snow White, Regina, and Rumpelstiltskin, the villain of the story of the same name. These back stories do not make these characters good. However, they do explain how they became the way they are. They create sympathy for their situation, if not actual liking. They also give the characters a chance for redemption, which every person deserves. One story that does take a wicked woman and make her completely good is the one I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Wicked. Before I leave you, I would like to finish up with a fact that makes me smile. The original book version of Wicked, called Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, was written by a man.

Sources:
Disney's Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and Tangled
Wicked: The Musical
ABC's Once Upon a Time
Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide by Lois Tyson

"I'll Make a Man Out of You"

     In this post, I'm going to talk about a strong Disney character who does actually manage to stay strong. I feel as though I've been a bit tough on Disney and fairy tales, so I'm going to begin with one of their more redeeming movies and female characters today. When watching the movie Mulan, there are mainly two songs that jump out as illustrating the type of sexism I've been focusing on in this blog. The first one is the scene before Mulan meets the matchmaker. If you don't recall the scene about which I'm speaking, I've included it below. 

This scene talks a lot about what makes a good wife. It mentions beauty, obedience, having good breeding and good taste, and being a hard worker. It encourages reaching for the impossible idea of perfection by describing girls as "perfect porcelain dolls." It's also mentioned several times that a girl's only purpose is to get married and have sons. It claims that that is the only way for women to bring honor to their family.
     The next song is from men's perspective, unlike "Bring Honor to Us All." It's called "A Girl Worth Fighting For."

In this song, three of the main men in the movie describe their ideal women. The important things about these women are that they're beautiful, they're good cooks, and they adore their man. Then when Mulan mentions a woman "who's got a brain, who always speaks her mind," the men don't even pause for an entire second before dismissing the idea. However, these songs are not the main parts of Mulan that bother me. Rather, it's the need for Mulan to dress as a man in order to prove herself and the fact that it's widely accepted that if she's caught, she'll be killed.
     Mulan isn't the only piece of media that's about a woman having to pretend to be a man. This idea reaches all the way back the the Elizabethan Era and Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, in which a woman pretends to be a man after being shipwrecked. The popular movie She's the Man is actually a modern adaptation of this particular Shakespeare play. In this adaptation, the character of Viola won't be allowed onto her school's soccer team because she's a girl. As a result, she disguises herself as her brother, Sebastian, and takes his place at his school when she finds out he's putting off coming home from a trip. She uses this disguise to join his school's soccer team and prove herself as a soccer player.
     Another old example with a modern adaptation is an old English folk song about a woman who dresses as a highwayman to discover if her suitor truly loves her. In the poem, Sovay, the woman in the poem, gives her suitor a ring. She then proceeds to dress as a man and attempt to rob him of it. The man holds true and refuses to give the "highwayman" the ring, so Sovay knows that he loves her. However, in the modern adaptation, the book Sovay by Celia Rees, the man gives the ring to the "highwayman." Then when Sovay reveals to him that she is the highwayman, he gets defensive and dumps her, before she has a chance to dump him. Sovay then discovers that her father is being accused of treason and begins life as a highwayman in an attempt to save her family's honor. Disguised as a man, she finds she is more liberated and has more freedom than she ever had as a woman.
   A more recent story, one more along the lines of Mulan is Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet, a fantasy story about a girl who wants to fight. In this series, Alanna is a girl who wants to be a knight. Her twin brother wants to be a mage and detests the fighting arts, so he and Alanna switch places. He goes to a convent where young boys and girls can be trained in magic, and she goes to the castle to be trained as a knight. Only the twins and two of their servants are aware of the deception, since Alanna would likely be executed if she were ever discovered. Sound familiar? Like Mulan, Alanna disguises herself as a boy to fight under the threat of death if she's discovered.
   All of these stories emphasize the freedom of being male and the idea that men are worth more than women. However, I would be remiss if I did not also talk about the positive things that these specific female characters represent. These girls rebel against social norms. They prove that a woman is capable of more than just being a wife. It's because of this that Mulan is one of my favorite Disney girls. She's not a damsel in distress or, coincidentally, a princess. She's unorthodox, and while her movie may emphasize some stereotypes, she does not.


References:
Mulan (movie)
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
She's the Man (movie)
Sovay by Celia Rees, as well as the traditional English folk song by the same name
Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce

Purest of Them All

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" 

     This line is probably the most famous quote from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is one of the fairy tales that perpetuates patriarchal values the most. The propaganda begins in the title. The "heroine" of the story is named Snow White. White is typically the color of purity, which is why in many cultures brides wear white for their weddings. The story begins by labeling the main female character as pure in the most prominent way possible. She is also depicted as a perfect housewife, even before she's married. She's first seen as a maid, so we know she can keep house. This also shows her humility. She's a princess who seems to have no real problems or objections to being made to clean the castle she should be ruling. When she first arrives at the dwarfs' house, the first thing she notices other than everything's small size is how untidy it is. After she meets the dwarfs and they agree to let her stay, she immediately falls into a role of cooking and cleaning. 

     Every day, she bids the dwarfs farewell as they go to work, then cleans and cooks dinner for when they arrive home, and she sings while she does it! Never have I ever met a woman who loved to cook and clean as much as Snow White. Actually, I'm not sure there are even any other fairy tale women who do. Cinderella doesn't mind, but it doesn't make her happy. Aurora seems to have more of a job of gathering than cooking or cleaning. Belle daydreams and lets her father make a mess. It's only Snow White who portrays the quintessential housewife who keeps the house tidy and has dinner ready when the men get home. She has more in common with June Cleaver than most princesses. 

Snow White "whistling while she works."

     Then there's her beauty. A huntsman is so enchanted by her that he defies a queen who wouldn't think twice about killing him for disobeying her. Upon being discovered by the dwarfs, she's mistaken for an angel. She even charms Grumpy, who first asserted that "all females is poison! They're full of wicked wiles!" Of course, it is often repeated that she is the "fairest of them all," so if anyone were going to charm a grumpy dwarf, it would be her. She even manages to bag a prince who falls in love with her when he sees her singing at a well, despite her being dressed as a scullery maid. Prince's didn't love scullery maids at that point in history, so she really must have been something.  He falls in love at first sight, the way fairy tale princes often do. This, of course, means he falls in love with her voice and beauty, which isn't really love. Very few of the heroes in fairy tales actually take the time to get to know the women they whisk off into happily ever afters. Instead, they mistake admiration, attraction, or infatuation for love and assume that the beautiful woman they've saved will make a good wife. But the notion of love at first sight is a debate for another day.

Sources:
Disney's Snow White

"You're so worried 'bout the maiden.

I don't care for your fairytales.

So long my luckless romance, goodbye my hopeless dream.

I don't want the next best thing.

Big love with no apology,

Tomorrow belongs to me."

Song lyrics from: "Fairytale" by Sara Barielles, "Almost Lover" by A Fine Frenzy, "Big, Blonde, and Beautiful" from Hairspray, and "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" from Cabaret.

"I'm a damsel. I'm in distress. I can handle this."

There are a few Disney girls who do attempt to dispel the damsel in distress stereotype, especially in more recent movies. One such girl who comes from a little further back is Meg from Hercules. When we meet Meg, she's got moxie. She doesn't need a man and doesn't want help. I always loved Meg because of this first impression. She had attitude and sarcasm. She was real, not some sickly sweet version of man's idea of what women should be. But even a girl as kick-ass as Meg ends up needing rescuing by, of course, a big strong man. In the end, she's shown as weak. She would have died if Hercules hadn't played the hero and literally dived into death to save her. She's also shown as weak in a different way, earlier in the movie. In fact, she's shown as having the stereotypical female weakness- emotions. She gives up her freedom for a guy she loves, who then leaves her for someone else, and that's what turned her into the jaded girl we meet and love at the beginning. Then, when she falls for Hercules, she becomes a little less sarcastic. She loses some of her sass. But it's not shown as a negative thing. Instead, falling in love with Hercules seems to make her softer, kinder, and in some ways, happier.

My question is: Why does she have to lose her strength and moxie to be in love? Wouldn't it have been a better story if she hadn't changed so much?

Sources:

Disney's Hercules

A Cautionary Tale, Not a Fairy Tale

Like many girls, I grew up hearing a lot of fairy tales and watching a lot of Disney princess movies. I was taught to want the charming prince and the fairy tale romance. And like many girls, I still love my Disney and still want those things. However, I also see the ways in which fairy tales, wonderful as they seem, are a form of oppression for women. They encourage dependence on a man and perpetuate stereotypes about how a woman should be. Somehow, many girls and women seem not to notice these things, or perhaps they're willfully ignoring them because they don't want to lose the sweetness these stories held when they were children. My purpose in this blog is to shine a light on the undertones in fairy tales in an attempt to make them harder to ignore. This blog is a cautionary tale, not a fairy tale.