A Retelling Less Grimm

Like many others, I grew up with fairy tales and mythology, both in books and movies. Most common were the stories from European writers, like Grimm and Anderson. Yet they don’t always promote healthy ideals for children to be aspiring to, especially the more traditional versions from male authors. So often it is a woman, a crone, pitted against a woman inherently good because of her beauty. I seek to use a series of portraits to portray how the archetypes of women in such stories are cyclical and the maiden is not so different from the crone, women should not exist separately, but together. I think it is important to observe the male biases in stories written by men and help others to look past such biases to the ways women, and men, can subvert the expectations such biases create in society. Thus I will also be including a description with my portraits in order to ensure my audience has the proper context to understand the question I ask of them: are you, as a viewer encouraged to think critically about the role that female fairy tale archetypes play in women’s societal and political roles or in how women are viewed?