It’s was interesting to read Demian’s last post, because the writing of my newest book just led me to revisit how women are portrayed in fairy tales. This is a well studied subject in feminist literature, but as I paged through the beautifully illustrated tales I read my own children, I realized that the female parental figures in them are often evil stepmothers. (No wonder Shakespeare didn’t include Ophelia’s mother in Hamlet!)
This morning, I thought about the messages we give our children again as a group of exhuberant girls in a YWCA workshop I led reviewed a clip from the movie Bring It On (there’s a sequel, too). We talked about the ways they saw girls hurt girls in the movie, and then I asked them if they could think of other examples of similar behaviors. Hands shot up, of course, but when I asked: “How about a movie that shows a girl in a really positive way, that makes you proud?” there weren’t any volunteers.
We discussed why there are so many “bad” movies and so few good, and later when a visitor asked what they had learned, one girl mentioned our talk. Hopefully, some seeds were planted….
If you’re looking for some wonderful “girl” movies, here are two I can endorse wholeheartedly:
I *love* Whale Rider! I never heard of “Akeelah and the Bee” though, but will definitely pick it up. I get so frustrated with the lack of good female role model movies, and even more so with the lack of good mother/daughter or significant older woman/younger woman relationships.
Is there a way to get a hold of your rewrite of Hamlet?