The Used Woman — Katelyn Leary
Many of the tropes that we find throughout fairytales have to do with women, and they aren’t positive ones. According to many famous and well-loved tales, women are only good for their looks, charm, and labor. Most importantly, men are more than welcome to do whatever they want with women for their own personal benefit, with no regard for anyone but themselves. In a story we have specifically read in class, “Sun, Moon, and Talia”, we see recurring themes with using women. Talia, the main character, gets a splinter from a spinning wheel lodged under her nail, which causes her to fall dead. While she is unresponsive and unconscious, the king “gathers the fruits of love” with the dead Talia fully knowing she was not aware, and goes on to forget it even happened. While dead, Talia gives birth to twins, a boy and girl. One of the babies sucks the splinter out of Talia’s finger looking for milk, and she magically wakes up. Being alone with two babies and having no idea how, why or what had happened to her is easily overlooked throughout the rest of the story.
Essentially, Talia was raped by the King. What is disturbing, is that when she was unconscious, the King literally could not contain his sexual urges and felt a strong desire for her. He did not seem to have these urges as strongly when she was awake, which creates a more disgusting fetish. He is also married to a completely different woman, which normalizes cheating on your partner. As the story is told, the King “forgets his actions”, (that is not something you forget, especially if you feel that strongly), and goes about his life normally. The normalized magic in this tale allows for Talia to come back to consciousness. When she wakes up, she is slightly confused about where these children came from, but it is brushed past. The King apparently has no shame for his actions, and tells Talia what has happened. She sees no issue with him taking advantage of her whatsoever and goes on to happily marry the king who leaves his wife. This creates a very bad image for women being okay with being raped, abused, and taken advantage of. It also normalizes romanticizing sexual violence.
As we advance as a culture and society, we have come to terms with the fact that stories like our beloved “Sleeping Beauty” that have most of the same tropes regarding using women and sexual assault are not appropriate anymore. Men do not get away with any of these actions anymore, and women are seen more for what they are worth. Feminism has been and continues to be on the rise more than ever. Gender equality is extremely promoted in every aspect of life, especially in the workplace. Lots of things like these stories that promote bad things are being reevaluated and fixed up to align more with modern views. People have petitioned to get “Sleeping Beauty” removed from preschool and elementary school libraries so that children do not read it and get the wrong idea. “Is the answer really to ban every story that advertises an outmoded version of relationships? Maybe the solution is to reinvent those old tales with a modern twist; Angela Carter did it, as did the Shrek movies, and there’s now a thriving market for books that offer positive role models after the success of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls” (Stephanie Merritt). I agree with this take, people will be exposed to these situations regardless, so we should make them aware and keep the historic stories alive; all while making sure the appropriate and correct message is getting across.
