Unwanted sleep… among other things
forced sleep is primarily used in Fairytales as the launch point of the tale, As we know similar to versions of fairy tales about princesses and princes. However it had proven to be a systemic teacher in gender roles. The concept of the women waking from her coma by the kiss of a man is forever gender role bias, but is not a new concept. For example, The Sun, Moon, and Talia by Giambattista Basile was a pioneer for the trope of the sleeping woman, or cursed woman. This text was originally published around the early sixteenth century. For its time, the text is a masterpiece. The background of the tale is simple, a girl is born to a powerful ruler. To ensure his family line he has prophecy men foresee her fate by death of flax splinter. To ensure her safety the king rids the kingdom of the substance, yet doesn’t tell Talia about her fate. Many years later Talia observes a woman through a window spinning flax on a spindle. With so much excitement she ran down to give it a try — to her misfortune she got pricked by a piece of flax and was determined dead. Her father in despair dressed her up and put her atop of a tower alone in the woods… until one day. One day a king’s hunting hawk flew in the window, desperate for a kill like a predator, he followed. To his surprise lay the most beautiful girl he’d seen, and she was asleep. As all kings would, he raped her and went on about his day. She became pregnant and bore a child while asleep; she abruptly woke when her newborn twins sucked the flax out from underneath her finger nail by order of these fairies. When his original queen learns of this she demands the cooks to boil the twins and feed it to the king, and she tries to burn the poor Talia alive. The king walks in on this and catches his wife — he sends them to die for their harm against his new family… They live happily ever after with their twins.
This is a darker, cannibalistic, and more sexual version of the highly renowned and famously known Disney fairy tale, sleeping beauty. A much friendlier version for the kids, we see how the rape and the treachery is turned into evil plans and romance in the children's movie. Prince Philip must give sleeping beauty her true love’s kiss to awake her but is slowed down by the evil witch maleficent. We all know what happens in the end, a happily ever after scenario with a wedding perhaps… unfortunately it is not the same in real life.
Consent has always been an issue in human nature, from back in the medieval times especially. But even now more than ever in modern day we see sexual harassment and rape being exposed on the news more than ever. These tropes such as rape and gender roles may be used as story builders in fairytales, yet so many real people face these horrors in their own lives. For example the title of this post is called forced sleep. I know for a fact most women victims of this evil- who slipped something to fall asleep or not remember- want to see their rappers behind bars or worse. This is a reminder of how fairy tales reflect life back at us more blatantly.
