Becoming the Woman I Always Wanted to Be
How I’m finding my fairy tale
Five years ago, my friend, a brilliant business coach, encouraged me to do something for my faltering website.
“Take pictures of yourself dressed up as your favorite fictional character,” she told me.
I wasn’t surprised at all by this advice, being as her website, at the time, was peppered with sensual photos of her dressed as a mermaid. And because she’s not only a successful entrepreneur, but also a few years older than I am, I felt very confident about taking her advice. If she could dress up as a mermaid in her 40s, surely I could get away with putting on a red hood in my late 30s.
My favorite fictional character is Little Red Riding Hood. I love that story so much. It’s dangerous, sexy, scary, raw. I love the idea of the young, innocent woman going into the woods and having to face the Big Bad Wolf.
I see the wolf as a symbol of many things. You could call him the face of the patriarchy, the system that eats up women and spits them out. You could identify him as a sexy mentor, showing her how to be fierce and wild — and probably giving her a few good orgasms along the way. I even see him as a part of Little Red — she is the wolf, the wild creature in the woods that won’t be so scary once she comes to embrace that feral…
