Thread: THE HUNTER AND THE PREY: A NARRATIVE FORETOLD IN FOLK & FAIRYTALE

Since the release of Netflix's "The Ted Bundy Tapes", and that of the trailer of the movie about Bundy (starring Zac Efron), the popularity of one of the most well known USA serial killers has increased.

In the #MeToo era, it is of the utmost importance that society, but especially women, go back to the tools that have existed for centuries and make the most of that knowledge in order to defend ourselves, and also to warn and to prevent. Stories are one of those tools.

In this thread I will specifically focus on two of these folk-stories-turned-fairytales: Little Red Riding Hood, and Bluebeard. (As a reminder, she who tweets this is a witch and also a Major in Hispanic Literature. Stories are made of WORDS. WORDS HAVE POWER.)

According to anthropologist Jamie Tehrani (Durham University), Little Red Riding Hood's roots might go back all the way to the 1st century a.d. Tehrani identified at least 58 variations of the story, which include folk tales (oral tradition) found throughout Europe, ...

...the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. You can read more about Tehrani's research here:

https://www.livescience.com/41206-evolution-of-little-red-riding-hood-mapped.html

The best known versions of Little Red Riding Hood are, of course, those by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. Perrault's version is thought to be the source...

...of the Brothers Grimm's version. The latter is widely seen as a more violent and 'gorey' version of the tale, mainly because of its ending: a lumberjack rescues Little Red & her granny by cutting the wolf's belly open with his ax. Now, there are MANY interpretations...

...of the 'meaning' or 'message' behind the LRRH story, particularly of the Brothers Grimm version.
There are several key elements in both Perrault's and Grimm's versions:
- A female protagonist: a young innocent girl (not old enough to be married, but old enough to be sent...

...on an errand through the dark/dangerous woods, *alone*.
- A villain or threat: the wolf; cunning, smart, hungry.
- The girl throws caution to the wind (despite her mother's warnings) when confronted with a charming stranger.
- The girl's innocence operates against her. ...

- The wolf adopts a mask, i.e. impersonates someone that his chosen victim finds 'safe', 'warm', 'familiar', 'non-threatening', 'BELOVED'.
- What is perhaps *the* key element in the story: the RED riding hood which the girl is wearing.

(...)

RED is the color of blood (thus, a symbol of: menstruation, virginity, birth, wounds, and hunting), of sex and lust, and of course with such a rich and impressive connection with these concepts, it is a color of warning. Of danger.

The intention of LRRH as meant by Perrault...

...and the Brothers Grimm was, mostly, that little 'silly' girls should listen to their elders and never ignore their advice, otherwise risking disgrace.
Later readings from anthropologists, psychologists, etc point to a harsher (but more useful and realistic) interpretation:...

IT IS ONLY THROUGH EXPERIENCE OF THE WORLD THAT GIRLS CAN BECOME WOMEN.
Coming out of the wolf's belly could be perceived, then, as a rebirth.

Still, the story needs a man (lumberjack) to rescue the woman (LRRH)...Quite a bleak and outdated, patriarchal-oriented message. ...

...Understandable too, because the Brothers Grimm version is from 1812. But we're now in the 21st century, right?

Thank Satan for Angela Carter. Her story collection "The Company of Wolves and other stories" (1979) gives a twist to the story: the Wolf manifests...

...himself as a Hunter who seduces LRRH; *but* he also ends up being seduced *by her*. He becomes the trigger for LRRH's sexual awakening, and in the end we see both of them run off as wolves, mates, equals.

We will leave this idea here for a bit, and reprise it later. (...)

Let's go back in time to 15th century France. A serial killer of children, Gilles de Rais, became infamous for his crimes. He became a cautionary tale, first for children, then for girls and young women. His story was retold and reborn as a folktale, reprised by Perrault in 1697.

"Bluebeard" summary: an older man (mysterious, very wealthy, controlling, violent and murderous) marries an innocent young girl. Shortly after the wedding he goes away on business & gives her keys to the whole castle. She can enter every room EXCEPT one. Of course...

...her natural curiosity gets the best of her, and she uses the key to open the forbidden room. In the room hang all the corpses of her husband's previous brides. She drops the keys, horrified, and runs out of the room.

...

...The key of the horror room gets stained in blood, and is *impossible* to clean off. The more she cleans it, the more the blood stands out. She knows her husband will find out she disobeyed him and, in despair, waits for his return.
Indeed, he comes back and...

...tells her he has to kill her for her disobedience.
Her wit comes into play: can he give her one night to make her peace with god? He agrees, reluctantly. This gives her time to call upon her brothers' aid.
The next morning the brothers arrive, kill Bluebeard, and save her...

...As a widow, she inherits all of Bluebeard's fortune & estate. She gives the dead victims of her late husband a proper burial, and remarries. The End.

The color BLUE symbolizes: aristocracy (i.e. 'blue blood'), exoticism, and the periphery (anything eccentric or odd).
...

Psychoanalist Clarissa Pinkola Estés tells us the key is in the KEYS, literally. These represent knowledge. The protagonist is basically holding in her hand, in physical form, all the red flags she ignored - or was forced to ignore - about her mysterious husband.

...The blood (RED) doesn't wash off. The key through the keyhole is thought by some freudian psychoanalists to represent the loss of virginity, the wedding night.

Perrault's tale intended to discourage curiosity in 'obedient' wives. But it is undeniable that the ending...

...of "Bluebeard" *redeems and rewards* the protagonist.
Folklorist Maria Tatar tells us that breaking the rules, when it implies uncovering truths and putting yourself in danger, will lead to freedom from your oppressor(s).

DOES THIS SOUND LIKE #MeToo or what?!?

Angela Carter also 'remade' the Bluebeard story in 1979, which entitles that particular story collection: "The Bloody Chamber".

There are many details that vary from the original story (although not as many as in LRRH) but the ending is the most remarkable one: ...

THE MOTHER IS THE ONE WHO SAVES THE DAUGHTER HERE.
The daughter then marries her true love and turns Bluebeard's castle into a school for blind (!) children.

I believe Angela Carter knew *exactly* what she was doing in retelling and recrafting these ancient stories...

Both in her version of LRRH and in her version of Bluebeard, A. Carter is focusing our attention on the fact that WOMEN have AGENCY. Women *can* seduce. Women *can* become hunters and executioners of fate.

All of the above through (via C.P. Estés) KNOWLEDGE. And EXPERIENCE. ...

Female empowerment begins AT BIRTH. Girls must become aware of their bodies and the power their bodies contain. Vaginas are *not* a wound that bleeds: they are a portal, a vessel. And every girl *must know this*. Mothers and grandmothers MUST TEACH THIS to every girl. ...

Folktails wind up fairytales and are thus cast to the 'land of the irrelevant', an unreal place of fantasy and make-believe for 'children' only. For the infantile. For the innocent, for the silly/stupid/gullible.

LET'S BRING FAIRYTALES OUT OF THAT SWAMP.

Knowledge -> Caution -> Survival -> POWER

wheras

innocence -> ignorance -> fear -> DANGER

It is impossible to demand or expect that girls and women raised on sanitized versions of fairytales and ridiculous assumptions (such as "every woman is a princess who needs a prince") have a realistic view of predators. Hence, the romanticising of figures such as Ted Bundy.

...Women are raised as prey, and this time they don't even get warned - we're worse off than in the nineteenth century in this way. But there ARE documentaries, films, social media - which, used correctly, *can* work as today's version of folktales/fairytales.

How about, instead of chastising girls and women who fall into the lure of predators, we give them access to all the stories/tools they need to beat/cheat/escape these fucking predators???

What you, as a girl/woman, have been taught to perceive as a weakness (youth/curiosity/disobedience/experience) is actually a WEAPON. Use it against the predators!!!!!!

If you want to be on Tinder or OKCupid great, be responsible and more power to you, but ALSO EDUCATE YOURSELF.

And to those of us women with more knowledge of the world: WE HAVE THE OBLIGATION TO PASS IT ON.
TEACH ALL YOU CAN to younger women/girls.
Recommend books and movies.
Discuss women issues openly - YES, EVEN THE CREEPY SERIAL KILLER STUFF.

+ + + EPILOGUE + + +
Some reading suggestions:
"Women who run with the wolves" - Clarissa Pinkola Estés
"The Bloody Chamber" - Angela Carter
"Complete fairytales" - Brothers Grimm
"Delta of Venus" - Anaïs Nin
Memoirs & (auto)biographies of women, BY women

T H E
E N D