The Fairy Tale Princess Questionnaire

[pameladlloyd]

Via storybookland, pallid_regina is a graduate student doing her thesis "on the persistence of the fairy tale princess as a cultural icon and how new media is changing her," and would like as many people as possible to respond to her questionnaire, which is posted in its own community, princess_thesis.

The questionnaire is quite lengthy and she needs the answers by January 19th. Even if you don't feel up to completing the questionnaire, perhaps you wouldn't mind spreading the word.

Comments

[sidhe-etain.livejournal.com]

I found it fascinating and kind of sad reading through the responses before mine to see just how *negatively* most of them viewed fairy tale princesses :(

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree. Too many people know only the versions watered down for the Victorian nursery or the Disney version (today in the US - usually only the Disney version). They don't know the wealth of stories and the many, many different types of princesses.

[sidhe-etain.livejournal.com]

It saddens me too that they all think of them as shallow, when *so many* of the old tales emphasized that the princess' beauty and grace were indicators of her wonderful character attributes, like kindness and giving.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Plus, not all of fairy tale heroines, even the princesses, were traditionally beautiful. Tatterhood is a very good case in point. I think, also, though I could be wrong on this, that many traditional fairy tales don't actually mention physical beauty. It's very hard, now, to separate which elements of the stories we know were part of the oral tradition, and which were added by the literary writers who retold the tales, used them as the basis for stories, or just made stories up whole cloth, which we have since come to consider as part of the pantheon.

[k-10b.livejournal.com]

thanks ... that was fun. Of course, I'm a non-standard responder, since I read heavily in the fantasy genre. I think the questions where sort of ambiguous ... which Sleeping Beauty? The one from Disney or the one from an Ellen Datlow anthology? VERY different experiences... ya know?

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

. . . the questions where sort of ambiguous ... which Sleeping Beauty? The one from Disney or the one from an Ellen Datlow anthology? VERY different experiences... ya know?

Oh, yes. I agree. Except that I think that since her thesis is looking at the ways in which media affects our image of the fairy tale princess, we are an excellent response group. We've been exposed to the movie and television versions, but we've got other media that inform our opinions, as well.

I guess the answer to which Sleeping Beauty is the Sleeping Beauty icon/archetype that you carry inside you, based on your gestalt of all the Sleeping Beauty's you've ever encountered. But, of course, it's not as simple as that, for we are quite capable of carrying multiple Sleeping Beauties (or Cinderellas, or Snow Whites) within us.

[k-10b.livejournal.com]

/we are quite capable of carrying multiple Sleeping Beauties (or Cinderellas, or Snow Whites) within us./

Ooohh... I like this idea, and you are correct. I think my favorite Sleeping Beauty is Robin McKinley's Spindle's End. S.B. is probably my favorite "princess" because she seems the most real in some ways.

BTW ... love the icon!

KB

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

:)

Yes, McKinley's characters are very well done. I love all the retellings of old stories; there are so many different interpretations and so often the characters have been fleshed out in ways that work but still surprise me.

The icon is from (the now sadly defunct) lecollage, based on art by John William Waterhouse.

Oops! No it's not! That was the UP for the main entry. The icon for that post was from the fan pages (http://www.forthewicked.net/fan.html) at No Rest for the Wicked (http://www.forthewicked.net/).

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Actually, the best link for LJ icons from No Rest for the Wicked is the Accessories (http://www.forthewicked.net/fangoods.html) page, where wallpaper and LJ icons reside. (I think Andrea Peterson rearranged a bit since I last checked the fan section of her website.)

[k-10b.livejournal.com]

great! thanks...I'll check it out.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Cool. I forgot to mention that Andrea Peterson is also norest_comic and she lets us know about updates to the comic there. :)