Disney Princes may not traditionally be thought of as sex pests but Kazue Muta, an Osaka University professor thinks they might be.
Ms Muta wrote about a Japanese man who was arrested for kissing a sleeping woman, linking his actions to the Princes from Snow White and Sleeping Beauty in a tweet that went viral and sparked controversy and worldwide coverage.
Ms Muta’s tweet read (translated),
“When you think rationally about ‘Snow White’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ that tell of a ‘princess being woken up by the kiss of a prince,’ they are describing sexual assault on an unconscious person. You might think I’m ruining the fantasy of it all, but these stories are promoting sexual violence and I would like everyone to be aware of it”.
Derry duo Gemma Walker and Sorcha Shanahan are in agreement with Ms Muta. In 2016 they created a comedy show entitled Alternative Bedtime Stories which is a collection of sketches designed to address the unsettling messages within traditional fairy tales.
Alternative Bedtime Stories performed to sell-out audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year and they are currently preparing for an extensive tour of the UK and Ireland in 2018.
Walker and Shanahan say that the Disney fairy tales, “play a significant role in shaping our view of gender identity and relationships.” They believe that these stories play a role in influencing the way children learn about love and relationships and that they fall short of preparing anyone for the reality of issues like personal boundaries and consent.
“There is no space for educating young people about equality, what a healthy, respectful relationship looks like, self-respect, how to establish and maintain personal boundaries and what constitutes consent.”
Shanahan plays a variety of ultra creepy Princes in the show and she explains:
“In our version of ‘Prince Ferdinand – the Prince in Sleeping Beauty – says: “I like to find young women unconscious in the forest, take them back to my castle and sexually assault them…. But, because I’m a rich and handsome prince, it’s not assault – it’s true love!
“Our Aladdin is an out and out obvious creep – but everything he says is taken straight from the story. “I like to follow wee girls home from the market and sneak into their bedrooms late at night and take them for a ride on my magic carpet….if you rub my magic lamp a genie will pop out”.
Alternative Bedtime Stories also highlights the similarities between ‘The Beast’ from Beauty and the Beast and a domestic abuser. Walker says she drew heavily on her experience of being in an abusive relationship when writing that scene.
“The notion that the ‘love of a good woman’ can change a man, and that it is in some ways the duty of the woman to change him and that if she strives to make herself ‘good enough’ then she will ‘tame the beast’. “Love conquers all”, after all. These notions appear so often they are part of the unquestioned fabric of our society and they start with the humble and ‘harmless’ bedtime story we tell our children”.
Shanahan says fairy tales are full of “dodgy tropes” like lack of consent and the idea of love at first sight, which implies that physical appearance is the priority, “and that you can tell how ‘good’ a person is by their looks alone”.
Both Walker and Shanahan say that the depictions of women in fairy tales are also hugely problematic. Shanahan says that young women in fairy tales are primarily valued for their looks and innocence.
“In general, females in these stories are either young, beautiful and ‘nice’, or they are vampish and/or ugly witches. The more beautiful a young girl is, the better a person. The more innocent and naïve, the worthier. Most mothers are evil/absent/step mothers. The only aspiration female characters have is to marry well ie. to a handsome, rich prince. And the men in these stories decide what the ‘right’ course of action is”.
Walker and Shanahan have been overwhelmed by the response their show has received. After their first performance, they were approached by a producer from Accidental Theatre in Belfast who was keen to help them develop their show.
They have since performed shows at the Belfast Comedy Festival and are now in talks with a BBC producer who saw them in Edinburgh. Their success shows the appetite for a hilarious, satirical and feminist take on traditional fairytales.
Ms Muta received considerable criticism for her suggestion that fairy tales promote sexual abuse.
In response, she wrote an article for Women’s Action Network in which she says that if people don’t scrutinise the subtext of fairytales then we are giving the dangerous messages within them our blessing, in essence saying sexual assault is acceptable.
Muta said:
“Changing society’s recognition of sexual violence is not an easy thing to do. However, we must say these things loudly and boldly”.
Shanahan and Walker have been saying these things since 2016, loudly, boldly and hilariously. They have extended a complimentary invitation to Ms Muta to attend any of their upcoming shows so she can see for herself.
