Customer Reviews

Feminist Fairy Tales

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Although Walker says that she was tired of hearing about "beautiful princesses" waiting to be rescued by princes, I noticed that almost all of the illustrations of her heroines depicted lovely young women, albeit wielding swords or looking competent in some way. Also, I was hoping to give this book to a younger cousin, but after reading it, I decided against it. In several of the stories the women are sexually harrassed and/or assualted. Although women do face these threats, I think I'd approach the subject a little differently with children. Still, I will say that I enjoyed most of her stories. The "Goddess" and "wiccan/natural theology" themes were incorporated in many stories. Some of these retellings were clever, others predictable. Bottom-line: good for earth-mother, liberal, or literature-focused feminists and fairy-tale fans looking for more modern adaptations, bad for younger audiences, or conservative, traditional fairy-tale fans.

This book was terrible. The women in it are not anymore powerful than in traditional fairy tales (and they are involved with both attempted rape and domestic violence because they pick the wrong guys--they are sooo powerful because they kick men in the crotch to escape!). Plus, it seems that it is ok to say that men who are ugly are not as good as men who are attractive--basically she is advocating being a sexist as long as it is not against women. She also seems to have missed the fact that lots of "negative" aspects of traditional fairy tales (esp wolves) serve an allegorical purpose and taking them all so literally only makes her new stories very dull and wooden as she tries so hard to correct thses "mistakes". Please, please read Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters by Kathleen Ragan instead--far and above the best book with strong female heroines in a fairy tale/folktale setting!!

This book is not the basic fairy tale written from an exclusivly "girl power" viewpoint. Yes, it has the heroines rescuing the prince, or rescuing themselves when they get bored waiting for the prince, but it is also about female spirtuality, goddess religion, and filled with folklore and legends that have long since been lost to the general public.

On the whole, a fun book. I bought it initially for reading to my cousin on an upcoming trip to Di$ney, to try to counteract the typical feminine stereotypes. Ashley, age 8, didn't get it. I liked most of the stories, especially the ones from different cultures, but often felt unsatisfied. Ms. Walker occasionally just reverses the stereotypes instead of truly creating unique characters. But a few of the stories' twists really work, especially "Snow Night" and (i'm blanking on the name, the one that's a take off of George and the Dragon).

This book might be good for teachers (from 6th grade -> college level students) to illustrate how familiar tales can be retold, perhaps encouraging the class to do likewise.

Barbara Walker's "Feminist Fairy Tales" is definitely worth reading. The art by Laurie Harden is lovely, and some of the stories are marvelous, in a variety of ways. "The Three Little Pinks" is cute, "The Descent of Shaloma" is mysterious and romantic, and "Ugly and the Beast" is a touching retelling of the old story that Disney mutilated and crammmed down our throats. However, several of the stories really drag, and some of the others are thin veils for Walker's "Female Power GOOD! Patriarchal Oppression BAD!" message. Still, with all its flaws, it's a good book that makes many good points, and a nice change from the "Beautiful submissive women are the only worthwhile ones" message many other fairy tales have. I only wish Walker had focused more on the stories and less on the morals.

A great book for women. Shows that the female high of society is not as docile or dominated as the male side would have you believe. Great book for girls with low self esteem. Stop reading them fairy tales that encourage submissive behavior. Women have as much of an active role and probably more than the men do. Wise women have known this throughout time, but to often the information is not passed down from generation to generation. This book shows how it can be.

I understand what Barbara Walker is trying to do, but it really didn't turn out very well. In an attempt to make classic sexist fairy tales more pro-woman, she simply turned them into flat, boring stories that follow a formula. Basically, all the women are heroes and all the men are rapists. This book could have been a lot better if it was written more skillfully.

Telling fairy tales to young ones used to worry me. Should we teach that all a girl needs in life is to find a Prince Charming to make them happy? Should we teach them that the beautiful are rewarded, and the ugly are happy only if transformed? Barbara Walker seems to believe that the only hope is to replace fairy tales with something much less offensive - rewritten "feminist fairy tales".
In the pages of her book we find rewritings called "Ugly and the Beast", "Little White Riding Hood" and "The Frog Princess". Unfortunately, they're all a bit laboured - the women are strong and ugly, but very, very predictable (although I still don't understand why Jill, now of beanstalk fame, travels to the "womb" of the earth and steals some new age crystals".
Walker lectures heavily, leaving no stone unturned - there is no elegant story-spinning here. If you want to read some true feminist fairy tales, leave Walker behind, leave Disney behind and get back to the originals. Read the real Brothers Grimm, read Angela Carter and Marina Warner's collections, read Italo Calvino, and Jacques Perrault. Many of these tales were feminist as originals, and it is only the later versions that have become saccharin-sweet.

It is nice book and we have it in Korea too.
It's fair
Thank you

This review was written by an 8th grade Korean female student. She told me about this book and found it very interesting from a girls point of view.

I had taken a look at one of the author's other books, so I knew what to expect. Walker's writing is colored by her belief in the ancient religion of the goddess, whose stories the modern patriarchy have taken and corrupted. I'm a skeptic on this point, but I enjoyed the stories anyway. They were unexpectedly funny and charming.

For those who don't sympathize with Walker's brand of feminism (or with feminism at all) I imagine it comes across as heavy-handed. But for stories designed to both entertain and inspire talking points, they succeed pretty well.