Showing Through the Known : Problematizing Gender Identity in “Snow White & The Seven Microaggressions”
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The power to pass on various kinds of cultural values and traditions that fairy tales hold has been established in the field of fairy-tale scholarship by many experts. In relationship to the best-known traditional fairy tales, this power has been frequently seen as a negative feature of these stories because of the negative effect these behavioural norms that are in this manner imposed on the readers, especially those that are imposed on the girls, can have. However, the undying popularity of the genre also makes it possible for modern authors to pass on new messages by re-writing and adding content to the stories. This makes it possible for modern writers to draw attention to the issues which are prevalent in contemporary society by integrating them into the traditional story, even if these issues might not generally be present in traditional fairy tales. An example of this approach can be found in Ellen Haun and Lara Lane’s Cinderella and the Glass Ceiling: And Other Feminist Fairy Tales. In this collection of short stories, the authors use the familiarity of the fairy-tale story frames to introduce a variety of issues that have become increasingly important in modern society. Their rendition of Snow-White called “Snow White & The Seven Microaggressions”, as its name suggests, deals with various kinds of microaggressions related to numerous topics, including race, disability or gender identity and the changing gender expectations. The presentation will address how the authors use the well-known fairy-tale premises as a tool to enlighten their readers about the shifts in the perception of gender identity in contemporary society, the third gender and the outdatedness of sex-based gender expectations. |
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