Erin Hanafy of the AP wrote an “interesting” [?] article based on a study of fairy tales by Purdue and Western Illinois Universities sociologists of women’s studies, showing emphasis on beautiful people. The study pointed out that in Grimms’ “Cinderella” alone beauty in women was referred to 114 times and but 35 references to ugliness. Implicit in this article, of course, is that undue reference to appearance and equating the hero and heroine’s good looks to goodness and the ugly villain as evil is not something to be valued. It also alluded to the new tale “Shrek” as a healthy sign that ugliness too can be heroic.


Is this the kind of research that college professors engage in? — this is unreal. Since when in all walks of life and the arts, beauty is not glorified — except for contrarians such as a Picasso? Why pick on something as innocuous as the traditional fairy tale? Why not a study on advertising or the parade of suggestive navels by undernourished young female singers — or worse, Janet Jackson’s reminding us why we call TV the boob tube?


Speaking of contrarians — although I have written a dozen or so new fairy tales pretty much loaded with beauty — please go to my website www.angelfire.com/poetry/rrjksr/newtales.htm and scroll down to “Princess Amanda” for a rather non-traditional viewpoint.