Sofia Blandon
Professor Hoehne
Fairy Tales and Rewritings
24 September 2019
Consent? I Think Not
Sleeping Beauty is a well known fairy tale that has been retold in many ways to accommodate different cultures and age groups. The version that is most familiar is the Disney animated movie that revolves around Princess Aurora and her eventual happily ever after. A lot of the Sleeping Beauty versions cater to children, specifically the disney one, and do not elaborate on certain subjects in detail to which these go over children’s heads. In all of the versions of Sleeping Beauty, it is interesting to see the idea of no consent continuously pop up but not be addressed, particularly in “Sun, Moon, and Talia” by Giambattista Basile and “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” by Charles Perrault.
Both “Sun, Moon, and Talia” and “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” are similar and contain the same general concepts of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale where a man and a woman have a beautiful daughter, who then becomes cursed and falls into a deep sleep to which she can only be awakened by a kiss. These two versions have their own twists and turns however, that make them unique in their own way and different from one another. In “Sun, Moon, and Talia” Talia has two children that she is responsible for and she is almost killed by the wife of the king who she would essentially marry and live happily ever after with (Basile). In “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” the good fairy in the story made everyone fall asleep so that once Sleeping Beauty woke up she would not be lonely. While in their sleep a prince found the castle and stumbled upon Sleeping Beauty, and then kissed her, as he was mesmerized by her beauty, to which she then awoke (Perrault 89).
In “Sun, Moon, and Talia” the idea of consent in any form is non existent. When Talia is under her deep sleep, a king finds the castle as well as her and, “… beheld her charms and felt his blood course hotly through his veins. He lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love.” (Basile). This indicates that they had sexual relations, but if she was unconcious where was the consent on both parts? Even when Talia wakes up and is informed on what has occured to her and how she ended up with two children, she was very passive and did not care that she had just been raped. This does not send the best message to readers, especially to young adults who are beginning to form relationships and learn about sexual intercourse. In the article “Sexuality as Failure: Psychoanalytic Concepts, Cultural Perspectives” the idea of non consensual sexual relations is evaluated and it explains that many people, wanted to have the sleeping beauty tales banned because they promote inappropriate behaviors on developing children and teens (Hartel). Young adults reading these stories could get the wrong idea of love and consent and then grow up thinking that these portrayals are the norm, when in reality they are not, they are merely forms of oppression on women. In exploring this idea further, an article written by Neshantha Harischandra states, “… what women seem to have done, is to passively accept these sexual stereotypes as their role models” (Harischandra). This emphasizes that portraying women as objects to be fondled with while unconscious is not the best message to be sending readers and it should be better addressed by not only society but by women in general who should be more aware of how these stories are written and work to promote change.
In “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” the idea of consent is also non existent, and it promotes the wrong idea of love. While sleeping beauty is in her one hundred year slumber, a prince comes along and hears about the castle that is supposedly haunted and he decides to explore inside where he finds her. Due to his immediate infatuation, he kisses sleeping beauty which then wakes her up, but again where is the consent? The article “Things Walt Disney Never Told Us” by Kay Stone explains that Walt Disney, as well as many other fairy tales including sleeping beauty, for the most part try to keep the sexual aspects out to be kid friendly, which then contributes to children and young adults missing the point that even kissing without permission is not okay (46). The idea of getting a kiss from their “true love” sends the wrong idea about love, and gives the impression that while you are unconscious being kissed is allowed because it is from your true love. They even have sleeping beauty act all excited and say things like, “Is that you, my prince? What a long time you have kept me waiting!” (Perrault 89). This shows the fantasy behind these fairy tales because in the real world a woman would react differently and be upset that they are basically being taken advantage of while they are unconscious.
In conclusion, consent from the women in the sleeping beauty tales were not taken into consideration and were not properly addressed. These stories illustrate what the times were like when they were created and even though in modern times consent is promoted more, which shows how things have changed, there is still room for improvement. The ideas evaluated in this essay should be discussed more so as to highlight that full consent on both parts is important.
Works Cited
Basile, Giambattista. The Pentameron of Giambattista Basile, translated by Richard F. Burton (Privately printed, 1893), day 5, tale 5. Translation revised by D. L. Ashliman.
Harischandra, Neshantha. “Fairy Tales and the concept of femininity.” Nivedini-A Sri Lankan Feminist Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, 2001, p. 58+. Gale OneFile: Contemporary Women’s Issues, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A83761800/CWI?u=cuny_ccny&sid=CWI&xid=e5b1efc0. Accessed 25 Sept. 2019.
Härtel, Insa. “Sexuality as Failure: Psychoanalytic Concepts, Cultural Perspectives.” Sexuality & Culture, vol. 23, no. 1, Mar. 2019, pp. 236–253. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s12119-018-9552-0.iu
Perrault, Charles, and C. J. Betts. The Complete Fairy Tales. OUP Oxford, 2009.
Stone, Kay. Things Walt Disney Never Told Us Source: The Journal of … American Folklore Society, https://www.jstor.org/stable/539184.
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