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fandomhigh2011-06-22 01:04 am
steel-not-glass.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2011-06-22 01:04 am
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Sex And Candy, Wednesday, Second Period
For the last day of class, Cindy had gone to Wonka's and gotten a wide variety of assorted moddable candies to share with the students.
"First off, I want to say thank you all for being an amazing class and for the discussions we've had these past seven weeks," she said once the bell had rung. "And I hope to see you all in future classes I teach. Feel free to partake in the candy--no surprises this time or arbitrary punishments, I promise you."
It was the last day. Cindy was feeling generous--though, not so generous as to let them leave without a lecture.
"So, we've covered the 'candy' part of the class title; that leaves us to discuss the first half: sex. There is a lot of sex in the early fairy tales and while it is possible to find faint hints of that in the stories that are read and animated today, it takes a lot of searching and knowing what to look for. Now, this is not to suggest that the older stories are sexually explicit; they're not." For the most part, anyway. "But the stories dealt with sex more openly--not just its repercussions, but its very existence."
"Not only is sex visible, a lot of sex in fairy tales is quite problematic," Cindy continued frankly. "We elided over it a bit in the lesson with Red Riding Hood, but one of the commands the bzou gives Red is to throw her clothing into the fire and then climb into the bed. The story of All-Kinds-Of-Fur is not a well-known one, as it deals with a father who intends to marry his own daughter. An older version of Sleeping Beauty called Sun, Moon, and Talia from the early seventeenth century has Princess Talia woken from her long sleep, not by a 'love's first kiss' but after giving birth to a pair of twins. Even the story of Rapunzel, where the prince and the heroine come together in love, have to face the consequences of their actions, which include living in poverty and misery for many years." For this tale, she handed out a chart showing the differences in the versions of the story published in 1812 and published again in 1857 so the students could see first hand the way revisions to 'clean it up' had already started to take place.
"With these stories particularly, we begin to see why the Victorians--and certain animation studios--change the stories around, to make them more 'appropriate' for younger audiences. The question remains, however, whether or not this series of revisions is beneficial--or even necessary. Are we protecting the innocence of young children, or denying them the lessons that previous generations thought were important to teach? Are the older versions too dark, too bloody, too dangerous for children, or are the modern versions too sanitized? Or is the answer somewhere in the middle? Grab some candy and let's discuss."
[Slight trigger warning for the class. Cindy mentions several stories that touch on the darker side of sex, though each mention is only a link and a brief summary of the story. Feel free to ignore the links or even the cut section of the class if you'd prefer; the class discussion does not require having read any of that.]
"First off, I want to say thank you all for being an amazing class and for the discussions we've had these past seven weeks," she said once the bell had rung. "And I hope to see you all in future classes I teach. Feel free to partake in the candy--no surprises this time or arbitrary punishments, I promise you."
It was the last day. Cindy was feeling generous--though, not so generous as to let them leave without a lecture.
"So, we've covered the 'candy' part of the class title; that leaves us to discuss the first half: sex. There is a lot of sex in the early fairy tales and while it is possible to find faint hints of that in the stories that are read and animated today, it takes a lot of searching and knowing what to look for. Now, this is not to suggest that the older stories are sexually explicit; they're not." For the most part, anyway. "But the stories dealt with sex more openly--not just its repercussions, but its very existence."
"Not only is sex visible, a lot of sex in fairy tales is quite problematic," Cindy continued frankly. "We elided over it a bit in the lesson with Red Riding Hood, but one of the commands the bzou gives Red is to throw her clothing into the fire and then climb into the bed. The story of All-Kinds-Of-Fur is not a well-known one, as it deals with a father who intends to marry his own daughter. An older version of Sleeping Beauty called Sun, Moon, and Talia from the early seventeenth century has Princess Talia woken from her long sleep, not by a 'love's first kiss' but after giving birth to a pair of twins. Even the story of Rapunzel, where the prince and the heroine come together in love, have to face the consequences of their actions, which include living in poverty and misery for many years." For this tale, she handed out a chart showing the differences in the versions of the story published in 1812 and published again in 1857 so the students could see first hand the way revisions to 'clean it up' had already started to take place.
"With these stories particularly, we begin to see why the Victorians--and certain animation studios--change the stories around, to make them more 'appropriate' for younger audiences. The question remains, however, whether or not this series of revisions is beneficial--or even necessary. Are we protecting the innocence of young children, or denying them the lessons that previous generations thought were important to teach? Are the older versions too dark, too bloody, too dangerous for children, or are the modern versions too sanitized? Or is the answer somewhere in the middle? Grab some candy and let's discuss."
[Slight trigger warning for the class. Cindy mentions several stories that touch on the darker side of sex, though each mention is only a link and a brief summary of the story. Feel free to ignore the links or even the cut section of the class if you'd prefer; the class discussion does not require having read any of that.]
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