Final Ethics Class, Friday 8-10am

[brambless.livejournal.com]

"Over the course of this term, we've looked a lot at your personal moral stance on things. Today we're going to be looking more generally - on how morals are taught to children, often insidiously.

"A good medium for this is fairy tales. Every culture has them - stories that are told to children, bearing little moral gems to shape and guide. The first thing I want you to do is a select a fairy tale. Don't worry if it's not one I'll know, just pick one you're familiar with."

Comments

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Red Riding Hood," Parker says, eyes narrowing. "Don't talk to strangers; follow the rules; don't go off the path. And no matter how nice the wolf seems, he's probably a monster." She frowns, thinking. "Some of them are appopriate. At least for very small children. But by the time you grow up, you have to use your own judgment, and not follow the rules blindly. And maybe strangers are more trustworthy than people who send you out into the woods."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

"That's a nice philosophy," Tara replies, a little surprised to hear it coming from Parker of all people, who has always seemed so cynical.

"If you were going to rewrite it, is there anything you would change?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Let Red Riding Hood kill the wolf, instead of some passing woodsman. And save Grandma from being eaten, even if she does get rescued. Well, I guess that would ruin the whole point of the story. But make Red the hero, damnit." Parker shakes her head. "What kind of moral is that? That you have to depend on the kindness of strangers?"

[brambless.livejournal.com]

"It's a nice philosophy, but it's not particularly empowering," Tara agrees.

"You know that in the original version Red and her grandmother filled the wolf's belly with stones, and drowned him down the well?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"I think I'd heard the belly full of stones, but not the drowning." Parker grins. "Good for them. Although wasting a well is probably not a good idea. Still, at least he wouldn't be going anywhere. You have to make sure the wolves don't go on to hurt anyone else."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Tara grins, well able to imagine Parker wreaking her vengeance on a water-logged wolf. "Okay, to take this on a complete tangent, if you don't mind... wolves rarely attack humans. Almost never. But stories like Red Riding Hood give them a bad name, and means that they have been hunted to the brink of extinction. Do you think children's stories have moral implications for those sorts of peripheral issues?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Sure. It's a leftover, I think I heard, from the times of the Black Plague, when the wolves outnumbered the people in Paris, or at least seemed to. They were competition for food. They're *still* competition-- we can save our last untamed space for the wild things, or turn it into cities and farms." Parker goes silent for a moment. "And it's not an easy choice. It should be. But yes, stories like this unbalance it unfairly."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

"Huh," Tara murmurs. "I didn't know that. Thank you!"

Musing over that, and enjoying the exploration of Parker's different perspective, she asks hesitently, "can I ask you one more question? We've gone a bit beyond the actual discussion question, but... most people, parents included, don't really stop to think about the, um, the 'encoded' messages in the stories they tell. A month or so ago we were talking about the responsibilities of parents, and I remember you talked about the obligation for parents to keep their children safe. A lot of our modern tales have 'happy ever afters' because it makes the children feel safe. Do you think that it does them a disservice? I mean, setting children up to believe that love fixes your problems, or that if you're a good person you'll get a happy ever after?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Yes." She'd love to not talk about this, but she won't lie, and hell. As long as they both frame it as stories, she can stand it. "The Queen always dies at the beginnings of those stories, you notice that? And the princess or the serving girl misses her, but it's just the way it is. And at the end her life's supposed to be all fixed because she found some prince to take care of her, or broke a spell. When the truth is, she'll become Queen someday. And historically, would be at just as much risk of dying. In childbirth, or assasination, or war."

Parker sighed. "And in the world we live in now, there's betrayal, and divorce, and AIDS, and god knows what else. True Love fixes this? Please. We need better stories."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Tara nods, sadly. "The good women die in childbirth, the bad women survive. It... it doesn't give much hope for the princess or the serving girl, does it? Either she goes evil, or she dies sainted. I mean, I know they say only the good die young, but... well, there gets a point where that's just ridiculous.

"And sometimes... sometimes love isn't enough. You can love someone to hell and back, and still have to walk away."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"I'd rather be the witch or the fairy godmother. Supporting characters don't get it in the back nearly as much. You have no idea what their lives are like outside the story, but that's just fine. It's no one's business anyway." She grinned. "Don't you think?"

"Love is," Parker's face became baffled, "I don't know. Just that it's not the entire story. So they should quit making it the end of everything."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Tara grins. "Oh, I totally do. I've got a saying for you - 'We can't all be heroes. Somebody has to stand on the curb and clap when the hero walks by'. I'm quite content being a supporting character, thank you. And," she adds, almost cheekily, "being the witch seems kind of appropriate!"

She wrinkles her nose. "It's not so bad for men, I don't think. But for women, we're basically told over and over that once you get married, your life ends. Unless, of course, you're a bad woman, in which case you get a life, but you get to be villified as well."