Dina Goldstein's Fallen Princesses
 

I've always been a HUGE fan of fairy tales... yes, I loved the Disney princesses when I was a kid, and I can still sing most of the songs from the movies. As I got older, I was drawn to the not-so-happy endings found in the original tales and modern retellings-- stories of lust and envy, sexual fetishes, cannibalism, extreme jealousy, and all manner of dark themes.

I was therefore delighted to stumble upon Dina Goldstein's Fallen Princesses series. Apparently, the series has been around for a while, but this is the first time I'd seen any of the photos.

A couple of examples, Snow White and Jasmine:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../snowwhite.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...29/jasmine.jpg

The series also features Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Little Red Riding Hood (okay, she's not a princess), Rapunzel, Cinderella, Pocahontas (kind of my favorite, I'll admit), Ariel, and the princess from the Princess and the Pea (hrm...did she have a name?)


On the one hand, the photos just seem depressing (Rapunzel and Belle gave me a particular stab of sadness). On the other hand, there's a feeling of "hey, girls. Don't bet on the prince. Make your own happy ending, and find better role models."

So, what do you think? Do you get anything from the series, or for that matter, fairy tales in general?

I scrolled through them all because I despise Fairy Tales most of the time. Entertainment purposes are okay, but I'm still running into women my age looking for their "Prince Charming" and it drives me insane. Luckily for me, my mother was a feminist (I didn't even get a Barbie until I was old enough to understand the unrealistic proportions) and the Disney version of fairy tales didn't live in our house. I think Dina is dead-on in challenging these "happily ever after" stories because, seriously, if everything was happy for everafter, we'd all be bored out of our minds... or lying.

I immdiately hit on "find better role models" too, Cinn. I really like Dina's work in this area and I'm going to send the link to two of my most annyoningly Dinsey Princessesque friends. Thanks for this!

I think people who take fairy tales at face value are deluded. I don't think there's anything wrong with them per se, because dreaming is also an important part of being who we are. Dreaming is good. Putting dreams into practice is a whole other skill set that should definitely be encouraged. As long as fairy tales is not all you have contact with then I think you can grow up normal and balanced.

This set of photos is interesting but I think there is a lot more the photographer could have done than what is presented. My favourite two photos are the ones you posted, and also Rapunzel and Cinderella.

I can interpret the images in a variety of ways. Are the characters happy, unhappy? Resigned? Tired, defeated? Resilient, defiant? I find the message slightly unclear. Maybe there is no message, it's just placing the princesses in more 'real' contexts. And then each person takes what they can from it. Interesting find, thanks Cinn.

The Sondheim musical Into The Woods is fantastic for fallen princesses. The first act interweaves about 6 different fairytales, and resolves with "happily ever after". Act II begins with what happens after happily ever after.

Well, the problem I have with the whole thing is the disparity between the traditional fairy tale and the Disney products.

Traditional fairy tales on the surface were mythological stories with a strong moral streak running beneath: they essentially taught little children to behave and young girls to be chaste, and other such wonderful things. In a way, they're all within the tradition of Aesop's fables.

Disney, on the other hand, tends to remove much of the darker elements and turns the moral aspect into a convoluted mess or otherwise glosses over it, rendering it more or less powerless. Disney takes moral mythological tales and turns them into sugar-coated flights of fancy.

If you want to see what I mean, have a look at some of the original tales that have become Disney Classics. Not all of them have happy endings. And many of those that would seem happy are actually at best bittersweet.

The first revisitation of the post-Disney fairy tale that I experienced was Angela Carter's Bloody Chamber, which is a collection of rewritten stories that are brilliant dramatic parodies of fairy tales, including versions of "Sleeping Beauty," "Beauty and the Beast," "Snow White," and "Little Red Riding Hood." I highly recommend reading it. They're deliciously dark and gritty.

So I welcome such things as this photo series. It, in addition to works such as Carter's, appropriates these traditional fairy tales, wresting them from Disney's monopoly on them.

Oh, definitely. That's why I started getting into the original fairy tales, and the rewritten ones. Something about "oh, I'm a helpless maiden, but I'm beautiful, so the prince will save me" never really sat right with me. Sure, I loved the singing animals, but even as a kid, my favorite fairy tale was "East of the Sun and West of the Moon," where the maiden saves the prince (okay, it's not perfect, since she caused the trouble in the first place, and of COURSE, he loves her because she's beautiful and doesn't want to marry his stepsister, not because she's his stepsister, but because she's ugly.)

I haven't read The Bloody Chamber, but that's only because I haven't added it to my collection yet. The Fairy Tale Series, created (and I believe edited) by Terri Windling, is awesome... and I also really enjoyed Anne Rice's Beauty trilogy (Sleeping Beauty, only with lots and lots of S&M.) Terri Windling also did a series of books with Ellen Datlow, a collection of short stories by various authors, all with fairy tale themes (a few of the titles: Black Heart, Ivory Bones; Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears; Snow White, Blood Red; and Black Thorn, White Rose.)

This is completely renewing my interest in pursuing a degree in folklore. Hmmm.

I originally featured this set in the Cosplay Events thread a few weeks ago, and I also gave a summary as to why Goldstein created this photo essay and what it meant to her as she progressed into the project's meaning.

The images are meant to be sad and goofy as all of these tales are already rather ironic, thanks in large part to Disney's writers, so Goldstein brought the stories back to their roots in 'tragedy', and went further to bring them to life in our world, by giving them a twisted dimension of "reality", based on each 'Princess'' traits and /or obstacle in the original tale.

That was actually pointed out to me shortly after I posted... and I was like "oh...oops." I didn't think to look in the cosplay thread.

But yeah, I specifically wanted to discuss the fairy tale aspect of it, and relating personally to the photos....or to the fairy tale characters portrayed in the photos.


As much as I loved the Disney versions when I was little (hell, I'll still watch Sleeping Beauty at the drop of a hat), I remember getting frustrated with them pretty early on. "Why does the princess always need to be SAVED?" I remember asking my mom. "Can't she just...learn to use a sword or something?" (I'm fairly certain I was an excellent source of entertainment for my parents when I was growing up, for the record.)

I think Disney was called out on this practice after years, if not decades, of battering via letters and fan commentary (I'm only just assuming this) and that is why for their next "Princess feature", they decided to tackle the Ancient Chinese folktale of Mulan, where the female protagonist actually does actually evolve to be self-independent and actually turns into a strong moral example (despite the numerous lies and deceptions she made, and the fact that this is story based upon another story).

Not sure what to make of their latest adaptation, though: The Princess and the Frog (I haven't seen it, nor do I know what role/example the Princess plays throughout the story.)

topical article: Even in the real world, there is just not enough room for ordinary, daily princesses.