Modern Re-Telling of Sleeping Beauty

Fairytales stay embedded in our culture because there is an element of truth that they hold after all these years of telling and re-telling.

One of the most modern adaptations of the classic fairytale Sleeping Beauty which is the story of a princess who is placed under a spell that will put her into eternal sleep. In the Disney version true love’s first kiss will break the spell, in the original story it is far darker.

This modern re-telling goes a step further into the darkness of this fairytale. This was an independent film that showed at Sundance Film Festival in 2011. The story is of a girl who is attempting to pay for college by being a lingerie waitress for rich clients. The story gets darker as she becomes completely submissive to the will of her clients so much that she is put to sleep while they have their way with her.

She breaks the “spell” and learns what happens to her in her sleep.

This is a chilling tale that received moderate reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/771239978/

Perhaps this was too dark for the audience, but why? Granted this Sleeping Beauty was more than just kissed to break the spell but the amount of consent is the same. This film highlights not only the acceptance and sometimes romanticism of contact without consent by creating something so dark and raw it makes the audience feel as uncomfortable as they should in any varying degree of contact without consent.

Maleficent: A Critique on Consent?

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/05/30/maleficent-sleeping-beauty-and-rethinking-fairy-tale-rape

According to a USNews article written by Tierney Sneed in May 2014, Disney’s new movie Maleficent may actually be an attempt to address the issues of rape and non-consent prevalent in other versions of the Sleeping Beauty tale. The movie follows Angelina Jolie as the movies title character and also the villain of the Disney Sleeping Beauty story. As Sneed states, “In a pivotal scene to explain Maleficent’s turn to darkness Maleficent, once a warmhearted fairy with strong wings, has those wings taken from her – ripped off her body in a drug-induced sleep – by a man she trusted. This may be a PG-rated children’s film, but the scenario’s parallels to sexual assault are not lost on its adult viewers.”

Is Disney trying to expose issues of sexual assault? Is this a commentary on previous versions of the story? On the state of society today with the recent prevalence of sexual assault in the media and more mainstream discussions?

Regardless, the film sheds new light on Princess Aurora’s curse in the tale of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty and steps away from the tendency to sugarcoat darker stories, instead opting for a more realistic exploration of difficult a topic.

R

Rape? Consent? Feminist Issues with Sleeping Beauty

A Tumblr blog makes a joke out of one of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty’s biggest critiques– the fact that for her to wake from the curse she must be kissed by a noble Prince.

First of all, why must her rescuer be male? And not simply male, but a white, rich, royal male of proven moral superiority and toughness. Of course he just swoops in and saves the helpless, lifeless, weak and pious princess. It is his duty as a man.

Additionally, who one Earth gave him permission to kiss a sleeping woman? Moreover, a sleeping STRANGER. Someone he has never met. Someone who has never given him consent. Someone who is not currently actively giving him consent. And yet, we celebrate this kiss as a saving grace. A noble act. Charming. Desirable. What are we teaching young audiences? What does this say about our society that we idolize such scenes without ever analyzing the further implications?

Furthermore, in the earlier non-Disney versions. Sleeping Beauty wakes up pregnant. Yes, pregnant. As Sleeping Beauty was unconscious during her encounter with her Prince Charming, and thus unable to consent to his actions, she was raped. Raped and forced to have sex with a man she never consented to. Raped and forced to go through with a pregnancy she never consented to. She awoke to her children nursing from her breasts. I don’t know about you, but I’d have a ton of questions I’d want answered and my first thought would not be of marriage to this mysterious suitor– ahem, rapist.

The Original Versions of the Story

The following link is to the three earliest versions of the story we now know to be Sleeping Beauty: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0410.html.

The first version, titled Sun, Moon, and Talia by Giambattista Bastile, includes the following passage in which the protagonist Talia has fallen under a cursed slepp and is found by the king, who brings her to bed and has his way with her and leaves.

“At last he [the king] came to the salon, and when the king beheld Talia, who seemed to be enchanted, he believed that she was asleep, and he called her, but she remained unconscious. Crying aloud, he 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. Leaving her on the bed, he returned to his own kingdom, where, in the pressing business of his realm, he for a time thought no more about this incident.

Now after nine months Talia delivered two beautiful children, one a boy and the other a girl. In them could be seen two rare jewels, and they were attended by two fairies, who came to that palace, and put them at their mother’s breasts. Once, however, they sought the nipple, and not finding it, began to suck on Talia’s fingers, and they sucked so much that the splinter of flax came out. Talia awoke as if from a long sleep, and seeing beside her two priceless gems, she held them to her breast, and gave them the nipple to suck, and the babies were dearer to her than her own life. Finding herself alone in that palace with two children by her side, she did not know what had happened to her; but she did notice that the table was set, and food and drink were brought in to her, although she did not see any attendants.

In the meanwhile the king remembered Talia, and saying that he wanted to go hunting, he returned to the palace, and found her awake, and with two cupids of beauty. He was overjoyed, and he told Talia who he was, and how he had seen her, and what had taken place. When she heard this, their friendship was knitted with tighter bonds, and he remained with her for a few days. After that time he bade her farewell, and promised to return soon, and take her with him to his kingdom.”

The second version, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood by Charles Perrault, is more closely aligned with the commonly known Disney version, but includes the following moral at its close:

“Moral

Many a girl has waited long
For a husband brave or strong;
But I’m sure I never met
Any sort of woman yet
Who could wait a hundred years,
Free from fretting, free from fears.

Now, our story seems to show
That a century or so,
Late or early, matters not;
True love comes by fairy-lot.
Some old folk will even say
It grows better by delay.

Yet this good advice, I fear,
Helps us neither there nor here.
Though philosophers may prate
How much wiser ’tis to wait,
Maids will be a sighing still —
Young blood must when young blood will!”

This poem is obviously urging young women to withhold their desires until it is proper, for “much wiser ’tis to wait,” thereby perpetuating the ideas of chastity and piety, both highly contentious issues.