COMMS 302

Leather, weapons and perfect hair: Once upon a time today

Mia Gabriel

Little girls have been obsessed with Happily Ever After since oral folklore was all the rage. Over time, the stories and characters have adapted to fit changing societies and ideals. Heroines of fairy tales, especially, have evolved from the tales of the Brothers Grimm to Walt Disney to ABCs Once upon a time, Hollywoods newest fairy tale creation. Once upon a time centers on Emma Swan who receives the surprise of her life, when the son she gave up 10 years before shows up at her doorstep. Her son, Henry, tells her that everyone in his town of Storybrooke, Maine is a fairy tale character under a curse where they have no memory of their fairy tale life. Furthermore, Henry tells Emma that she is the long lost daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming and is the only person who can break the curse. The story unfolds, interweaving scenes of life in Storybrooke with those from past lives in the world of fairy tales. The female characters in that land, as seen in Once upon a time, can no longer just be the passive beauties of tales past, but must, in a male-dominated world, must keep up with men on the battlefield. Women today are in a battle for equality with men in the workplace, for leadership roles and for the chance to have it all: a successful career, a loving family, and perfect hair. In this world where living is a constant battle, fairy tales give women hope, though there are no guarantees for a happy ending. A Newsweek article suggests the reason for our preoccupation with fairy tales is in our divorce-ridden, war-pocked world, a few moments of life lived happily ever after is appealing (Setoodeh & Yabroff, 2007). Even the opening lines of the Once upon a time pilot shows that happily ever after doesnt exist in reality, like it does in fairy tales. Once upon a time there was an enchanted forest filled with all the classic characters we know. Or think we know. One

day they found themselves trapped in a place where all their happy endings were stolen. Our world (Horowitz & Kitsis, 2011). John Storey quotes in his book Cultural theory and popular culture, that the stereotyped characteristics associated with the feminine in dominate U.S. culture (are) weakness, indecisiveness, dependence, emotion, nonviolence, negotiation, unpredictability (and) deception (Storey, 2009). Once upon a time breaks this idea of what is feminine, with strong female characters that fight alongside Prince Charming in defending their lives and kingdom. This new type of princess is needed in society, because women are standing alongside men in colleges and businesses and they need heroines they can relate to. The feminist movement contributed to the flood of women in universities and in the workforce and changed the understanding of marriage and the everyday life of women. Women came to want and expect more from their marriages, relationships, from men, education and even themselves. But, are these new kick butt heroines putting too much pressure on women? Is the list of what a woman should be getting longer? A TIME magazine article describes how this new woman should be pretty, but in a class-president way, not a head-cheerleader way. She should be able to stand up for herself She must be socially conscious - a result, says Meg Cabot, author of the Princess diaries books, of Princess Dianas charitable work (Poniewozik & Lofaro, 2004). The characters of Emma Swan, Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood from Once upon a time are no longer the heroines we used to know. All three women are tough, intelligent and fairy-tale beautiful. These women are the modern fairy tale

heroines, who have more spunk and spine than the cinematic maidens of days gone by (McCormack, 2012). Emma Swan, the daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White, is the everyday woman. She pays her own bills, takes care of herself and deals with lifes disappointments, but secretly dreams of love and happy endings. She wants to believe they can exist, even when her day-to-day tell her shes wrong to hope. She is reflective of women today, who embody strength and independence, but still long for the fairy tale happy ending. In our first glimpse of Emma, she is wearing a tight, revealing red dress and high heels. She is beautiful, with blonde Princess-curled hair. She is revealed to be a bail bonds person, chasing after criminals who skip out of town. In the pilot, she catches her thief wearing heels and a red dress and slamming his head into a steering wheel. Not quite the fairytale princess were used to seeing. This first image of Emma shows us that being a woman today, beauty needs to be coupled with kicking butt and being smart. Emma is cynical, suspicious and hardened by her tough life. She doesnt let people get close to her because shes afraid of being hurt. She doesnt need anyone; she takes care of herself. She also exhibits un-princess-like behavior, such as cursing, hostility, getting in fights and carrying a gun. She even slays a dragon (in a later episode). Emma is the character on the show the blends the real world woman with the fairytale princess. She is tough as nails, but she has long, dark (fake) eyelashes and perfect, blonde princess curls. Another important aspect to Emma is the fact that she becomes the sheriff of Storybrooke. This is a high, leadership role that women (especially fairytale princesses) dont normally have. Her career choice stems from the fact that

Emma has seen how life is hard and isnt optimistic that things will change, and as a result, she doesnt believe in happy endings. In the pilot episode, Mary Margaret (the Storybrooke counterpart of Snow White) tells Emma that believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing. Emma represents the viewer, the cynical feminist who dreams of love and marriage and family, but is also weathered by reality. Snow White provides us with another example of how women on Once upon a time do not fit Storeys definition of what is feminine, especially in the episode Snow Falls. The first shot of Snow in this episode shows her cloaked, stealing from the Princes carriage. Shes dressed in furs, leather and pants. She doesnt ride side-saddle, like princesses do. When the Prince catches her trying to escape with his jewels, he discovers the thief isnt a man (like he thought), but a girl to which Snow corrects him by telling him shes a woman (Horowitz and Kitsis, 2011). She then hits him in the head with a rock and escapes. Thus we see that, Snow White is on her own, but highly capable of taking care of herself. She, like these modern fairy tale heroines are as handy with a sword and dagger as they are with a needle and thread (McCormick, 2012). She is dually the princess in ball gowns, as well as the forest-dweller who can take care of herself. An important note to make is that the Storybrooke counterpart of Snow White, Mary Margaret, declares on a date that she wants kids, marriage, true love. I want it all (Horowitz and Kitsis, 2011). Mary Margaret also tells Emma in the episode, Well, I guess if true love were easy, wed all have it (2011). These contradictory counterparts

are examples of the conflict contemporary women face, between the feminist views of marriage and the desire for the fairy tale. The tale we see of Snow White and Prince Charming differs greatly from the 1930s Walt Disney animated version. Libe Garcia Zarranz quotes Jack Zipes, who argues that, referring to the story of Snow White, that the house for the Grimms and Disney was the place where good girls remained, and one shared aspect of the fairy tale and the film is about the domestication of women (2007). There is nothing domestic about this version of how Snow White meets Prince Charming. Prince Charming, for example, has a real name James. We see in Once upon a time that it is Snow White that in fact nicknames the Prince, Charming, but only in mockery, at first. Gone are the Disney poufy-dresses and angelic voices that sing to birds. This Snow White even says, True love? It doesnt exist. Its all arranged marriages and business transactions. Theres no such thing as love at first sight or first kiss (Horowitz & Kitsis, 2011). Prince James (Charming) figures out his thief is Snow White from a WANTED poster, displaying she is wanted for crimes against the Queen murder, treason and treachery. A princess on a WANTED poster definitely defies Storey's description of femininity! True, Snow White once was the kind, sweet, loving and trusting princess the fairytales told us about, but reality changes her. Following the huntsmans attack and subsequent mercy, Snow finds herself on the run, living in the wilderness. She has to adapt in order to survive the hand shes been dealt. This new version of Snow White is Snow White as Robin Hood and Henry V (McCormick, 2012) and has been seen within the two Snow White films released in 2012.

Susan Cahill explores the idea that many writers use the role of fairy tales as socializing narratives that inculcate adherence to contemporaneous gender roles (Cahill, 2010). However, she also shows that other writers have used the fairy-tale genre to engage with and uproot patriarchal representations of femininity and sexuality, (2010) just the way the writers of Once upon a time are stretching the previous ideas of who and what Snow White is. Snow White constantly challenges a patriarchal society of the enchanted forest. She challenges what is known to be feminine and sexy, with her unbrushed hair and back alley deals with trolls. Lastly, well examine how Once upon a time has portrayed the character of Little Red Riding Hood. Ruby is the name of Red Riding Hoods Storybrooke counterpart. She is not the young child were used to seeing in the Red Riding Hood tale, but is a woman in her twenties. She has long dark hair with red streaks, wears scandalous clothing and dramatic makeup. The first shot of Ruby shows her leaning over a customers table at the diner she waits tables at. Shes wearing a midriff-bearing shirt, tiny red shorts, and tiny white apron. Ruby is painted as the town slut. Shes a flirt and dresses like a drag queen during fleet week, according to Granny (Horowitz and Kitsis, 2011). A difference between the Disney princesses of old and these modern representations, Garcia Zarranz argues is that female characters [can] display a blatant sexuality without risking their inner goodness. The notion that a woman could be both good and sexy [has] ceased to be such an unimaginable concept in representations of femininity in much of Americas popular culture (2007). Red, the fairy tale version of Ruby, has long dark princess curls, wears full, princess dresses and looks like a fairy tale version of Megan Fox the classy version.

She is told by Granny to wear her red riding hood all the time (not that she listens). She is in love with a boy named Peter and the two have plans to run away together. Every month on the full moon, a wolf terrorizes their village. The difference this month is that the villagers want to get rid of the wolf once and for all. Snow White and Red (they know each other in this version) discover that the wolf is both man and wolf. They believe that Peter is the wolf, which brings a whole new meaning to the tale Peter and the Wolf. Red tells Peter they believe hes the wolf and he asks her to tie him up to prevent him from hurting anyone. While Red is with Peter, Snow pretends to be Red; wearing her red hood, to fool Granny. Granny discovers Snow and reveals that Peter is not the wolf, Red is. It is her red riding hood that keeps her from turning into the wolf and because of Snow and Reds deception, they endanger Peter. Together, Granny and Snow try to save Peter, but they are too late. Red being the wolf is far from the typical story of Little Red Riding Hood that one sees in musicals and cartoons. She is the opposite of Storeys definition of what is feminine. She is violent, independent and strong. Yet, being all these masculine characteristics, she must be beautiful to be a heroine. In McCormicks article, The do-itall damsel, he references how women are still expected to be princess-beautiful: In Jennifer Siebel Newsoms 2011 documentary Miss representation we see how American mainstream media focuses almost exclusively on womens youth, beauty, and sexuality, paying little or no attention to their intelligence, talents, or accomplishments. The resulting message is that girls and women are to be valued primarily for their looks and not to be given serious consideration as potential leaders (2012).

Likewise, Naomi Smith argued in The beauty myth that modern women find it twice as hard as men to move into leadership positions, or be seen as strong, because of expectations that they will be forever young and beautiful (McCormick, 2012). Women still need to be the mens woman as was discussed in class. She is hyper-sexualized, mysterious and seductive. This comes from the fact that, despite advances from the feminist movement, society is still richly dominated by patriarchal views. Women are slowing interjecting their own views, such as Snow White taking Prince Charmings sword when they are threatened by the Evil Queen. Once upon a time is how Disney is evolving their fairy tales. ABC, a part of the Disney Group, produces Once upon a time, which is therefore a Disney show. Disney fairy tales have been a site for the representation of the conflicting ideologies in operation in Western society (Garcia Zarranz, 2007). The ideas that conflict in Once upon a time are the ideas of beauty still being essential, but it isnt enough to just be beautiful Snow White needs to fight alongside Prince Charming, say witty and smart lines and seem to not care about the fact that shes beautiful. Disney and Hollywood will never tire of reinventing fairy tales, because we use the classical fairy tales in mutated forms through new technologies to discuss and debate urgent issues that concern our social lives (Cahill, 2010). Perhaps it isnt important that the princess has to be both gorgeous and fight like Jackie Chan. Perhaps the real triumph is that this new Snow White learned the lessons of feminism and takes her own turns of saving Prince Charming, rather than being the damsel in distress. She allows herself to want true love, as well as preach independence and self-determination. The contradiction is she doesnt have to choose between them, as

shes being told. Among an earlier generation of women, the wish was to be able to do everything men could. For the modern Cinderellas audience, which takes that freedom as a given, the wish is to also be able - unashamedly - to fall in love and go to the ball (Poniewozik & Lofaro, 2004). Modern fairy tales teach that women decide their own happily ever after, whatever that looks like. What matters most is they get to choose.

Works Cited Cahill, S. (2010). Through the looking glass: Fairy-tale cinema and the spectacle of femininity in stardust and the brothers grimm. Mavels & Tales: Journal of FairyTale Studies, 24(1), 57-67. Garcia Zarranz, L. (2007). Diswomen strike back? the evolution of disne'ys femmes in the 1990s.ATENEA, 27(2), 55-65. Retrieved from www.ebscohost.com Horowitz, A. (Writer), & Kitsis, E. (Writer) (2011). In Once Upon a Time. ABC. McCormick, P. (2012). The do-it-all damsel. U.S. Catholic,77(9), 40. Retrieved from www.proquest.com Poniewozik, J. & Lofaro, L. (2004, April 05). The princess paradox. TIME, DOI: www.time.com/time/printout/o,8816,993744,00.html Setoodeh, R. & Yabroff, J. (2007, November 26). Princess power. Newsweek, 150(22), DOI: www.ebscohost.com Storey, J. (2009). Cultural theory and popular culture. (5 ed., p. 174). Harlow, England: Pearson.