Rapunzel with a beard, a female Beast and a boy in a red cap – review of the book “Princess in shining armor”

If you have ever wondered how much the content and message of the fairy tales and fairy tales you know would change, if their heroes were to change sex to the opposite sex, now you have a chance to find out about it. Jonathan Plackett created an algorithm that in our childhood stories turned into boys out of girls, out of princess prince and princess out of princes.

The cover prompted me to read The Princess in Shining Armor . It was enough to show me a long beard lowered from a tower window, on which a warlike heroine was climbing, and I was bought. Intrigued, I got acquainted with the description of the collection of fairy tales I already know and I knew it would be SOMETHING! And I will honestly tell you that I was not disappointed.

What if Grandma didn’t have a mustache, but was just a grandfather?

The authors’ assumption, because the book was published by a couple, was to present stories from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries collected earlier and known as Andrew Lang’s fairy tales (although he also published them with his wife!) In a version in which the characters receive the opposite sex. The creators did not interfere in the plot. Where there was no clear need, they did not even add any additional explanations (e.g. how the urges of Father Rapunzel relate to the fact that his son was born, etc.), and yet the overall tone of the fairy tale has changed, and a lot. In this book, boys, princes, and princes gained delicacy, naivety, and empathy. Girls, princesses and princesses, in turn, became strong, enterprising, resolute and brave. And it was enough just to change the characters’ sex.

Pink was once the color of men

I did not expect this reading to move me so much. But she also could not reach for any fairy tale, and instead of Puss in Boots to read a cat in bootsor would I attribute the same characteristics to her then as in the case of the male version? Plackett and his wife Karrie explain in the introduction that their motivation was primarily curiosity, but at the same time they notice the need to create such reading, as humanity is increasingly open to the possibility of not assigning stereotypical characteristics and behaviors to specific genders. Pink is no longer just a girl’s wardrobe, and blocks, plastic swords or excavators are not just toys for Krzys, Jaś or Michał. Unfortunately, in communication it still happens that (consciously or not) we divide everything into female and male (as recently as yesterday in the store I witnessed when my mother refused to buy her daughter a Star Wars coloring book with a laugh, saying: “Honey, it’s only for boys ! ”). A princess in shining armor”Presents us, on the one hand, the sensitive boy Cinderella and the hardworking but naive Snow White, on the other hand, an intelligent princess turned into a Beast, a cunning Wolf, and even seven hardworking dwarfs. The gender reversal has resulted in the fact that the female characters have gained, among others, stronger characters, and the male characters have gained more sensitivity. This procedure also made the reader realize that gender does not ascribe to us a fixed set of behaviors and features. Because everyone can be what they want.

Calineczek likes this!

In addition to the idea itself, the graphic side of this publication should also be appreciated. Karrie Fransman, as she also describes in the introduction, did a thorough research and combined her ideas with elements of different cultures before creating illustrations for these twelve new-old fairy tales . Her works are amazing and perfectly highlight the uniqueness of this book. I would love to hang them framed in my home.

Mom, today I want Cinderella to be a boy

I am delighted that someone has decided to show that no role is permanently assigned to a specific gender, and that the dress and armor can be worn by anyone who wants to. Reading this book alternately with classic stories will certainly broaden the horizons of the youngest and help to establish the idea that there is no division into “feminine” and “masculine”.