Gay fairy tales
Last week, we gave a talk for the Smithsonian Associates on Queer Fairy Tales for Pride! YAY!
As part of that talk, we put together a list of some of our favorite queer fairy tales and fairy-tale retellings, and we realized that somehow we’ve never done a list of them for Carterhaugh!?
So, for the last week of Pride Month, we wanted to share our list… and, of course, add to it, because we cannot help ourselves. In addition to fairy tales, we added some of our favorite queer fantasy novels and stories, too.
If this list is initially overwhelming, we were asked a really superb question at the end of the Smithsonian talk that we’d like to share.
We were asked, what would we recommend reading first to a teenager who was having a hard moment right now? What would they detect comforting?
While it’s unfeasible to know for sure, we gave it our top stab. We said: for comfort that’s like being wrapped up in a cozy blanket, we’d recommend Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins by Emma Donoghue, which is stunning, lyrical, and straightforward to pick up and put down. (It’s also considered a foundational lgbtq+ fairy-tale collection in fairy-tale studies, just like Angela Carter’s The Bloody C Once upon a time, there wasn’t a single queer person in the world, so there was no need to converse about them in stories… Wait, what? For as long as humans own had voices, folk and fairy tales have been spoken aloud around the fire. Stories to make sense of the earth, to teach us which animalistic men to avoid, or how to be a pure, virtuous beauty in order to triumph a marriage (which, as we all know, is the only way to measure your worth). These tales came alive anew in each storyteller’s mouth. But someone decided to write them down with ink on a page, and while society continued to change and evolve, the stories dried, dark as a stain. However, our fascination with them has remained. Turn a few hundred pages forward in the history books, and we find ourselves in a time where queers are more able to make themselves known (though certainly not universally); and we’re still picking up The Brothers Grimm. People telling stories now read from printed texts, rather than reciting them as best they recall. I acquire it. I love fairy tales, too: these fascinating windows into a I have always been drawn to folklore. Ever since I was a infant, my mother would tell or peruse me stories. I have had a special place in my heart for the ancient tales of strength and cunning, of magic and redemption that play out amongst a backdrop of ancient castles and magical forests. Fairies, witches, queens and kings, talking animals, and more, populate these stories, often helping to communicate a deeper sense in the tale. Themes of morality, selflessness, and openness run deep, reminding us that we must be prepared to help our neighbors, and should we not, skillfully, then there is a myriad of punishments the supernatural world is ready to dole out to us. Often these stories are also stories of love. Like most queer people, I have to “translate” most stories to better fit my own experience experience. When a prince and princess fall in like in these stories, I know I am not the target audience for such a tale, and yet I have learned to adapt them so I can also participate in their collective meaning. Though I am not represented, I can see myself in either role and because I am a human existence with the capacity for empathy, I can feel the
Archer Magazine
Image: Walter Crane illustration of Constant Heinrich (right) and his prince
Author Comment SecondQueen
Registered User
(7/13/06 1:04 am) Homosexuality in folklore and fairytales?
I am taking a course in gay theater right now, studying plays and their writers. My final project will be to write a 10 minute play of my own and I include been looking at folklore as a spring board for ideas.
I read something recently (at least I think I did...) about a myth where people used to have two heads, four arms and legs and the two parts could be male and female, or both the identical gender. For some reason they were split in two and people would try to find their other half again, which explained heterosexuality and homosexuality.
I'm not sure if I read that here, on another site, or in my anthropology course. Have y'all heard this before? Or understand of any other fairytales that discuss homosexuality?
Thank you :) estrilde
Registered User
(7/13/06 5:19 am) Re: Homosexuality in folklore and fairytales?
The myth you illustrate is part of the eulogy to the god Love given by Aristophanes in Plato's 'Symposium'. You can find it online here: www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi..
The Queerest Fairy Tales You’ve Never Heard