Thank you, Disney!

So, I've decided on a topic for my final creative project in Victorian Lit, and it is the same topic that I want to continue to develop throughout my graduate career.

It is the same topic that fascinated me in my high school literature classes.

It is the same topic that had me swimming in the "sea" of my bedroom as a four year old little girl (that sea being a huge, blue blanket that I crawled under).

And it's the same topic that makes me love Disney World more than any other place in the world, as convoluted and sexist and misconstrued as Disney's portrayal of that topic may be.

***Drum roll please...***

The Fairy Tale!

Now, this isn't your mother's fairy tale, folks.

These things are dark and twisted and beautiful.

Think you know Cinderella?

Try the "original" Grimm Brother's version in which the sisters mutilate themselves so they can wear that damn glass slipper.

Or how about the actual original, oral versions of the tales? The versions told by women to children and other women. The versions in which the damsel is never in distress, but is often the cunning hero, the savior of the city or the people or the home.

Those are my kinds of fairy tales!

And I think I could make a pretty nice little life of studying those women, and their legacy throughout literature.

And who isn't all about finding a scholarly reason for watching "The Little Mermaid" or "Beauty and the Beast" on repeat? ;)