The suffragettes fought and died for womens rights, Emily Wilding Davidson walked out in front of the kings horses at Epsom, bombs in post boxes, all for nothing it seems as we teach our young that women are defenceless, and subjected to Male whims.
Once again we have the Wolf, symbol of the wildness, power, and virility of Male sexuality. We have an innocent girl ‘little red ridinghood’ and we know she is a saint because she is taking a food hamper through the woods to her bedridden granny.
So the scene is set and the players are ready. Red riding hood sets off on her journey meets the wolf is a little freaked and says she’s going to see her gran at the other side of the wood, Wolfy see his opportunity run’s ahead of naive red riding hood and eats her Gran. Harsh to say the least, the fact that the granny is so easily overwhelmed and defeated by the wolf is pre-curser to what could happen to little rider, and shows the ease at which Man can defeat woman. The struggle isn’t even described. Most worrying is the famous, ‘oh what big ears you have grandma’ section where the storyteller portrays how the Male of the species is anatomically supierior to the female ‘all the better for hearing you with,’ whilst also highlighting how the obsession with the size of male genitalia is central to our society’s value and belief system.
Also Li’l rider doesn’t notice her Gran has been replaced with a wolf, a damning iditement of female intelligence. Lowe and behold who becomes the hero of this story? Another man, a woodcutter, symbol of goodness and strength a stereotype of god fearing red blooded masculinity. I personally prefer Roaldl Dahl’s subervsive re-telling ‘The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers. She whips a pistol from her knickers. She aims it at the creature’s head, And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
