I did my thesis on reinterpreted fairy tales and thus became a little (a lot) obsessive about the subject. The topic became so ingrained in my brain that I started to think of the princesses as my weird imaginary friends. Snow White and Cinderella were alright by me, I guess, I was pretty apathetic about Rapunzel, but for some reason I thought Sleeping Beauty was a bit of a useless moron (Sleeping Beauty from the Fables comics excluded, natch). Little Red Riding Hood, though, was my girl. I was much more interested in her story-lines than the other chicas. Maybe it’s because there’s no prince or wedding–She doesn’t spend most of the plot asleep waiting for some dork to kiss her and wake her up. Sure, she gets eaten by a wolf not-so-cleverly disguised as her grandmother and then has to get rescued by some random woodsman, but that could happen to anyone. THAT HAPPENS TO ME ALL THE TIME. There’s no ring or glass slippers or dude in tights riding in on a white horse. Her gift is not being wolf chow. The End.
In Little Red Riding Hood reinterpretations (like Sisters Red or Francesca Lia Block’s story “Wolf” in The Rose and the Beast), she’s a badass of epic proportions, slaying werewolves and baddies of all sorts. She rocks a red cloak like no other. Little Red is my fairy tale girl and I love her in all her incarnations.
Who’s that I see walkin’ in these woods?
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Why, it’s Little Red Riding Hood.
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Hey there Little Red Riding Hood, You sure are looking good.
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You’re everything a big bad wolf could want.
Listen to me.
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Little Red Riding Hood
I don’t think little big girls should
Go walking in these spooky old woods alone.
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What big eyes you have, The kind of eyes that drive wolves mad.
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So just to see that you don’t get chased, I think I ought to walk with you for a ways.
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I’m gonna keep my sheep suit on until I’m sure that you’ve been shown that I can be trusted walking with you alone.
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Little Red Riding Hood, I’d like to hold you if I could, but you might think I’m a big bad wolf so I won’t.
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Little Red Riding Hood
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You sure are looking good.
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You’re everything that a big bad wolf could want.
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~Love and Libraries, Ingrid
This is the best post! I saw Amanda Seyfriend on Ellen, and saw that she knits! She became infinitely cooler in my books. Whenever I think of Little Red Riding Hood I think of the movie Freeway with Reese Witherspoon – so awesome!