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Seriously this isn't funny, it won't let me comment on any blogs.

The Bloody Chamber *Girl-Power*

The thing that surprised me when reading to page 26 was the calmness of the narrator when she entered the chamber itself.
She said she 'felt no fear', and quite confidently enters the chamber, but remains calm, up until she finds the Romanian countess and drops the key.

I thought it was quite surprising as the character has changed from a naive innocent teenager, to a woman. For instance she says 'Until that moment, this spoiled child did not know she had inherited nerves and will from the mother who had defied the yellow outlaws of Indo-China', which highlights the female empowerment of her mother, but also suggests that the narrator has also transformed into a courageous young woman, unlike the stereotypical girl characters in fairy tales (distinct reversal of gender-roles, as also it is the man who is evil in this story, unlike many old witches or women in fairy tales).
I don't think many people, even men would be that brave after entering the Bloody Chamber, so Angela Carter is definitely suggesting that female empowerment and is perhaps somewhat underrated.

Bluebeard

Bluebeard was a rich aristocrat, shunned because of his "frightfully ugly" blue beard. He’d been married several times, but no-one knows what happened to his wives. He was therefore avoided by the local girls. Bluebeard persuaded the daughter of a neighbour to visit him. He then convinced her to marry him. After the ceremony she went to live with him in his château.
Very shortly after, Bluebeard announced that he must leave the country for a while; he gave the keys of the château to his new wife, telling her they open the doors to rooms which contain his treasures. He told her to use the keys freely, and enjoy herself whilst he is away. However, he also gave her the key to one small room beneath the castle, stressing to her that she must not enter the room under any circumstances. She vowed she would never enter the room. He then went away and left the house in her hands. Immediately she was tempted to go to the forbidden room and despite warnings from her visiting sister, Anne, the girl abandoned her guests during a party, and went to the room.

The wife discovered the room's secret: the floor was flooded with blood, and the murdered bodies of her husband's former wives hung from hooks on the walls. Horrified, she dropped the key into the pool of blood. She fled the room, but the blood staining the key wouldn’t wash off. She revealed her murderous husband's secret to her sister Anne, and both planned to flee the castle the next day. Bluebeard returned home unexpectedly the next morning, and, noticing the blood on the key, immediately knew his wife had broken her vow. In a blind rage he threatened to behead her on the spot, but she implores him to give her 15 mins to pray. He agrees, so she locked herself in the highest tower with Anne. While Bluebeard, sword in hand, tries to break down the door, the sisters waited for their two brothers to arrive. At the last moment, as Bluebeard is about to deliver the fatal blow, the brothers broke into the castle, and as he attempted to flee, they killed him. He left no heirs but his wife, who inherited his fortune. She used part of it for a dowry to marry off her sister, another part for her brothers' captains commissions, and the rest to marry a gentleman who’d make her forget her horrible encounter with Bluebeard.

The roles of females in fairy tales (please understand that my v and c keys have for no reason switched round)

The heroine in a fairy tale is stereotypically beautiful, helpful and extremely naive (or even ignorant in some stories). She waits to be rescued from dangerous situations, and does not escape them through the use of her own wit/intelligence. In fact, usually, she is, to a certain degree mentally retarded (a good example would be Rapunzel asking the evil witch why she is so heavy compared to her new boyf). The heroine is very much portrayed as a victim.

The villain in a fairy tale is usually a woman. They are often described as witches, old or evil. They are usually defeated in the end. When it comes to female roles, the message fairy tales convey is that there are merely two types of women: the helpless and the malicious, much like the Madonna/Whore complex. Good women do not save the day or get themselves out of bad situations, they wait for a handsome prince to save them. Women who have desires and the moxie to achieve them are  villainous and will ultimately be punished.

Fairytales first appeared widely in published form in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when women's roles were undergoing major transformation in Western Europe and the US, yet fairy tales gained great popularity. Through the rise of feminism and the start of women in the workforce, fairy tales remained a widely-read genre.

Historians have noted that 'depictions of women have changed dramatically over the years, but in each era, dominant images have provided ideals to be either emulated or defied.' Fairy tales have presented such images to generations of girls and young women.





Photos that show acceptance of gender roles:



 (let's pretend she's not posing with her hands on her hips...)