Rumpelstiltskin's Secret: What Women Didn't Tell the Grimms

Everyone knows Rumpelstiltskin's story-or thinks they do. But this innocent-seeming tale hides generations of women's shrewd accounts of their relationships with men. And the verdict is not flattering. The fairytale may count among the world's oldest dirty jokes. The theme of the tale, an observation repeated and varied throughout, mocks male inadequacy in many forms, beginning with sexual failure. The punchline misplaced, over time its wickedly funny insights about adult life passed for childish nonsense. The story hides, in plain sight, criticism of workplace sexual harassment-centuries before society took notice of the indignity. Rumpelstiltskin tells a feminist tale with lessons for men and women, about what women said to each other when they thought their private conversation and complaints passed unnoticed. In the story's different versions, the Brothers Grimm, who recorded the tale, missed women's wry observations.

Author: Harry Rand
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 12/16/2019
Pages: 274
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780815384588

About the Author

Harry Rand is a senior curator of cultural history at the Smithsonian Institution.