PhD entry #1

[silvia_elisa]

In the past couple of weeks, we have been encouraged to keep a journal of sorts so not to lose track of the research. It has been pointed out to me that I do tend to get lost in my own enthusiasm for, well, any subject under the sun. This is me, then, trying hard not to stray too much off the path.

It is week 2 of my first year as a PhD student. I

Comments

[schrodingersbat]

I have nothing intelligent to add so I'll just blurt out fairy tale villains yes.

And hi *waves awkwardly* my f-list has been slowly sputtering back to life recently, this is exciting!

But seriously, that's such a cool topic of study. I'd be interested to know what effects the gender of a villain has on their story, moral-wise. If Cinderella's stepmother had been a stepfather, would their behaviour have been seen as more par for the course in that era? Are female villains more hatred-inducing because females aren't "supposed" to be villainous? I'm getting carried away now, sorry.

[silvia_elisa]

HIIIIII *waves back* man I missed this place, it's so much quieter than the rest of the internet :D

I really like your questions about gender-swapping villains and what that does to them. I may have to raise that question at some point and see where it leads me. I've only just read a version of BatB where the Beast turns out to be a woman (and she is actually Snow White, because in this version all tales are interconnected but that's another story). It doesn't seem to change the tale too much, and it ends with something like "and in the village they said that a beauty and a beast lived in the castle, but some said there were two beauties and some said there were two beasts..."

[schrodingersbat]

It is quiet, like tumbleweed-rolls-by quiet, but it's also still the best platform for long-format conversations without using a condensed email-like messaging system. I need to talk to my peeps and you can't really do that in 140 characters or tumblr tags, y'know?

Yeah idk if it's more of a feminism issue (if that's not really a big part of your study and therefore only needs a sidenote or something) or a storytelling quirk that's developed somewhat recently? But I love genderbenders, like give me all of the genderbenders dude.