Transformative masculinities: re-examining the role of the male in Red Riding Hood.

Smith, Fiona; McKay, Fiona

Abstract

Red Riding Hood is said to have been assembled from folktales that pre-date the collector Charles Perrault's 1697 re-telling and initial publishing (Dundes, 1989; Zipes, 1993). Since then, it is a story that has been re-told and re-imagined many times in various media contexts, with Beckett suggesting that it is one of the most familiar icons of Western culture, and a "highly effective intertextual referent" (Beckett, 2002, p. XVI). Even though this story has been generally regarded as a children's tale, adult themes of sexuality and transgression have been explored in modern re-conceptions. In this chapter, we examine the representation of gender and masculinity in commercial media output: the 2011 American film Red Riding Hood (Hardwicke, 2011) and the pilot episode of the NBC series Grimm (2011). In Red Riding Hood, a romantic horror film, the male characters may be regarded as satellites that cluster around the female protagonist, whereas in Grimm, through its generic fusion of police procedural and horror genres, the text plays upon strong established examples of traditional male roles alongside more nuanced and contemporary representations of masculinity. Our analysis explores themes of transformation and heteronormativity and the extent to which the texts challenge or conform to traditional tellings.

Citation

SMITH, F. and MCKAY, F. 2024. Transformative masculinities: re-examining the role of the male in Red Riding Hood. In Le Clue, N. (ed.) Gender and the male character in 21st century fairy tale narratives: from enchanted heroes to modern masculinities. Leeds: Emerald Publishing Limited [online], chapter 6, pages 75-86. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83753-788-420241007

• Online Publication Date: Sep 16, 2024
• Publication Date: Sep 16, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 25, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 25, 2024
• Publisher: Emerald
• Pages: 75-86
• Series Title: Emerald studies in popular culture and gender
• Book Title: Gender and the male character in 21st century fairy tale narratives: from enchanted heroes to modern masculinities
• Chapter Number: 6
• ISBN: 9781837537891
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83753-788-420241007
• Keywords: Masculinity; Gender; Male characters; Fariy tales; Grimm tales; Red Riding Hood
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2480307