Myth, Folklore and Fairy Tales Part II | 17.2

Just what does a feminist tale look like? The authors of “Essa’s Question,”Mamina Gonick and Kelly McDowell, were very aware of how feminist fairy tales might look. In the notes accompanying their tale, they reported that “we wondered about the possibilities of moving beyond an economy of stereotypes and decided that the only way to find out was to try [writing one] ourselves. The result is… an ironic twist on our ideals and our original intent. Although it presents the task of identity construciton as problematic, and as an ongoing, open-ended accomplishment, it neglects the processes which make identity problematic in the first place. It was strange to find, after creating a so-called feminist tale, that our main character, in essence, didn’t have a body. Essa’s dilemma centres on the issues of choice. As a starting point, our issues as feminists was not over which body to choose, but rather which meanings we choose and which are assigned to our bodies. Or said differently, our problem or issue was not with the bodies we have but with the meanings and signs they carry. The other irony found in our attempt to move beyond conventions was our explicit use of them. It seemed, upon reflection, that they were the only tools readily at hand. The question of how we can use the technology we seek to disrupt has brought us back to the very questions we sought to solve in the first place. Our question now is whether there is an answer. Perhaps the answer is in the questioning.”

Questioning is perhaps the single common thread to the pieces in this collection. The breadth and depth of the authors’ capacities to examine the cloak of stereotypes, separate the critical components, and fashion new garments that weigh less heavily on our shoulders earn them the badges of expert seamstresses of concepts—and perhaps of conscience. Hopefully this issue contains a question for everyone, and at least one answer.