Monday's lesson and homework

Challenging the representation of women in Snow White.

What does challenge mean? To challenge means to question, disagree with, present a different view of.

What might a female character like Snow White do in a text which challenges the representation of women in Snow White?

·         Instead of opening the door to the queen she would recognise the danger and find a way to protect herself and plan to kill the queen

·         When the huntsman tries to kill her she fights him and he runs away

·         She could build her own house and not have to be protected by dwarves

·         She could show intelligence by reasoning with the queen

·         Instead of marrying the prince straight away she wants to get to know him

·         Arrange to work with the queen to rule the kingdom

If we put the story in a modern setting, how might she behave?

·         She could leave home

·         She could ask to go to boarding school to set herself up in life

·         She could choose to go and live with other members of her family

·         She could secretly set up her own internet business and become a millionaire by 17

What might she say?

·         She might get a better lock and say to the queen “You can’t get in”

·         She could convince the huntsman to be on her side and kill the queen instead

·         She could contact the queen’s advisors and tell them that the queen is trying to kill her and the queen could get in trouble

·         She could go to another kingdom and help them defeat the queen

What would she be rewarded for?

·         Intelligence

·         Courage

·         Bravery

·         Fearlessness

·         Confidence

·         Entrepreneurship

·         Determination

·         Independence

What qualities would be valued in women?

·         As above the things she is rewarded for are the things valued

·         Self-respect

·         Personality

What might she be punished for?

·         Maybe because she killed the queen

·         Leaving her kingdom (if responsibility was valued)

In fact, we probably wouldn’t want to punish her. The problem with fairy tales is that women are punished for things like not obeying the rules or for stupidity.

Homework – work on your assignment. Write a paragraph in which you clearly identify the representation of women. Start with a series of dot points as we did in class for “Snow White”. Choose the one or two most important ideas and write a paragraph as you did in class.