Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Innocent Initiations: Female Agency In Eroticized Fairy Tales, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Bawdy folktales have generated controversy and scholarship for centuries, and their literary, sexually explicit descendants, eroticized fairy tales, are also deserving of attention. Marketed in short story collections as erotica, eroticized fairy tales use fairy-tale characters, plots, and themes as the setting for sexual adventures. Some of these tales focus on a naïve heroine’s initiation into sexual pleasure without her knowing precisely what is going on. I have termed these “innocent initiation” tales. Their use of traditional fairy-tale motifs contributes to discourse about female sexuality, agency, and objectification.