Agency, Fairy Tales & Brainwashing the Younger Generation

Recently, I took my son to see a puppet show theater adaption of Hansel & Gretel. The sets were phenomenal. The puppets were not as emotionally-scarring as they might have been and the production value overall was fantastic. What wasn't so fantastic, however, was the play itself. To say the script writer took a few liberties with the original story is like saying a dirty limerick version of War & Peace captures the full scale of the original novel.

Just in case you aren't familiar with the original story of Hansel & Gretel (WHO ARE YOU!?) here's the Cliffnotes version: A woodcutter with questionable parenting skills and his murderous wife lead their two resourceful kids into the woods and leave them there to die. The starving kids stumble across a gingerbread house and decide eating someone's home is no big deal. The witch who owns said sugary cottage objects, tosses the little darlings into a cage and makes plans to eat them. Ultimately, Gretel saves herself and her brother by tricking the witch and shoving her into an oven. The kids live happily ever after. The end. Girls kick butt. Okay there was some crying in there, but ultimately, Gretel took action and saved the day. Woohoo girl power!

Now let's take a look at the version my son & I saw. First, the kids get lost in the woods rather than being led there because no way is that murdering your kids crap going to get past CPS. I'm willing to let this slide. It's a small change.

Next, the kids fall asleep in the forest as some crazed sandman imp cavorts over their heads like a slighter more terrifying version of Chucky and a host of angles forms a holy bridge to protect the kids in the night from ... well not Sandman Chucky 'cause they arrived with that guy. To be fair, the kids were eating berries just prior to this scene, maybe they grabbed some bad mushrooms as well. I'm still okay with all this, if really, really confused.

Fast forward to the gingerbread house. The witch strikes and tosses Hansel into a cage! Eek! She freezes Gretel with a spell, then goes off to get cooking supplies because apparently she doesn't keep that sort of thing around (her being a kid-eating witch and all). Gretel weeps. A lot. Her tears undo the spell and she can move! That's right, Gretel's super power is crying. Alrighty. But wait, the witch comes back before Gretel can do squat and Gretel pretends to still be frozen. That whole proceeding scenes was pointless because two seconds after she arrives back, the witch unfreezes Gretel.

Here it comes, the big oven scene. You can feel the anticipation. Gretel is poised. And yet ... she isn't. Gretel is genuinely mystified and saying she can't see any cookies in the oven. The angry witch peers into the oven and HANSEL TELLS GRETEL TO PUSH THE WITCH IN. *This is the point in the play where my eye started twitching and I began having the urge to stab things.

In geek circles in recent years there's been a lot of talk about something called agency. Basically, agency means being able to act on your own behalf. Far too often in fiction, comic books, fairy tales, and popular media women and girls have a distinct lack of agency. Women are not masters of their own fate. They are not in control of anything. Needless to say, quite a few women, myself included, object to that portrayal.

What makes me utterly furious is seeing a fairy tale that otherwise featured a female character saving the day rewritten to take away any agency she might have had. Her super power was crying for heaven's sake! What sort of message does that send to kids, girls and boys, in that audience? Boys are clever. Boys solve problems. Girls take orders and do what they're told. Girls cry a lot. Argh!

I read my son the real version of Hansel & Gretel last night and we talked about how clever both kids were in the story. Because that should be the real takeaway from Hansel & Gretel - that children, regardless of gender, can be clever, tricksy little creatures who defeat the bad guy and save the day.

My kids and I will be skipping future puppet shows at that theater. Maybe we'll stage a few of our own at home and my daughter and my son can both play the hero.

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Agency, Fairy Tales & Brainwashing the Younger Generation

Collaborative Writing As A Learning Device

My daughter has a lot of challenges in her life, both health-wise and school-related. Reading and writing are two of her major trouble areas. Cassidy is Dyslexic and also has something called Irlen Syndrome, which makes it very difficult for her to read. Spelling is a grand mystery that constantly eludes her and proper sentence structure and paragraph construction might as well be foreign languages.

Despite those challenges, Cassidy adores books and is a voracious reader and audio book listener. She's an imaginative writer who comes up with some really advanced ideas for a kid just entering fifth grade. My challenge has been helping her get her practical skills inline with her mental abilities.

In order to improve her writing skills, I insist that Cassidy writes a full page for me once a week. She has all week to do it, but inevitably waits until the last second to frantically put pencil to paper. That single page is an unbearable burden according to my daughter.

Today I proposed a new strategy for the both of us. A grand experiment. Starting tomorrow Cassidy and I are going to undertake a collaborative writing project. I began by writing a story title and a first paragraph. Tomorrow Cass will add her own paragraph. Then I'll add another paragraph and so on, trading back and forth, paragraph by paragraph, as our story grows.

Cassidy is excited at the prospect of sharing her writing time and breaking up the work. The idea of writing a story together really caught her interest. Hopefully this translates into more time together, more willingness to work on her writing skills and a touch of fun for both of us.

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Collaborative Writing As A Learning Device

A Wish For Nerdy Children

As a parent, I have all sorts of hopes and dreams for my kids. I want them to grow up healthy & happy, to go to college and find careers they love. Their jobs don't have to be prestigious as long as they really like what they're doing. And it doesn't involve a stripper pole or prison. Beyond that, I'm fairly open-minded. However, there's one point I'm adamant about - I must have nerdy kids.

Nerd and Geek are often used as insults by other kids, but as an adult, those terms can become badges of honor. I'm proud of my nerdiness. I embrace my geekhood. I want the same for my children.

To be fair, my children were basically doomed from the start. I've attended six Harry Potter conferences. I'm a YA writer. I make crafty things that involve glue guns, paint and occasional trips to the first aid cabinet. Most of my wardrobe consists of t-shirts relating to 80s cartoons, books, Doctor Who and Monty Python.

My husband is an avid comic book reader, participates a role playing dice game with friends every other Friday and has an entire room dedicated to Star Wars. Most of his wardrobe involves comic-book themed t-shirts. We are unabashed geeks that support each other and refuse to grow up. What chance did our kids have?

There are signs that our wish for nerdy children may pay off. My 10-year-old daughter reads comic books just like her dad, is currently watching season 2 of Doctor Who and has a book obsession to rival my own. My 3-year-old son will take story time over most other activities any day and has more picture books than legos. If you have a little boy, you know they own a LOT of legos. I am cautiously hopeful that my little nerds will grow up proud of their various interests and will remain avid geeks. If not, I may have to disinherit them.

Let other parents dream of future doctors and lawyers, of prom queens and football captains. I'll be happy with two goofy book-loving, comic-book-reading, video-game-playing cultural misfits.

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A Wish For Nerdy Children