Clothes Make the Woman

We have left Snow White and Disney behind this week and moved on to Little Red Riding Hood, which is ripe with sexual innuendo, violence, and obedience lessons depending on the versions you read.  One point I was particularly taken with was raised by Zohar Shavit in his essay "The Concept of Childhood and Children's Folktales".

"While in Perrault's version the grandmother's love for her girl is not mentioned at all, in the Grimm version her love for Little Red Riding Hood is boundless, and she makes her the red hood as a symbol of her love.  Hence the hood serves a different function in each of the two versions: for Perrault it symbolizes the girl's eroticism, whereas for the Brothers Grimm it is an expression of the grandmother's deep love."  See, "The Concept of Childhood and Children's Folktales", by Zohar Shavit, p. 330.

The idea of the cape representing such different imagery has really impressed me, as did the current assignment in class of posting an image (just one) of Little Red and discussing the image evoked.  I have looked through hundreds of images online and chosen a handful that, for me, evoke either the beloved child or the erotic heroine in keeping with the statement above.

First, we have the Red that would be in keeping with Perrault's character:

And now, the Grimms' Red:



In every one of these images, the red cape is what identifies the girl in it as Little Red for us.  The capes are of varying length and style, even the shade of red varies, and yet we know this is Little Red Riding Hood each time.  Without it in any or all of these images, and I do not believe Little Red would immediately come to mind except, perhaps, in the first one where the character has slain a wolf.

The emotions and sensations these images conjure are also different.  When I see the erotic Red, I think of a siren who has been awakened out of her innocence by the Wolf, and who is thriving in her newfound womanhood.  The young, child Red invokes in me feelings of wanting and needing to protect her innocence and her life as a parent or grandparent would want to do with a child.

While I was not unaware of several versions of art and images of this character exist, I seldom spend much time searching through them and contemplating my reactions and feelings to them.  I have really enjoyed this project as it gave me a new reflective point.