In the artist's own words: "These works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The '...happily ever after' is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues.... I explored the original brothers Grimm's stories and found that they have very dark and sometimes gruesome aspects, many of which were changed by Disney. I began to imagine Disney's perfect Princesses juxtaposed with real issues that were affecting women around me, such as illness, addiction and self-image issues."While I do question the inclusion of a rubenesque Red Riding Hood as a "fallen" princess (Goldstein claims it to be a "personal comment on today's fast food society," but I smell mixed messages about beauty and body-image for women*), I am nevertheless intrigued by her work. It reminds me a lot of Dulce Pinzon's The Real Story of the Superheroes series, which examines the everyday heroism of Mexican immigrant workers in New York.
I'm not knocking fairy tales, but for better or for worse, they've had an undeniable effect on the construction of gender and gender roles. (Although if you ask me, there's a lot of "worse"... the perpetuation of the "damsel in distress" stereotype, the necessity of a Prince Charming to save, redeem, and/or complete a princess's life, the emphasis placed on beauty as a woman's most important asset, the negative portrayal of older women as crone/evil stepmother/wicked witch, etc.) Either way, anything that takes a closer and more critical look at the cultural mythology we're passing on to our kids is a-ok in my book.
*To make up for it, I give you the brilliant and oddly empowering Big Beautiful Wonder Woman Blog.
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