Little Red Riding and It’s Inappropriate Elements 

Fairy tales that originated pre-seventh century, were often very violent, and sexual in their elements especially when the audience who heard these tales were much too young to comprehend such themes. These elements persist till this day. This entirely goes for the many variations of “Little Red Riding Hood”, in which they all go over a coming of age girl, wearing a red cap of some sort and running into a Stranger/Wolf on her way to her grandmother. This girl is later “Eaten” due to her not ignoring the Stranger/Wolf. Although seemingly innocent, the dark themes are prevalent due to the views and issues at that time when it was written. “Little Red Riding Hood” is a perfect representation of how social norms, and the writer change tales to have violent, and sexual connotations to teach the young about the dangers in the real world.

“Little Red Riding Hood” contains violent, gory, and obscene imagery, throughout the many variations of this tale. These elements continuously seep into the tales due to people at the time and the writer. This can be seen in that within the fairytale “Little Red Riding Hood” by Charles Perrault, the fairytale says “He flung himself on the old lady and ate her all up in less than a moment because he had not had a meal…”(101). This helps show one of the violent aspects of the fairytale. Kids at this time who had read this version of Little Red Riding Hood were most likely used to it, due to how harsh the living conditions were back then. To add on to this, the kids who read this pre-seventh century, were the aristocratic, or in other words those who were part of the upper class. Perrault, was aiming to write to the young aristocrats and tell them moral warnings about the world using “Little Red Riding Hood” and other tales. This is entirely supported by the writer Allison Tait, who wrote a blog titled “Transgressive social mobility in Charles Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood”. In which it talks about the world at the time when the tale was written and why. 

This especially isn’t only for “The Little Red Riding Hood” by Perrault but similarly for “Uncle Wolf” by Italio Calvino. One example of the violent nature in it is “‘I’m going to eat you now!’ I’m at the foot of the bed! ‘Ahem, here I go’ And he gobbled her up”(Calvino 154).This shows the violent nature of the wolf within this tale, trying to scare the little girl, but also outright telling the reader that the girl fate is sealed.Entirely these elements of violence will never stop popping up due to how society was/is and there are people out there that agree with me. Shuli Barzilai, an author and professor of english at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem, wrote an article called “Red Riding Hood for All Ages: A Fairy Tale Icon in cross-cultural contexts”. This article steps into the fact that violence and rape has continued to stay within the many revisions of the tale still bringing in, the old themes and new themes within the tale. Violence isn’t the only thing that continuously enters these tales throughout the many iterations of them but also sexual connotations.

Within the fairy tale it also carries the same amount of sexual connotations as violent elements. What I primarily mean by this is that these elements are mixed in as violent actions in that these sexual themes are hidden as a “simple” violent action. An example of this is within the tale by Perrault, there are two statements that highlight the sexual theme, and it says, “Put the bun and the little pot of butter on the chest, and come and get into bed with me” as well as “The wicked wolf flung himself on little red riding hood, and ate her up”(101). These two sentences paint us the picture that the little girl was most likely violated by the wolf, of course, this doesn’t just come with only the bad but these connotations are used to tell a sort of twisted coming of age story. Just like the violent aspects seen by me and many alike, there are people out there, who have perceived these connotations and believe the same, that it will have changed from having dark themes. One of those writers is called Amanda Digioia, who is a scholar and music critic that wrote, “Wolf Moon Type O Negative’s Modern Take on Little Red Riding Hood ”. This article was written to share about how “Little Red Riding Hood is a tale that has evolved numerous times throughout the centuries but traditionally has been a story about Metamorphoses that are peppered with sexual connotations”(Digioia). This article supports my claim, in that it shows that there are others who have noticed that the tale will simply remain with those notions due to how the ground formula is laden with these connotations that it is really difficult to get rid of these aspects to tell the main idea of the story. You may be wondering why I believe this, and it’s certainly due to how society as a whole acts, and how as we develop and grow, some things never change.

The many iterations of  “Little Red Riding Hood” have had these elements throughout the years and it’s primarily due to society and its norms during that point in time. What I mean by this is that these elements keep appearing due to events that can, and have happened before. Primarily bringing back the blog post “Transgressive social mobility in Charles Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood”. In which it helps show the point made before in how society and the writer at the time affect these tales. The main example being “ As such, Little Red appears to be a member of the lower or rural peasant classes, whose social mobility, given her socioeconomic status, is limited to her reproduction of the fashion of those “fine ladies.” Contained within this emulation, however, is a disruption or blurring of class distinctions, in which the rural peasant assumes the marker of the more prosperous middle and upper classes in an overt manner. Little Red projects herself as something she is fundamentally and socioeconomically not: a “fine lady”. In doing so, there is the threat that within the immensely stratified environment of seventeenth-century France—of which was still operating within the Ancien Régime, a system which saw to the political and social division of pre-Revolution French society—markers of aristocracy or wealth ”(Tait). These lines show how at the time of the tale being written, there was a rigid class system in which the privileged at this time had the pleasures to gain knowledge. This entirely led to the tales being written for the young aristocrats to read and understand how the “fine ladies”/nobility have threats lingering at all times. The authors addressing issues similar to this one are done to enlighten the younger audiences, but also the fact that these issues will always keep appearing one way or another. 

I know this due to an article called “All the Better to Eat You with: Sexuality, Violence, and Disgust in ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ Adaptations” by Nicola Welsh-Burke, a writer and literature researcher, which talks about how tradition and societal views lead tales to stay violent and sexual. This can be seen in that it says “ It is clear within this resurgence that the tales once again explore the violence, sexuality, horror, incest, and cannibalism present in older variants. This influx of adaptations reveals not just the ongoing adaptability and ‘malleability’ of the genre as a means of cultural commentary and criticism but also reinforces the construction of the genre as a ‘web’ that stretches back, across, and ahead to other genres” (Burke). This tells you that as new fairytale renditions are made, dark elements will continue to ooze alongside the new elements due to the morals they will be able to present to the readers based on modern times. Although issues like class systems are not present anymore, dangers are still shown in the world because society does not entirely change. This leads to similar morals continuing on, as well as the violent and sexual tones, which let the young be exposed to such themes. Another example of this, is within the article “Little Red Riding Hood and the pedophile in film: freeway, hard candy, and The Woodsman” by  Pauline Greenhill, a Professor at University of Winnipeg wrote that, “We do have this culture that likes to sexualize teenage girls and even younger girls and then somehow makes it the fault of those girls rather than the fault of the people who are manufacturing these clothes”. So you may be wondering how this contributes to my claim and the reason it’s here is due to how she talks about a film that was inspired by the fairytale and sexualizes the girl that’s within the film just like how they do within the fairytale. It also brings up the bigger idea of how society has many issues in the world that stay prominent regardless of how humanity has grown over time. 

Ultimately, “Little Red Riding Hood” and its many variations will always have a hint of violence and sexual elements as long as humanity never changes.Although changes like class and certain elements from the past are gone, the rich and cruel people are still out there.  Just like how violence is found in the world currently today, it stays in writing like these to teach or even inform the reader about the issues within the world at the time. This especially being seen within this tale and many alike. The writers are influenced by the world and its views, and it’s clearly also affecting film renditions of those tales alike.The main issue with this is that, tales should change to accommodate views today, although there are many dangers today similarly to the past. Society as a whole has become much safer compared to the harsh environments in the past. Just like how Perrault wrote to the young aristocrats to teach them about the dangers of the world to them, writers should write with their audience in mind as well as the dangers and views of modern time. In the end, Fairy tales are naturally affected based on the issues and social norms of the world, and it should be that way as long as they are adapted to the views today.

Works Cited:

Barzilai, Shuli. “Red Riding Hood for All Ages: A Fairy-Tale Icon in Cross-Cultural Contexts.” 

Marvels & Tales, vol. 24, no. 1, Apr. 2010, pp. 176+. Gale Academic OneFile, 

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A229652016/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=807d9

ce4. Accessed 23 Oct. 2024.

Calvino, I. (1980). Uncle Wolf. Pantheon Books, New York. https://bbhosted.cuny.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-10753161-dt-announcement-rid-689849387_1/xid-689849387_1

Digioia, Amanda. “Lechery, lycanthropy and Little Red Riding Hood in Type O Negative’s

‘Wolf Moon (Including Zoanthropic Paranoia)’.” Metal Music Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, June 2016, pp. 233+. Gale Academic OneFile, 

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A474126549/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=a2087d5d. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.

Greenhill, Pauline, and Steven Kohm. “Little Red Riding Hood and the pedophile in film: freeway, hard 

candy, and The Woodsman.” Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures, vol. 1, no. 2, winter  

2009, pp. 35+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A231094714/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=2d93d678. Accessed 23 Oct. 2024.

Perrault, Charles. The Complete Fairy Tales. OUP Oxford, 2009. EBSCOhost, 

          search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=302377&site=ehost-live.

Tait, A. (2020, February 2). Transgressive social mobility in Charles Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood.” UBC English Students’ Association. https://www.ubcenglish.com/transgressive-social-mobility-in-charles-perraults-little-red-riding-hood/

Welsh-Burke, Nicola. “All the Better to Eat You with: Sexuality, Violence, and Disgust in 

‘Little Red Riding Hood’ Adaptations.” Literature, vol. 3, no. 4, 2023, pp. 416–29, 

https://doi.org/10.3390/literature3040028.