I will admit that I LOVE the show "Once Upon a Time". Yes, this is embarrassing. Perhaps it has something to do with growing up with Disney and wanting my career to be "Princess" until the age of 13.
However, there's some aspects of the show I find progressive. Although, the basis of the show is classic fairy-tales, what they have done is added a modern take with a bit of adventure and even...dun dun dunnnn Feminism.
Most of the female characters in the show are powerful, resilient, strong and smart. The majority of characters on the show are female, and it centres around one woman who is the "saviour" of all the other characters who have been put under a curse. She kicks ass and although once in awhile, they throw in some semblance of a romantic interest, she always stays true to herself and the desire to do what's best for her son.
The character of Sleeping Beauty is portrayed as the damsel in distress and she's actually looked down upon for this by the other women. She is paired up with Mulan who is a tough bitch and knows how to win a fight. Through the recent episodes, Sleeping Beauty has begun to find some autonomy and strength within herself.
Although there are some aspects of the show which do reflect the traditional heteronormativity of fairy tales (Snow White and Prince Charming are main characters), the show is trying to cast these women in a different light; they too can defeat evil and show that powerful is sexy.
I only discovered "Once Upon a Time" this past semester and quickly fell in love with the story, its characters, and the strong female representation. Thus, I spent a week in November watching all 29 previously aired episodes to catch up to the current episode. I procrastinated so much that week, but I'm glad that I found OUAT and its strong female characters.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I think that it would be nice if they had more diversity in the women on the show. Currently, they have had Mulan, who has been in the past few episodes, and Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, as women of colour. However, the appearance of Cinderella's Fairy Godmother was so short that we can't really count her. Even the men have only had one visible minority character, as far as I can remember, and he isn't even on the show anymore (the actor who played this character is now on the NBC show "Revolution"). Some have argued that the casting of white actors for these characters is due to the European folklore history of these fairy tales, but I think that OUAT could make as much of an effort to reinvent its characters through casting as it is reinventing the history of these fairy tales through the writing.