Sexuality In Little Red Riding: A Truth Uncovered

      If you were to look and compare the sexual behavior of “men” in today’s society to centuries ago, there would not be that big of a difference. Though this may be a long time from now, we can smell scents of sexual symbolism tracing how society perceived women in the olden times in various literary works. These pieces of literature include fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood. Sexuality is continuously expressed in multiple versions of little Red Riding Hood.

      During the time of Charles Perrault, environmental factors were a significant influence in the making of his version of the Little Red Riding Hood. He was the first writer to translate the fairy tale from an oral tale to a narrative. During his time, there were increasing reports of rape, which impacted his version of Little Red Riding Hood. “There was a virtual epidemic of trials against men accused of being werewolves in the 16th and 17th centuries similar to the trials against women as witches” (Zipes, 1983, p.4). Thousands of men were accused of taking innocent children and harming them in cruel ways. To combat the “disease” of rape that these men were suffering, Perrault suggested in his moral: 

Children, especially attractive, well-bred young ladies, should never talk to

strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf. I 

say “wolf,” but there are various kinds of wolves. Some are charming, quiet, 

polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home 

and in the streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most 

dangerous ones of all. (p. 1) 

 It is clear that  Perrault was referring to the “wolf” as men and little red as  “well-bred young ladies.” The “wolf” in Perrault’s time was seen as something kind, friendly, and social. Likewise, women in Perrault’s time — who were symbolized as little red, were perceived as easy, innocent, naive, gullible, well-bred, and attractive young ladies.  Charles Perrault’s fairy tale was not the ideal fairytale we thought it would be, and though it warned the young ladies in his time, it’s gone down in literary history as a piece of work that expressed sexuality. 

      As horrific it may sound to have children read a fairy tale with underlying tones of sexuality, Charles Perrault’s fairy tale is also known to have characteristics for little red that signified women are to blame for their rape. In his narrative, Charles Perrault had started by describing little red as “ the prettiest creature who was ever seen” (p. 1). Little Red’s mother and grandmother were overly fond of her. She was so pretty that a woman fixed up a little red riding hood for her, and it suited her so much that people started calling her Little Red Riding Hood. So, appearance-wise, little red — or women, were perceived as pretty, well-bred, and young ladies during Perrault’s time. However, later in his fairytale, he’s showing little red as a naive and innocent girl who does not know what she’s doing when she falls for the wolf’s trap and gets “eaten.”  Since Perrault chose to describe little red riding hood in this way, women were perceived as weak mentally and physically and were at fault for rapt and rape crime ( Johnson, 2003, p. 338). Charles Perrault, alongside The Grimm Brothers, was the first to narrate Little Red Riding Hood; both versions were of high significance. Their versions became dominant in both oral and literary traditions of nations that practiced cultural hegemony, such as Germany, France, Great Britain, and the United States (Zipes,1983,p. 2). As a result, rape crimes continued to rise exponentially in these countries, causing families always to fear their children’s safety. Men’s reputations worsened in France, and children — especially the well-bred, attractive ones — stayed frightened of something they could not control. 

     Paul Deralues, The Story Of Grandmother, was written in the nineteenth century, the revolution for children. During the nineteenth century, child development was spreading rapidly, and the need for education for children was brought to daylight due to this revolution (Shayit,1999). In Delarue’s time, education was becoming a necessity for children because most were forced into adulthood, decreasing the chance of survival in adolescence. As a result,  children’s books were created for the first time, and children became the intended audience for books specifically for children. “When a change in this understanding came about, text written for children changed as well.” (Shavit,1993, p. 136). Thus, authors like Delarue had to adopt a new image of the little girl. Delarue also sexualized little red but had a different outcome for little red and the ending than Charles Perault’s version. In Perrault’s version,  the wolf  “gobbles” or rapes little red because Perrault reflected the real-life circumstances in his time and because there was no education system when he wrote his version. Delarue rewrote his version when the revolutions for children and their need for education happened, yet his ending was happy. Delarue displayed little red being pressured into “sleeping” with the wolf when he wrote, “However, little red outsmarts the wolf and gets away from the perverted beast. Although these two versions have different endings, both have many similarities within the wolf’s rape and seduction topic toward Little Red Riding Hood. 

     Similarly, Paul Delarue’s tale conveys little red as the innocent girl who does not know that it’s dangerous to speak to strangers and the wolf, or Bzou, still forcefully trying to seduce the little girl. Delarue’s version refers to little red as “ Little Girl,” implying she is a harmless and defenseless child who obeys her mother’s orders. Like Little Red Riding Hood depicts the little girl and the wolf are running into each other in the woods, and the wolf asks her where she is going, which was merely a part of his act in planning his assault. Identically, the wolf is dressed up as her grandmother in bed and asks the little girl too, “ “Undress yourself, my child,” the werewolf said, “And come lie down beside me.” (Delarue). The wolf forced the little girl to burn her clothes in the fire, not to have any clothes to escape with. However, unlike Perrault’s, Delarue ended his rewritten version with the little girl escaping the wolf before she gets raped. Though Delarue characterized the little girl as someone harmless, he also portrayed her as confident. The little girl was not afraid of the wolf as she knew how to handle herself and what she had to do to get out of danger. The little girl tricks the wolf by saying she needed to go badly and do it by the tree outside. The wolf tied a woolen rope around her ankle, but the little girl wittingly “tied the end of the rope to a plum tree in the courtyard” and escaped (Delarue, p. 2). This version shows that the little girl is smarter than Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood. In Jack Zipes A Second Gaze at Little Red Riding Hood’s Trials and Tribulations, he states, “The sexual cravings of the wolf are debunked and treated as harmless because the little girl knows how to take care of herself in nature” (1983, p. 53).  The little girl ends up escaping the wolf and gets herself out of danger. The circumstances and context surrounding the time frame in which both versions were written are responsible for the distinctions between Perrault and Delarue’s versions. Regardless, they still have palpable similarities referring to sexuality and how the wolf’s main goal was to rape Little Red Riding Hood. 

     There are different versions of Little Red Riding Hood that pertain to sexuality, mainly shown by the wolf. However, in The Company Of Wolves by Angela Carter, the symbolism depicts that Little Red was willing to be seduced or mate with the beastly wolf.  Angela Carter was a feminist novelist who rewrote various fairytales, including Little Red Riding Hood. Angela Carter ran her retakes on famous fairy tales through the lens of a feminist to emphasize how much she disliked women’s suffering in such fairy tales and was held responsible for it because they were “weaklings.” She wanted women to seize what they needed: power, freedom, and sex. Therefore, in “The Company Of Wolves,” she symbolized and characterized Little Red Riding Hood as a strong-minded child who is confident and brave and knows that no wild beasts could harm her.  Little Red Riding Hood meets a charming man in the woods on the way to her grandmother’s house, who makes a bet that he would beat her to her grandmother’s house, and if he does, he will win a kiss. Little red unquestioningly gives her basket filled with weapons and purposely walks slower to “make sure the handsome gentleman would win his wager.” (Carter, p. 1). She also ignores the signs of violence this man may pertain to, such as his rifle, his flashing wet teeth, and the dead birds he’s carrying.  We can see that little red is taking responsibility for her sexuality and expressing it freely as if it were her own choice. When little red reached her grandmother’s house, she immediately saw things out of order like no indentation of a head on the pillow, and for the first time–  the bible lay closed on the table. Little Red knew what would happen and wanted to reach for the knife in the basket but knew she could not because the man’s big eyes stayed on her. In the end, the wolf had received what he had wanted, and little red chose not to fight against it as she was confident because “she knew she was nobody’s meat” (Carter p.5). Angela Carter ends her version of the fairy tale depicting little red riding accepting her fate by being brave and not because she was weak or incapable. By doing so, Carter shows “the opposition between women’s growing awareness of their sexuality and the cruel constructs which society creates to control women.” (Rabab,2013, pg 6) Carter had referred to sexuality from a new perspective, one where little red riding hood is aware of her situation, aware of her sexuality, and is not weak for having certain circumstances come upon her. 

      Sexuality played a massive role in influencing these authors’ version of Little Red Riding Hood. In these versions of Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf is symbolized as the dominant lead rapist, and the Little Red Riding hood is the weak girl who’s the wolf’s victim and is responsible for what had happened to her. Charles Perrault, Paul Deralue, and Angela Carter rewrote their versions based on their influences from real-life circumstances while still showing similarity in how they pertain to sexuality and how it is towards Little Red Riding Hood.  After analyzing the history, era, and culture in which Perrault, Carter, and Delarue wrote the Little Red Riding Hood, they prove how these versions have been raped. 

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Works Cited

Johnson, S. P. (2003). The Toleration and Erotization of Rape: Interpreting Charles

Perrault s Le Petit Chaperon Rouge within Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century French Jurisprudence. Women’s Studies, 32(3), 325-352. doi:10.1080/00497870390187548

Zipes, Jack. The Trials & Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood. 2nd ed. New York:

Routledge, 1993. Print.

Rabab Taha Al-Kassasbeh. “Feminism and Postmodern Aesthetics in AngelaCarters”Wolf-

Alice”, “The Company of Wolves,” and “The Werewolf.” Vol.14, 2013.

http://www.ijaes.net/Article/FullText/2?volume=14&issue=1 

Shavit, Z. (1999).The Concept of childhood’s Folktales: Test Case—“Little Red Riding Hood.”

In Maria Tartar (Ed.), The Classic Fairy Tales: A Norton Critical Edition (317- 332). New

York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Carter, Angela. The Company Of Wolves. 1984.

https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/harris/StudentProjects/Student_FairyTales/WebProject/Fairy

%20Tales/Company%20of%20Wolves.htm

Perrault, Charles, and C. J. Betts. The Complete Fairy Tales. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.Print. 

Delarue, Paul. The Story Of Grandmother. 1952.

http://boj.pntic.mec.es/~jmarto1/01tradicion-oral/delarue.h