On Fairy Tales and the Ghostliness of Early Motherhood
What saves these lost mothers is different in every fairy tale; often they’re brought back simply by virtue of being recognized. For me, coming back to life took time.
Seizing the Means of Enchantment: What Fairy Tales Can Teach Us About Class and Wealth in the Age of the Mega-Corporation
Class systems are not fixed in fairy tales—in fact, fairy tales would almost seem to argue for the redistribution of wealth.
When Male Fairy Tale Archetypes Are Used to Promote Harmful Sexual Ideologies
The long and fluid history of fairy tales shows us that men who want to control, dehumanize, and violate women have always existed.
Dreaming Machines: Fairy Tales in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
What, exactly, are the building blocks that make a fairy tale a fairy tale? And who—or what—might be making them in the future?
The Stepmother or the Saint: How Fairy Tales Depict the Different Facets of Motherhood
In fairy tales, the only good mother is a dead one.
How Fairy Tales Teach Us to Love the Unknowable
Love is born in the quiet ways we reveal ourselves; how we notice and love our partners when they take on new, surprising forms.
We Have Always Lived in the Woods: On Fairy Tales and the Monsters You Know
On the thin line between fairy tales and real-life horror stories, and how we survive.
The Virtues of Willfulness: How Fairy Tales Teach Us to Look for Truths Beyond the Simple Stories
Too many people are fed one version of a story, a false one, and do not interrogate it. But the world of fairy tales is rife with opportunities to practice critical thinking, if only we look closer.
Point the Finger: Listening to Women and Seeking Justice in the Violent World of Fairy Tales
We’ve all had to reckon with the burden of untold stories. Every woman has one, and every woman carries around with her the stories of others.