Category: Christine Heppermann

Christine Heppermann

If you find the dividing line between fairy tales and reality, let me know. In my mind, the two run together, even though the intersections aren’t always obvious. The girl sitting quietly in class or waiting for the bus or roaming the mall doesn’t want anyone to know, or doesn’t know how to tell anyone, that she is locked in a tower. Maybe she’s a prisoner of a story she’s heard all her life- that fairest means best, or that bruises prove she is worthy of love.

Christine Heppermann

And those women were sneaky. They understood that including fantastical elements in their tales- golden eggs, signing harps, talking frogs- worked to mask a deeper purpose….it made the stories look on the surface like ‘a mere bubble of nonsense’ within which it was possible to ‘utter harsh truths, to say what you dare’ about the state of women’s lives. Because they were just stories, right? Harmless little fantasies?

Christine Heppermann

If you find the dividing line between fairy tales and reality, let me know. In my mind, the two run together, even though the intersections aren’t always obvious. The girl sitting quietly in class or waiting for the bus or roaming the mall doesn’t want anyone to know, or doesn’t know how to tell anyone, that she is locked in a tower. Maybe she’s a prisoner of a story she’s heard all her life- that fairest means best, or that bruises prove she is worthy of love.

Christine Heppermann

And those women were sneaky. They understood that including fantastical elements in their tales- golden eggs, signing harps, talking frogs- worked to mask a deeper purpose….it made the stories look on the surface like ‘a mere bubble of nonsense’ within which it was possible to ‘utter harsh truths, to say what you dare’ about the state of women’s lives. Because they were just stories, right? Harmless little fantasies?