Sublime

fairy tales themselves were

rewritten and watered down with moralistic endings, or they began to serve a compensatory cultural function.

The term ‘folk-tale’ implies an adult audience; fairy-tale, a story for children. The distinction is familiar now, but in the past it scarcely existed.

fairy tales themselves were

the old stories haunt us still: religious tales where the women are fickle, or weak, or cursed; fairy tales where the men are white knights and swashbuckling saviors, bad boys and lone wolves, warriors and kings. And where the women are ugly hags and scullery maids, or sleeping beauties and girls locked in towers.