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Gender Swapped Fairy Tales
Imagine a world where kings prick their fingers as they sew, wolves wear heels, and princesses race to rescue sleeping princes...
People have been telling fairy tales to their children for hundreds of years. And for almost as long, people have been rewriting those fairy tales – to help their children imagine a world where they are the heroes. Karrie and Jon were reading their child these stories when they hit upon a dilemma, something previous versions of these stories were missing, and so they decided to make one vital change..
They haven’t rewritten the stories in this book. They haven’t reimagined endings, or reinvented characters. What they have done is switch all the genders.
It might not sound like that much of a change, but you’ll be dazzled by the world this swap creates – and amazed by the new characters you’re about to discover.
People have been telling fairy tales to their children for hundreds of years. And for almost as long, people have been rewriting those fairy tales – to help their children imagine a world where they are the heroes. Karrie and Jon were reading their child these stories when they hit upon a dilemma, something previous versions of these stories were missing, and so they decided to make one vital change..
They haven’t rewritten the stories in this book. They haven’t reimagined endings, or reinvented characters. What they have done is switch all the genders.
It might not sound like that much of a change, but you’ll be dazzled by the world this swap creates – and amazed by the new characters you’re about to discover.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published October 19, 2021
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4007 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 155 reviews
December 30, 2022
I wanted to like this book, but frankly I found nothing particularly thought-provoking in it.
The authors claim to provide an unbiased account of gender characterization in fairy tales, as they leave the "gender swapping" to an algorithm of their own design: however, it is clear that they do in fact bring their own prejudices to the text. Specifically, I was baffled by certain word changes: why must a male Rapunzel grow a long beard, instead of hair? Why did "sleeping beauty" have to become "sleeping handsome"? The illustration of the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood (now female) wearing lipstick and high heels was just the cherry on the gender stereotyped cake.
The authors claim to provide an unbiased account of gender characterization in fairy tales, as they leave the "gender swapping" to an algorithm of their own design: however, it is clear that they do in fact bring their own prejudices to the text. Specifically, I was baffled by certain word changes: why must a male Rapunzel grow a long beard, instead of hair? Why did "sleeping beauty" have to become "sleeping handsome"? The illustration of the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood (now female) wearing lipstick and high heels was just the cherry on the gender stereotyped cake.
December 3, 2021
I’m probably stepping into treacherous waters here, so I’ll try to be as clear and concise as I can. But I think that the whole concept of the book is extremely flawed, for the following reasons:
1. Andrew and Nora Lang’s “Fairy Books” series was published between the late 19th and early 20th century, so of course it's going to contain the ideas and ideals of the time. This is also the reason why fairy tales are constantly being retold, adapted and reimagined for today’s audience. It’s rather unfair to have the same expectations for works that are over a century old as for the ones being released in this day and age. Everything is going to be a product of its time (the same will happen for what is being currently released), but some people nowadays (especially extremists) forget that, at least sometimes, things need to be contextualized in order to be properly understood. I discovered from research (the review from creativereview.co.uk) that the gender swapping algorithm they are talking about was originally created as a way to criticize the political discussions from the UK. This ideology doesn’t work so well on something apolitical as fairy tales, and it will only further marginalize them by accentuating the negative. Taking issues with words such as “kingdom” or with the order of characters’ names (“Hansel and Gretel”) is an extreme way of looking at things, especially if you don’t offer proper solutions to the problem, for the sake of “starting a conversation”.
2. This book only contains 12 fairy tales (all of which are perennial classics), in spite of the fact that there are hundreds of them out there. A huge flaw I see when people are trying to argue their dismissal on fairy tales is that they are only focusing on the same few popular stories. This is an overgeneralization, made by people who do light and superficial research on the subject.
There are numerous traditional fairy tales out there featuring active female characters. In fact, there are many collections of fairy tales of this kind: Usborne’s “Fairy Tales of Brave and Brilliant Girls” books, Anita Ganeri’s “Fairy Tales for Fearless Girls”, Isabel Otter’s “The Lost Fairy Tales’, Fiona Collins’ “Folk Tales for Bold Girls”, “Ladybird Tales of Adventurous Girls”, and more. There are also many similar collections that have been released before 2017: Lari Don’s “Girls, Goddesses and Giants”, Robert Leeson’s “Smart Girls” books, Jane Yolen’s “Not One Damsel in Distress”, Alison Lurie’s “Clever Gretchen and Other Forgotten Fairy Tales”, “The Serpent Slayer and Other Stories of Strong Women”, Kathleen Ragan’s “Fearless Girls, Wise Women and Beloved Sisters", etc.. I know I listed many books, but I wanted to show that there are more fairy tales than just “Cinderella”, “Snow White” and “Sleeping Beauty”.
3. The concept of gender swapping fairy tales is nothing new or revolutionary. There is already a good number of such adaptations out there, including a whole section (called “Retold Fairy Tales”) on fairytalez.com. In fact there are variations of fairy tales that do just that. For example, “The White Cat” (which can be found in “The Blue Fairy Book”) is basically a gender swapped version of “Beauty and the Beast”, and there are many variations of “Cinderella” (like “The Princess on the Glass Hill” and “Billy Beg and the Bull”) where the mistreated protagonist is male.
Now I am fully aware that the book's aim is to highlight the gender biases in our society, but I don't think this was the right way to go. Partly because (as stated before) the creators ignored the historical context of the stories and the present discussions surrounding them, and partly because the arguments they are bringing are quite shallow. They had said in their introduction that they didn't want to influence the stories with their own biases, yet they made (for instance) the conscious decision to change Rapunzel's hair to a beard, even though there was no reason to do so. I also have to comment on the fact that anyone can manually gender swap a text (especially one in the public domain), without using some special algorithm; so the creators' claim that their approach is unique is rather exaggerated. Ivan Rodero did a similar thing for his book "Ten Gender Swap Fairy Tales", and never once did he mention using an algorithm.
On a technical level, the book is just fine. The illustrations are nice, but few and far between, and the text (gender swapping aside) can be easily found and read online for free. Ultimately, the ideas the creators of this book are trying to convey are (for the most part, admittedly) quite shallow and overdone. There are already many articles and essays on how fairy tales are supposedly “problematic”, which have become abundant since the beginning of the 21st century. If you want a book that stays true to the original classics while also updating them for a modern audience, I highly recommend Jo Paterson’s “Diamonds and Toads”. Not only does it feature active female characters, but it also has heterosexual and homosexual relationships and descriptions of “goodness of character” instead of physical appearance.
ADDENDUM: For those wondering why I rated this book three stars... let's just say I have a love-hate relationship with it. This review is more a criticism on the mindset behind its conception, rather than on the product itself (which, again, is fine).
1. Andrew and Nora Lang’s “Fairy Books” series was published between the late 19th and early 20th century, so of course it's going to contain the ideas and ideals of the time. This is also the reason why fairy tales are constantly being retold, adapted and reimagined for today’s audience. It’s rather unfair to have the same expectations for works that are over a century old as for the ones being released in this day and age. Everything is going to be a product of its time (the same will happen for what is being currently released), but some people nowadays (especially extremists) forget that, at least sometimes, things need to be contextualized in order to be properly understood. I discovered from research (the review from creativereview.co.uk) that the gender swapping algorithm they are talking about was originally created as a way to criticize the political discussions from the UK. This ideology doesn’t work so well on something apolitical as fairy tales, and it will only further marginalize them by accentuating the negative. Taking issues with words such as “kingdom” or with the order of characters’ names (“Hansel and Gretel”) is an extreme way of looking at things, especially if you don’t offer proper solutions to the problem, for the sake of “starting a conversation”.
2. This book only contains 12 fairy tales (all of which are perennial classics), in spite of the fact that there are hundreds of them out there. A huge flaw I see when people are trying to argue their dismissal on fairy tales is that they are only focusing on the same few popular stories. This is an overgeneralization, made by people who do light and superficial research on the subject.
There are numerous traditional fairy tales out there featuring active female characters. In fact, there are many collections of fairy tales of this kind: Usborne’s “Fairy Tales of Brave and Brilliant Girls” books, Anita Ganeri’s “Fairy Tales for Fearless Girls”, Isabel Otter’s “The Lost Fairy Tales’, Fiona Collins’ “Folk Tales for Bold Girls”, “Ladybird Tales of Adventurous Girls”, and more. There are also many similar collections that have been released before 2017: Lari Don’s “Girls, Goddesses and Giants”, Robert Leeson’s “Smart Girls” books, Jane Yolen’s “Not One Damsel in Distress”, Alison Lurie’s “Clever Gretchen and Other Forgotten Fairy Tales”, “The Serpent Slayer and Other Stories of Strong Women”, Kathleen Ragan’s “Fearless Girls, Wise Women and Beloved Sisters", etc.. I know I listed many books, but I wanted to show that there are more fairy tales than just “Cinderella”, “Snow White” and “Sleeping Beauty”.
3. The concept of gender swapping fairy tales is nothing new or revolutionary. There is already a good number of such adaptations out there, including a whole section (called “Retold Fairy Tales”) on fairytalez.com. In fact there are variations of fairy tales that do just that. For example, “The White Cat” (which can be found in “The Blue Fairy Book”) is basically a gender swapped version of “Beauty and the Beast”, and there are many variations of “Cinderella” (like “The Princess on the Glass Hill” and “Billy Beg and the Bull”) where the mistreated protagonist is male.
Now I am fully aware that the book's aim is to highlight the gender biases in our society, but I don't think this was the right way to go. Partly because (as stated before) the creators ignored the historical context of the stories and the present discussions surrounding them, and partly because the arguments they are bringing are quite shallow. They had said in their introduction that they didn't want to influence the stories with their own biases, yet they made (for instance) the conscious decision to change Rapunzel's hair to a beard, even though there was no reason to do so. I also have to comment on the fact that anyone can manually gender swap a text (especially one in the public domain), without using some special algorithm; so the creators' claim that their approach is unique is rather exaggerated. Ivan Rodero did a similar thing for his book "Ten Gender Swap Fairy Tales", and never once did he mention using an algorithm.
On a technical level, the book is just fine. The illustrations are nice, but few and far between, and the text (gender swapping aside) can be easily found and read online for free. Ultimately, the ideas the creators of this book are trying to convey are (for the most part, admittedly) quite shallow and overdone. There are already many articles and essays on how fairy tales are supposedly “problematic”, which have become abundant since the beginning of the 21st century. If you want a book that stays true to the original classics while also updating them for a modern audience, I highly recommend Jo Paterson’s “Diamonds and Toads”. Not only does it feature active female characters, but it also has heterosexual and homosexual relationships and descriptions of “goodness of character” instead of physical appearance.
ADDENDUM: For those wondering why I rated this book three stars... let's just say I have a love-hate relationship with it. This review is more a criticism on the mindset behind its conception, rather than on the product itself (which, again, is fine).
December 6, 2020
Traditional fairy tales altered by an algorithm that swaps genders - effective & thought-provoking.
Fairy tales have long provided a rich vein of source material for all kinds of adaptation from modernisation and retelling to the reimagined versions, often with a feminist bent, that have increasingly appeared in recent years. Wife and husband, Karrie Fransman and Jonathan Plackett, have teamed up together to produce this anthology containing variants on twelve well-known fairy tales that are the result of a computer algorithm that swaps all gendered language (‘man’ to ‘woman’ or ‘her’ to ‘his’) with suitable new illustrations. No other part of the original tales taken from a book first published in the late nineteenth century are altered and the results, whilst not revolutionary by the standards of some recent reimaginings, are subtle and very effective.
From Handsome and the Beast, Rapunzel letting down his golden beard and Jacqueline climbing the beanstalk to male versions of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, the book is refreshing reading especially for those well versed in the original tales. Reading the anthology as an adult I noticed that for every instance that I found it welcome that there were female millers, merchants and miners I also noticed my discomfort as some of the other gender stereotypes that I have been brought up with were subverted, making me realise how deeply ingrained my own biases are. The emphasis on women’s looks and men’s chivalry and red-blooded behaviour that are so readily deployed in the original tales are noticeably absent in these new versions casting a new light on these new stories.
Due to the fact that the co-authors have purposely avoided manipulating the resultant stories and potentially influencing with their own prejudices the exact language of the stories is that of the original book and a little archaic and unwieldy, meaning this is probably not the ideal book for bedtime reading with your little one. The book itself is exceptionally well produced with a sturdy hard cover, thick glossy pages and detailed, coloured illustrations. The book would definitely benefit from more of these impressive illustrations as it only on seeing some of the new concepts visualised that these gender swapped tales are brought to life and their new implications so easily absorbed. Probably a book more for adults than children but one that is definitely worth exploring.
Fairy tales have long provided a rich vein of source material for all kinds of adaptation from modernisation and retelling to the reimagined versions, often with a feminist bent, that have increasingly appeared in recent years. Wife and husband, Karrie Fransman and Jonathan Plackett, have teamed up together to produce this anthology containing variants on twelve well-known fairy tales that are the result of a computer algorithm that swaps all gendered language (‘man’ to ‘woman’ or ‘her’ to ‘his’) with suitable new illustrations. No other part of the original tales taken from a book first published in the late nineteenth century are altered and the results, whilst not revolutionary by the standards of some recent reimaginings, are subtle and very effective.
From Handsome and the Beast, Rapunzel letting down his golden beard and Jacqueline climbing the beanstalk to male versions of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, the book is refreshing reading especially for those well versed in the original tales. Reading the anthology as an adult I noticed that for every instance that I found it welcome that there were female millers, merchants and miners I also noticed my discomfort as some of the other gender stereotypes that I have been brought up with were subverted, making me realise how deeply ingrained my own biases are. The emphasis on women’s looks and men’s chivalry and red-blooded behaviour that are so readily deployed in the original tales are noticeably absent in these new versions casting a new light on these new stories.
Due to the fact that the co-authors have purposely avoided manipulating the resultant stories and potentially influencing with their own prejudices the exact language of the stories is that of the original book and a little archaic and unwieldy, meaning this is probably not the ideal book for bedtime reading with your little one. The book itself is exceptionally well produced with a sturdy hard cover, thick glossy pages and detailed, coloured illustrations. The book would definitely benefit from more of these impressive illustrations as it only on seeing some of the new concepts visualised that these gender swapped tales are brought to life and their new implications so easily absorbed. Probably a book more for adults than children but one that is definitely worth exploring.
August 10, 2021
I was expecting this book to be good, but I wasn’t expecting it to be as thought provoking and challenging as it proved to be, unveiling where gender disparities occur and how much our fairy tales actually might not only reflect them, but perpetuate them today.
Much like my experience reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness, I found it surprisingly hard to keep the genders straight in my head and found myself unconsciously un-swapping them while reading – and all based on the characters behaviour, speech and agency. This wasn’t just in the big ways – the princess rescuing the prince, the male wizards in the wood etc, but little things too like the focus on the boys’ appearance and marriage prospects, the way that the men were more grounded to domestic spaces while the women did the doing, the kings deferring to the queens.
Whilst the tales were a bit dry and rambley at parts, I think the problem lies in the source material and I can understand the decision to change nothing but the pronouns.
I also can’t talk about this book without raving about the STUNNING illustrations painted by Karrie Fransman, the wife of Jonathon Plackett who came up with the gender-swapping algorithm. Each is colourful and brings the tale to light, taking inspiration from the patterns of the culture from which the story came, and in turn, paying attention to power dynamics/ amount of skin showing/ pose etc in older illustrations in order to provide a powerful visual contrast. So cool!!!
Much like my experience reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness, I found it surprisingly hard to keep the genders straight in my head and found myself unconsciously un-swapping them while reading – and all based on the characters behaviour, speech and agency. This wasn’t just in the big ways – the princess rescuing the prince, the male wizards in the wood etc, but little things too like the focus on the boys’ appearance and marriage prospects, the way that the men were more grounded to domestic spaces while the women did the doing, the kings deferring to the queens.
Whilst the tales were a bit dry and rambley at parts, I think the problem lies in the source material and I can understand the decision to change nothing but the pronouns.
I also can’t talk about this book without raving about the STUNNING illustrations painted by Karrie Fransman, the wife of Jonathon Plackett who came up with the gender-swapping algorithm. Each is colourful and brings the tale to light, taking inspiration from the patterns of the culture from which the story came, and in turn, paying attention to power dynamics/ amount of skin showing/ pose etc in older illustrations in order to provide a powerful visual contrast. So cool!!!
January 7, 2022
This is a gorgeous book, it's so beautifully illustrated and the entire edition is beautiful from front to back.
When I heard of the concept behind this book, I was fascinated because I couldn't help but imagine how changing genders would impact the story but I was working off of very limited knowledge and this book is not what I was expecting. The stories remain as is. This book doesn't dwell on the fact that a gender swap would have a ripple effect on how the story unfolds instead it just swaps the genders and lets the story be as is, so the story still starts and ends where you would expect it to.
Personally, when I realised that the story wouldn't change I was a little underwhelmed with the concept. It is just a simple gender swap across the existing storyline but everyone changes genders, not just the main characters. I didn't think that changing genders would have had much of an impact on how I perceive the story especially as the plot unfolds in the same way but I find myself surprised. While reading these stories you do come across your own gender bias and it was interesting to confront it. After reading the stories I can even see the merit of retaining the story structure because that puts your own biases in very stark contrast.
The stories present in the anthology are as follows:
1. Handsome and the Beast
2. Cinder, or the Little Glass Slipper
3. How to Tell a True Prince
4. Jacqueline and the Beanstalk
5. Gretel and Hansel
6. Mr Rapunzel - The authors talked about this in the introduction, they decided to give Rapunzel an extraordinarily long beard and wondered how that would be possible considering how young Rapunzel is. But then decided to chalk it up to magic and left it at that but I wonder why they just didn't retain the extraordinarily long hair element of the story, both men and women have hair and unlike beards that only set in after puberty hair on your head is present since birth. So, I wonder why they didn't retain that, making the change from hair to beard feels inordinately sexist in a way for some reason.
7. Snowdrop - This is the story of Snow White, again I am unconvinced of why they decided to change the name if Rapunzel can remain Rapunzel then surely Snow White can remain Snow White especially considering the name(s) themselves don't have gendered connotations. This story really surprised me a lot because this is based on the original tale and it doesn't have the famous true love's kiss ending and that shocked the hell out of me. Apparently, the story as it was first told doesn't end that way. Remarkable.
8. Little Red Riding Hood - The OG 'Don't Talk to Strangers' story!
9. The Sleeping Handsome in the Wood - This is another story that ends very differently than how I thought it did. It also doesn't have the true love's kiss bit and the story actually continues beyond Sleeping Handsome waking up which was shocking, I never realised Maleficient: The Mistress of Evil had canonical backing.
10. Frau Rumpelstiltzkin
11. Mistress Puss in Boots
12. Thumbelin
Overall, this is not the pioneering work I thought it would be and in my opinion, swapping the genders didn't change the way I see these stories or alter my view on gender as it applies to these fairy tales. Gender is inherently a social construct so it made little sense to swap it out without even trying to comment on the societal implications of such a swap. In conclusion, the concept had potential but the execution was lacking.
When I heard of the concept behind this book, I was fascinated because I couldn't help but imagine how changing genders would impact the story but I was working off of very limited knowledge and this book is not what I was expecting. The stories remain as is. This book doesn't dwell on the fact that a gender swap would have a ripple effect on how the story unfolds instead it just swaps the genders and lets the story be as is, so the story still starts and ends where you would expect it to.
Personally, when I realised that the story wouldn't change I was a little underwhelmed with the concept. It is just a simple gender swap across the existing storyline but everyone changes genders, not just the main characters. I didn't think that changing genders would have had much of an impact on how I perceive the story especially as the plot unfolds in the same way but I find myself surprised. While reading these stories you do come across your own gender bias and it was interesting to confront it. After reading the stories I can even see the merit of retaining the story structure because that puts your own biases in very stark contrast.
The stories present in the anthology are as follows:
1. Handsome and the Beast
2. Cinder, or the Little Glass Slipper
3. How to Tell a True Prince
4. Jacqueline and the Beanstalk
5. Gretel and Hansel
6. Mr Rapunzel - The authors talked about this in the introduction, they decided to give Rapunzel an extraordinarily long beard and wondered how that would be possible considering how young Rapunzel is. But then decided to chalk it up to magic and left it at that but I wonder why they just didn't retain the extraordinarily long hair element of the story, both men and women have hair and unlike beards that only set in after puberty hair on your head is present since birth. So, I wonder why they didn't retain that, making the change from hair to beard feels inordinately sexist in a way for some reason.
7. Snowdrop - This is the story of Snow White, again I am unconvinced of why they decided to change the name if Rapunzel can remain Rapunzel then surely Snow White can remain Snow White especially considering the name(s) themselves don't have gendered connotations. This story really surprised me a lot because this is based on the original tale and it doesn't have the famous true love's kiss ending and that shocked the hell out of me. Apparently, the story as it was first told doesn't end that way. Remarkable.
8. Little Red Riding Hood - The OG 'Don't Talk to Strangers' story!
9. The Sleeping Handsome in the Wood - This is another story that ends very differently than how I thought it did. It also doesn't have the true love's kiss bit and the story actually continues beyond Sleeping Handsome waking up which was shocking, I never realised Maleficient: The Mistress of Evil had canonical backing.
10. Frau Rumpelstiltzkin
11. Mistress Puss in Boots
12. Thumbelin
Overall, this is not the pioneering work I thought it would be and in my opinion, swapping the genders didn't change the way I see these stories or alter my view on gender as it applies to these fairy tales. Gender is inherently a social construct so it made little sense to swap it out without even trying to comment on the societal implications of such a swap. In conclusion, the concept had potential but the execution was lacking.
x-new
September 28, 2021Considering because of the review in *The Guardian* but honestly, choosing to swap she for he & vice versa in a selection of tales from Andrew Lang is like winning a fight with a straw man.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...?
Anyone who is paying attention has seen rewritten, fractured, reversed, and original tales that use other gender(s) (including non-binary) and ethnicities and complex villains and etc. and so on. Listopia is full of 'em. For all ages. Or see the threads in the Children's Books group here on GR.
I'll read it, if I find it readily, because I am insatiable & curious.
I (pre)recommend it if the article or the following excerpts intrigue you:
"While in life I have no problem with a female chief executive, for some reason I can’t get my head around a lady miller. ..."
"The obvious and persistent bias – and I wonder whether, also, the most life-defining – is the beauty standard. ... It’s revealed in a fact as simple as “beauty” functioning as a noun where “handsome” does not. How could a handsome man contract into “a handsome”? How would we know how daring he also was? “The Sleeping Handsome in the Wood”, “Handsome and the Beast”, all ram home, with a light, rueful humour, the timeless message to a woman in fiction: be beautiful, or be evil, or go home."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...?
Anyone who is paying attention has seen rewritten, fractured, reversed, and original tales that use other gender(s) (including non-binary) and ethnicities and complex villains and etc. and so on. Listopia is full of 'em. For all ages. Or see the threads in the Children's Books group here on GR.
I'll read it, if I find it readily, because I am insatiable & curious.
I (pre)recommend it if the article or the following excerpts intrigue you:
"While in life I have no problem with a female chief executive, for some reason I can’t get my head around a lady miller. ..."
"The obvious and persistent bias – and I wonder whether, also, the most life-defining – is the beauty standard. ... It’s revealed in a fact as simple as “beauty” functioning as a noun where “handsome” does not. How could a handsome man contract into “a handsome”? How would we know how daring he also was? “The Sleeping Handsome in the Wood”, “Handsome and the Beast”, all ram home, with a light, rueful humour, the timeless message to a woman in fiction: be beautiful, or be evil, or go home."
February 25, 2021
The most interesting thing about this book was the explanation from the authors at the end. I had assumed that they had rewritten the fairy tales entirely, swapping characters and other words but trying to keep them tonally the same. In actual fact it was an algorithm, developed by one of them, which swapped any female related words (mother, daughter, witch) with their male counterparts and vice versa. This meant that the authors were not changing the characteristics of the well known and beloved cast but were making a world where women could be brave and adventurous and men could be sweet and sensitive. It would be interesting to have a version which was only swapped by means of human interaction, see if subconsciously we would also swap “male” traits with more “feminine” ones as well as just names and words.
December 4, 2021
It offered a new perspective sometimes, the authors only swapped the gender, pronouns and names of beloved fairytale characters. You were greeted with these beautiful male princes and strong female princesses but nothing, to me personally, was so iconic or incredible about swapping the genders as I had hoped. It was almost just as if reading a normal fairytale
December 11, 2021
The 3 star is more due to it being based on a traditional set of short stories but is in some places put in the adult fiction section. For a children's collection it would be a 4 or 5.
July 14, 2023
This is 2.5 stars rounded up because the art really is lovely and the book is physically well put together, so well done Faber and Faber.
Here's the thing: we always need rewrites of old fairy tales. Not just for gender reasons, although certainly for those, but also because we are constantly rethinking what lessons we want kids to learn (and if you don't think fairy tales are didactic, let me introduce you to Aesop). So I was delighted to stumble across this book, beautiful as it is (a woven linen cover! Tropical color schemes! Lots of illustrations! Sold), because I was curious about how the gender swapping would go.
It...didn't. On the one hand, I get Fransman and Plackett wanting to keep to the source text as much as possible so that the difference shines that much more starkly, but on the other this introduced so many new problems. Some of the other reviewers have pointed them out, but let me agree; swapping genders to undermine patriarchal sexism doesn't work when the new swaps also have patriarchal sexism. Sure, we have delightfully strong queens, but doing weirdly role-enforced things. The now-female wolf is in lipstick and heels, the beast is in pearls and nail (claw?) polish, the trapped Rapunzel grows a beard instead of hair (much weirder considering he's barely 15, which is problematic no matter the gender but that's a different story), the mole Thumbelin refuses to marry is portrayed as a stuffy old nag, the giantess is not scary but vapid. Again, I get the desire to show up the stereotypes in the source text, but simply replacing them with other stereotypes doesn't work--if the genders get swapped, the language has to shift along with them because linguistic structures are not disparate things. I don't want to teach kids that a woman is only a woman when she's pretty and that she can be strong but must have flowing hair and demure makeup. I don't want to teach kids that femininity (and masculinity, for that matter) can only be performed in certain ways.
So props to Fransman for the art (it really is worth checking out; find the book and don't buy it but delight in the imagery), but this is a failed experiment. just as we're learning everywhere else, simply swapping male and female isn't enough; we have to realize how deep the imagery goes and how wide open the gender spectrum really is and stop thinking things are solved within a rigid binary.
Here's the thing: we always need rewrites of old fairy tales. Not just for gender reasons, although certainly for those, but also because we are constantly rethinking what lessons we want kids to learn (and if you don't think fairy tales are didactic, let me introduce you to Aesop). So I was delighted to stumble across this book, beautiful as it is (a woven linen cover! Tropical color schemes! Lots of illustrations! Sold), because I was curious about how the gender swapping would go.
It...didn't. On the one hand, I get Fransman and Plackett wanting to keep to the source text as much as possible so that the difference shines that much more starkly, but on the other this introduced so many new problems. Some of the other reviewers have pointed them out, but let me agree; swapping genders to undermine patriarchal sexism doesn't work when the new swaps also have patriarchal sexism. Sure, we have delightfully strong queens, but doing weirdly role-enforced things. The now-female wolf is in lipstick and heels, the beast is in pearls and nail (claw?) polish, the trapped Rapunzel grows a beard instead of hair (much weirder considering he's barely 15, which is problematic no matter the gender but that's a different story), the mole Thumbelin refuses to marry is portrayed as a stuffy old nag, the giantess is not scary but vapid. Again, I get the desire to show up the stereotypes in the source text, but simply replacing them with other stereotypes doesn't work--if the genders get swapped, the language has to shift along with them because linguistic structures are not disparate things. I don't want to teach kids that a woman is only a woman when she's pretty and that she can be strong but must have flowing hair and demure makeup. I don't want to teach kids that femininity (and masculinity, for that matter) can only be performed in certain ways.
So props to Fransman for the art (it really is worth checking out; find the book and don't buy it but delight in the imagery), but this is a failed experiment. just as we're learning everywhere else, simply swapping male and female isn't enough; we have to realize how deep the imagery goes and how wide open the gender spectrum really is and stop thinking things are solved within a rigid binary.
January 18, 2021
I read this book to my 6-year old daughter to show her an alternative version than the prince saving the princess or the princess awaiting her prince. I think it ended up being too late, as much of the brainwashing had already happened. I will revisit the idea with the next one in a few years time. Quality-wise, the stories and writing are decent, feels a little forced sometimes, and some stories are perhaps too long.
July 9, 2021
I mean it was okay. It was interesting to see how if the main characters of our beloved children fairy tales would have been swapped for a different gender how it would have unraveled. But So much could have been accomplished.I went in with a lot of expectations, but i guess it was just a gender swapped fairy tales retelling.
I feel disappointed.
An additional star only for the visual artwork. The artwork inside the pages, the cover art and the front and back page~ chef's kiss
I feel disappointed.
An additional star only for the visual artwork. The artwork inside the pages, the cover art and the front and back page~ chef's kiss
October 19, 2021
📚 Hello Book Friends! Are you looking for the perfect book to give to a child for this coming Christmas? Your search has ended! I recommend GENDER SWAPPED FAIRY TALES by Karrie Fransman and Jonathan Plackett. It is such a wonderful way to reread classic fairy tales in a new perspective. The tales are the same, only the characters are gender swapped. I was enchanted to rediscover my favourite fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast (retitled “Handsome and the Beast”) and falling in love with it all over again. The illustrations are magnificent. This hardcover beauty can also be displayed on your coffee table and delight your guests. It is coming today to your favourite bookstore. Do not delay, get a copy or two before they are all gone.
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March 20, 2021
Truth is, I read the title and immediately knew I had to own this book. I didn't read anything else about it. So, it was only when I started reading I found out that Gender Swapped Fairytales was created by running original fairytales through an algorithm that flipped all gendered words. So this basically portrays a parallel universe where feminity is considered superior to masculinity.
At first, I was afraid it would be boring. After all, it's the exactly the same and the story isn't moulded at all. But maaahn! It makes you question everything. It forces you to see so many little biases that are engraved in our minds. It's incredible.
I truly wish that it didn't have all stories enforcing Heteronormativity and that there are only two genders, but I guess that'll be a whole different algorithm.
At first, I was afraid it would be boring. After all, it's the exactly the same and the story isn't moulded at all. But maaahn! It makes you question everything. It forces you to see so many little biases that are engraved in our minds. It's incredible.
I truly wish that it didn't have all stories enforcing Heteronormativity and that there are only two genders, but I guess that'll be a whole different algorithm.
January 12, 2022
This is a thoughtfully done experiment: what happens if all you do is change the pronouns in fairytales? I think what took that experiment the extra mile to me is the illustrations. As she described in the author’s note, the illustrator looked for gendered conventions in the art, and tried to replicate those in reverse: the women active, hair wild, limbs in movement: the men soft, their necks exposed and their garments flowing. None of it is revolutionary (and, as the authors note, does anything about heteronormativity or non-binary people), but it does work to highlight beliefs about the gender binary and reading it is an interesting exercise in interrogating what reads differently when something is done by a man instead of a woman or a woman instead of a man.
April 9, 2022
This was an interesting read. I had expected a bit more twists and turns to the original stories than what I received. At the end of the book, I was not surprised to hear that the book was created using a computer algorithm that swapped out gendered words for the opposite gender - it explained the lack of creativity in their approach.
That being said, the simple swaps that were done truly highlighted major differences in how fairy tales typically treat men and women. It was much more glaringly obvious that looks are emphasized for female characters when that aspect is pointed out for the male characters. It seems the classic fairytale's most important feature for a women is that she look beautiful.
Also, seeing all the bad step dads in this book reminded me that step moms get such a bad rap in stories.
Definitely an interesting perspective. This is a fairly quick read as well, so I would recommend it to folks seeking to understand more of the unwritten expectations we tend to place on women versus men.
That being said, the simple swaps that were done truly highlighted major differences in how fairy tales typically treat men and women. It was much more glaringly obvious that looks are emphasized for female characters when that aspect is pointed out for the male characters. It seems the classic fairytale's most important feature for a women is that she look beautiful.
Also, seeing all the bad step dads in this book reminded me that step moms get such a bad rap in stories.
Definitely an interesting perspective. This is a fairly quick read as well, so I would recommend it to folks seeking to understand more of the unwritten expectations we tend to place on women versus men.
July 14, 2025
This book was ok. I really loved the illustrations, probably what drew me to the book to begin with. I chose this book to fulfill the Gender Bender category on my book bingo. I did like that the fairy tales were closer to the original fairy tale renderings than the ones Disney puts out. I grew up reading the original fairy tales. Overall it was just eh. The authors literally just swapped all the genders of the characters, good and bad. I think it would have been interesting to change the story line a little more with the gender swaps.
November 19, 2021
Found this surprisingly delightful.
March 11, 2021
3.5 ⭐️ fun and enjoyable read 🙂
December 8, 2020
A gdyby tak Kopciuszek był mężczyzną i poznał na balu księżniczkę? Gdyby Bestia była zaklętą kobietą, a miłość Pięknego miała ją odczarować? Gdyby po magicznej fasoli wspinała się Janeczka, a złote jaja znosił kogut? Gdyby Królewicz Śnieżek ukrywał się w chatce krasnoludek przed złym ojczymem czarownikiem?
Jonathan Plackett stworzył program, który w baśniach zamienił płcie bohaterów. Oczywiście nie było to końcem pracy nad tekstem. W kolejnym etapie wraz z żoną — Karrie Fransman — przystąpili do edycji fragmentów, gdzie należało zmienić stroje bohaterów czy zastanowić się nad płcią poszczególnych zwierząt! Wspólnymi siłami przetworzyli dobrze znane nam baśnie, by skłonić czytelnika do zastanowienia się nad schematami, którymi posługujemy się w kontekście płci kulturowej. Bardzo podobały mi się słowa Jonathana: „Mamy też córkę i pragniemy, żeby dorastała w świecie, w którym małe dziewczynki mogą być silne, a chłopcy potrafią okazywać bezbronność bez agresji". W utworze tym bowiem dziewczynki chodzą na polowania i ratują książęta z opałów, a chłopcy nie muszą wstydzić się swoich łez. Karrie napisała: „Mamy nadzieję, że znajdziesz w tej książce (...) zachętę do zastanowienia się nad światem — oraz że ujrzysz go z nieco innej perspektywy" i wiecie co? Ta książka jest potrzebna. Pokazuje rzeczywistość, gdzie kobiety mogą być odważne i waleczne, a mężczyźni mogą być delikatni i uczuciowi. Utwór ten wolny jest od jednego z bardziej duszących stereotypów odnośnie płci i po jego przeczytaniu poczułam się tak lekko, jakbym miała unosić się nad ziemią. Czywiście, gdyby tylko jego zaczęto czytać, powstałby odwrotny stereotyp, ale na zmianę z tradycyjnymi bajkami zdaje się to być pomysłem rewelacyjnym!
W! Dodatku! Ilustracje! Karrie! Są! Przepiękne! Jestem absolutnie oczarowana tym, jak przyozdobiła strony. Dzięki jej talentowi całość napełnia serce!
Dla ciekawych dodaję tytuły zawartych w książce tekstów:
Piękny i Bestia, Kopciuszek albo Szklany trzewiczek, Krolewicz na ziarnku grochu, Janeczka i czarodziejska fasola, Małgosia i Jaś, Roszpunek, Krolewicz Śnieżek, Czerwony Kapturek, Śpiący królewicz, Rumpelsztynka, Kotka w butach, Calineczek.
Jonathan Plackett stworzył program, który w baśniach zamienił płcie bohaterów. Oczywiście nie było to końcem pracy nad tekstem. W kolejnym etapie wraz z żoną — Karrie Fransman — przystąpili do edycji fragmentów, gdzie należało zmienić stroje bohaterów czy zastanowić się nad płcią poszczególnych zwierząt! Wspólnymi siłami przetworzyli dobrze znane nam baśnie, by skłonić czytelnika do zastanowienia się nad schematami, którymi posługujemy się w kontekście płci kulturowej. Bardzo podobały mi się słowa Jonathana: „Mamy też córkę i pragniemy, żeby dorastała w świecie, w którym małe dziewczynki mogą być silne, a chłopcy potrafią okazywać bezbronność bez agresji". W utworze tym bowiem dziewczynki chodzą na polowania i ratują książęta z opałów, a chłopcy nie muszą wstydzić się swoich łez. Karrie napisała: „Mamy nadzieję, że znajdziesz w tej książce (...) zachętę do zastanowienia się nad światem — oraz że ujrzysz go z nieco innej perspektywy" i wiecie co? Ta książka jest potrzebna. Pokazuje rzeczywistość, gdzie kobiety mogą być odważne i waleczne, a mężczyźni mogą być delikatni i uczuciowi. Utwór ten wolny jest od jednego z bardziej duszących stereotypów odnośnie płci i po jego przeczytaniu poczułam się tak lekko, jakbym miała unosić się nad ziemią. Czywiście, gdyby tylko jego zaczęto czytać, powstałby odwrotny stereotyp, ale na zmianę z tradycyjnymi bajkami zdaje się to być pomysłem rewelacyjnym!
W! Dodatku! Ilustracje! Karrie! Są! Przepiękne! Jestem absolutnie oczarowana tym, jak przyozdobiła strony. Dzięki jej talentowi całość napełnia serce!
Dla ciekawych dodaję tytuły zawartych w książce tekstów:
Piękny i Bestia, Kopciuszek albo Szklany trzewiczek, Krolewicz na ziarnku grochu, Janeczka i czarodziejska fasola, Małgosia i Jaś, Roszpunek, Krolewicz Śnieżek, Czerwony Kapturek, Śpiący królewicz, Rumpelsztynka, Kotka w butach, Calineczek.
April 20, 2023
Conceptually this is fantastic. You only need to mention the idea of Rapunzel's long hair being replaced with a man’s beard to grab some interest from me. Couple that with gorgeous illustration work and you’re left with a book that will always be readable and pleasant to look at, which is a strong enough baseline to have. It is nothing else if not curious.
Unfortunately the reality of the approach they settled on made this book slightly underwhelming. There some quite grand claims in the author’s notes about challenging gender norms and prejudices, and in my view this opens the book up to a much sharper assessment than it’s able to endure. Chiefly, that while there is still some interesting things that can come from just swapping ‘man’ with ‘woman’ in a classical text, the authors of this reimagining seemingly cannot avoid enforcing gender norms in their own process. In one example “beautiful” becomes “handsome”, which since there is already cross-gender usage of these words, actually ends up establishing fixed gender signifiers unnecessarily.
It’s all very strange, and as other reviewers have pointed out, this also extends to the illustrations that seem happy to add makeup and gendered hairstyles to scenes that otherwise never had these elements originally. I feel like the theming of this book stopped at saying “women can be X too!” when it could have gone much further and said “well, what defines men and women anyway?”, or at the very least, struck a more neutral line.
I'd have thought there would still be some value to be found in showing this book to kids, however even in that respect things get a little questionable. Again, the authors seem torn, at one point saying they wanted to update the text for contemporary readers, then later saying that it was important to preserve the stories in all their Olde English glory. And having read the book I can tell you they definitely settled for the latter, which dramatically narrows the appeal it might have for a younger audience. With so many retellings out there, I can’t imagine sitting down with this one and having to explain words like “thither” to a child who will never have a use for it.
The biggest challenge with this book, which is otherwise a fun enough read, comes from thinking that if it isn’t made for children, and if it doesn’t hold up to serious critique, then who exactly is it for?
Unfortunately the reality of the approach they settled on made this book slightly underwhelming. There some quite grand claims in the author’s notes about challenging gender norms and prejudices, and in my view this opens the book up to a much sharper assessment than it’s able to endure. Chiefly, that while there is still some interesting things that can come from just swapping ‘man’ with ‘woman’ in a classical text, the authors of this reimagining seemingly cannot avoid enforcing gender norms in their own process. In one example “beautiful” becomes “handsome”, which since there is already cross-gender usage of these words, actually ends up establishing fixed gender signifiers unnecessarily.
It’s all very strange, and as other reviewers have pointed out, this also extends to the illustrations that seem happy to add makeup and gendered hairstyles to scenes that otherwise never had these elements originally. I feel like the theming of this book stopped at saying “women can be X too!” when it could have gone much further and said “well, what defines men and women anyway?”, or at the very least, struck a more neutral line.
I'd have thought there would still be some value to be found in showing this book to kids, however even in that respect things get a little questionable. Again, the authors seem torn, at one point saying they wanted to update the text for contemporary readers, then later saying that it was important to preserve the stories in all their Olde English glory. And having read the book I can tell you they definitely settled for the latter, which dramatically narrows the appeal it might have for a younger audience. With so many retellings out there, I can’t imagine sitting down with this one and having to explain words like “thither” to a child who will never have a use for it.
The biggest challenge with this book, which is otherwise a fun enough read, comes from thinking that if it isn’t made for children, and if it doesn’t hold up to serious critique, then who exactly is it for?
May 4, 2021
I understand why a lot of reviewers find the premise of this book too simple - a computer algorithm that swaps gendered terms in traditional fairytales, without any further changes to the stories - but as someone who spends a lot of time comparing grammatical gender in different languages I found this book both charming and fascinating.
August 25, 2021
Finally, fairy tales I can read my son without wanting to vomit! After reading the Grimm's Fairy Tales for months it was so refreshing to switch the narrative so the female characters are not all evil witches or totally naive. Really challenges the gender stereotypes and it is just plain refreshing!
May 22, 2024
All the positive parts first:
Love the fact that this book uses the original fairy tale texts, in all their horrific and detailed glory. The fairy tales in this book even use very old language and descriptions, wich I didn't expected to be the case for a modern fairy tale book.
I also really liked the illustrations, wich had a sort of late 60's/early 70's children's book illustration vibe to them.
I really liked reading this book on the bus to work. The fairy stories made me dream of being taken away to long forgotten lands.
Now for the slightly negative parts:
This book would have gotten a five star rating for me, but I eventually decided against it. Because this book uses a very unique concept (that of swapping the genders of famous fairy tale characters), I would also have liked to see this concept being executed in a original way. I would have liked to see different ways in wich these fairy tales could have turned out and what it would have meant to really swap the genders of these characters. In the end, swapping the genders didn't mean anything to the outcome of the stories inside this book. Each story follows the same path as the stories that we already know, and also the endings are just the same.
I didn't really like the fact that the Rapunzel character in this book had to have a long beard instead of long hair. Boys can have long hair too, and it really wouldn't have mattered to the plot of the story anyway, because it already follows the same storyline and ending as that of the original fairy tale. This book is also labeled as LGBTQ+, but none of the stories inside this book feature any queer characters.
Still, I did enjoy reading the original fairy tales (even though the genders were not the same) and hope that more modern books will keep on reviving these old texts for generations to come.
Love the fact that this book uses the original fairy tale texts, in all their horrific and detailed glory. The fairy tales in this book even use very old language and descriptions, wich I didn't expected to be the case for a modern fairy tale book.
I also really liked the illustrations, wich had a sort of late 60's/early 70's children's book illustration vibe to them.
I really liked reading this book on the bus to work. The fairy stories made me dream of being taken away to long forgotten lands.
Now for the slightly negative parts:
This book would have gotten a five star rating for me, but I eventually decided against it. Because this book uses a very unique concept (that of swapping the genders of famous fairy tale characters), I would also have liked to see this concept being executed in a original way. I would have liked to see different ways in wich these fairy tales could have turned out and what it would have meant to really swap the genders of these characters. In the end, swapping the genders didn't mean anything to the outcome of the stories inside this book. Each story follows the same path as the stories that we already know, and also the endings are just the same.
I didn't really like the fact that the Rapunzel character in this book had to have a long beard instead of long hair. Boys can have long hair too, and it really wouldn't have mattered to the plot of the story anyway, because it already follows the same storyline and ending as that of the original fairy tale. This book is also labeled as LGBTQ+, but none of the stories inside this book feature any queer characters.
Still, I did enjoy reading the original fairy tales (even though the genders were not the same) and hope that more modern books will keep on reviving these old texts for generations to come.
February 11, 2021
I'm so glad I took the time to read this book. Although it is not a life changing read, I did enjoy it, and it served as a thinking piece. As an educator as well, it's a great concept and tool to have on my shelf.
The book uses the public domain writings of 'The Blue Fairy Book', 'The Red Fairy Book' and 'The Yellow Fairy Book' by Andrew and Leonora Blanche Lang. Runs them through an algorithm that swaps all the genders of the characters, and edits them to be readable in such a way.
This means the original language of the late 1800s texts is still used, and so it's a very traditional reading experience, with a major twist.
I found the reading itself mixed. Some stories worked amazingly well, others were more complicated, dated or confusing. But that comes down to personal understanding and preference I think.
The part which I really enjoyed, was the way this books starts a conversation. In the introduction, Fransman and Plackett talk about the patterns and differences the algorithm had on the stories, talking about how the female characters name began to appear first in the titles, how the women were described as handsome, and the young boys as being pretty, and how the wicked mothers became fathers, the Kings became Queens, the hags old men, and the witches wizards.
It was so interesting to see those gendered stereotypes reversed, and roles redistributed.
The book uses the public domain writings of 'The Blue Fairy Book', 'The Red Fairy Book' and 'The Yellow Fairy Book' by Andrew and Leonora Blanche Lang. Runs them through an algorithm that swaps all the genders of the characters, and edits them to be readable in such a way.
This means the original language of the late 1800s texts is still used, and so it's a very traditional reading experience, with a major twist.
I found the reading itself mixed. Some stories worked amazingly well, others were more complicated, dated or confusing. But that comes down to personal understanding and preference I think.
The part which I really enjoyed, was the way this books starts a conversation. In the introduction, Fransman and Plackett talk about the patterns and differences the algorithm had on the stories, talking about how the female characters name began to appear first in the titles, how the women were described as handsome, and the young boys as being pretty, and how the wicked mothers became fathers, the Kings became Queens, the hags old men, and the witches wizards.
It was so interesting to see those gendered stereotypes reversed, and roles redistributed.
February 20, 2021
As a child I voraciously read Andrew Lang’s fairy books. As an adult I write code. So I was intrigued by the premise of a book which swaps Princess to Prince and vice versa without using a human brain to change any other aspect of the context.
And I enjoyed it. The stories work well using the original Victorian era language and it gives a new level to the fantasy realm of the fairy tale.
One of the interesting things that jarred me was the changing of the word Witch to Wizard. I’m not sure what word I would have used here. A fairytale “Witch”, especially in Hansel and Gretel,connotes a very specific image for which I can’t think of a male equivalent, which gave me something to ponder.
Karrie Fransman’s illustrations really make this book. Reading the hardback is a joyous experience reminiscent of the pleasure of snuggling down with the original Lang books I repeatedly borrowed from the library. The text and pictures depicting a male Rapunzel letting down his shining golden beard to a love lorn Princess are delightful.
The perfect magical, cosy read for this recent snowy weather.
And I enjoyed it. The stories work well using the original Victorian era language and it gives a new level to the fantasy realm of the fairy tale.
One of the interesting things that jarred me was the changing of the word Witch to Wizard. I’m not sure what word I would have used here. A fairytale “Witch”, especially in Hansel and Gretel,connotes a very specific image for which I can’t think of a male equivalent, which gave me something to ponder.
Karrie Fransman’s illustrations really make this book. Reading the hardback is a joyous experience reminiscent of the pleasure of snuggling down with the original Lang books I repeatedly borrowed from the library. The text and pictures depicting a male Rapunzel letting down his shining golden beard to a love lorn Princess are delightful.
The perfect magical, cosy read for this recent snowy weather.
January 30, 2021
This book is just amazing. I absolutely loved it. A very clever idea that I felt was was executed perfectly. Aside from the obvious, change of gender for these stories, the actual wording was lovely and flowed really well and I loved how some of the tales were written with a nod to other well known stories. I’m sure I felt a little Goldilocks in the Snow White (Snow drop) retelling. I was going to say which my favourite tale was... but there it’s too difficult to choose. I really enjoyed all of them and loved quite a few too. I had high hopes for this book and I am glad to say they were met.
January 5, 2022
What a completely fascinating idea—they swapped out the gender for every single fairy tale you can think of! Little Red Riding Hood, Cinder (not rella), Jacqueline and the Beanstalk, Handsome and the Beast, Mr. Rapunzel, Sleeping Handsome in the Wood, Frau Rumpelstiltzkin—you get the idea! Every character from siblings to parents to wolves were swapped to the opposite gender. Fascinating!! My favorite part was that I knew the Disney versions of these stories but these are the originals from hundreds of years ago—great tales!!
July 21, 2022
Many gender stereotypes are so obviously ridiculous when said about men, we're just so used to hearing it about women. This book only switches the genders of the characters, and maybe I'd hoped that there would be some other changes too.
Oh and I think the illustrations are great
Oh and I think the illustrations are great
Displaying 1 - 30 of 155 reviews