Blog Post #10

Rapunzel is a classic fairytale by the Brothers Grimm that has been adapted several times by several different people. The most famous cinematic version must be the Tangled movie by Disney. The political cartoon I chose has both but has a different message than the original and the movie. In the fairytale Rapunzel falls in love with a prince who gets his eyes gouged out by a thorn bush. The political cartoon does not include this but does take a feminist stance on the tale. The prince says “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair” to which Rapunzel replies “I’d sooner shave my head and collect coins at the airport than let a man use me as a stepping stone.” This is a comment on how a woman does not need to allow men to take advantage of women and walk all over them. In the movie and in the fairytale, she does of course let down her hair for her new mother to climb up. Without things such as this the movie and cartoon would be almost unrecognizable from the original tale. The comic of course discusses Rapunzel’s long hair since it’s such a main part of the tale. Most adaptations in some way shape or form reference the hair and the tower because it’s the “falcon” of the story. Like any other political cartoon of course its commentary and lesson is not the same as the original tale, especially since feminist values definitely wasn’t something that would be taught during the time that the fairytale was released. The cartoon is also significantly shorter than both the fairytale and movie which is why it is like some fairytales in that it gets straight to the point. The cartoon has a message it is trying to get across so it lets you know pretty quickly what it wants you to know.