Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space

by Amanda Leduc Narrated by Amanda Barker

Overview

Fairy tales shape how we see the world, so what happens when you identify more with the Beast than Beauty? If every disabled character is mocked and mistreated, how does the Beast ever imagine a happily-ever-after? Amanda Leduc looks at fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm to Disney, showing us how they influence our expectations and behaviour and linking the quest for disability rights to new kinds of stories that celebrate difference.

`Leduc peels the flesh from the fairy tales we grew up loving and strips them down to their skeletons to skilfully reveal how they influence the way we think about disability. She contrasts the stories we have with the ones we wish we had, incorporating her own life. Her wisdom lands like a punch in the heart, leaving a sizable dent that reshapes how we see tales we've been telling for centuries. She also - and this is the best part - suggests how we might tell new fairy tales, how we can forge new stories.' - Adam Pottle, author of Voice

`A unique and dazzling study ... a revolutionary approach to understanding why we are drawn to fairy tales and how they shape our lives.' - Jack Zipes, author of Grimm Legacies

`Each chapter is a gem, but the kind of gem that turns into a knife, into a mirror, into a portal. Leduc's real magic? That she transforms her readers as surely as any world.' - Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"She [Leduc] argues that template is how society continues to treat the disabled: rather than making the world accessible for everyone, the disabled are often asked to adapt to inaccessible environments." —Ryan Porter, Quill & Quire

Library Journal

★ 01/01/2020

Leduc (The Miracles of Ordinary Men), a Canadian writer with cerebral palsy, has penned a remarkable exploration into the ways disability has been portrayed in fairy tales and, consequently, how those portrayals have shaped society's treatment of the disabled. Referencing her own experiences, as well as those of other disabled writers and activists, Leduc shows how disabled children search for positive representation in fairy tales and other media, only to encounter depictions of disability as something to be pitied, feared, or corrected. In popular tales such as "Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid," and "Snow White," disability is either removed by magic or remains as a punishment for the wicked. Such themes, Leduc argues, have encouraged society to view able-bodiedness as the only acceptable state and conditioned disabled children to view themselves as an aberrant "other." But Leduc further points to the reciprocal nature of the relationship between fairy tales and society: as the tales have influenced society, so, too, can society change the tales to depict better paradigms and, in turn, make for a more accepting world. VERDICT Leduc persuasively illustrates the power of stories to affect reality in this painstakingly researched and provocative study that invites us to consider our favorite folktales from another angle.—Sara Shreve, Newton, KS

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177164939
Publisher:	ECW Press
Publication date:	02/11/2020
Series:	Exploded Views
Edition description:	Unabridged

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