Gender, Sexuality, and the Fairy Tale – Pride Month: Cleto and Warman

The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Interview Series

Welcome to The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Art of Living Interview Series on radio and podcast.  I’m Paul Vogelzang, and we are Celebrating Pride Month as part of our Smithsonian Associates interview series.  We have returning guests and show favorites Dr. Sara Cleto and Dr. Brittany Warman back with us.  I’ll reintroduce Sara and Brittany and their Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic in just a moment.

But quickly, if you missed any episodes, last week was our 720th episode when I spoke with  Dr. Jennifer Dill, a professor of urban studies and planning and director of the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University. We discussed with us all things eBikes. Two weeks ago, I spoke with Smithsonian Associate science writer Jennifer Ackerman author of the new book, What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Bird .  Excellent subjects for our Not Old Better Show audience. If you missed those shows, along with any others, you can go back and check them out with my entire back catalog of shows, all free for you, there on our website, NotOld-Better.com. You can Google Not Old Better and get everything you need about us!

What is the Power of Fairy Tales?  Fairy tales have a reputation for being conventional, and many of the most famous fairy tales appear, on the surface, at least, to be just that. Tales like Cinderella and Snow White famously end with dazzlingly beautiful girls marrying princes, and others, like Jack and the Beanstalk, reward boys for their bravery and brashness with wealth and power. However, beginning as early as the 1970s, feminist fairy-tale scholars have pointed out tales and readings that complicate those conventions. Researchers and writers are expanding on these beginnings to explore fairy tales’ queer possibilities.

Once “queer” used to mean strange or eccentric, later wielded as a slur against homosexuality and eventually reclaimed by activists and scholars, the word “queer” can simply mean different than expected. Folklorists Dr. Sara Cleto and Dr. Brittany Warman, The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic, will be appearing at Smithsonian Associates coming up, and you’ll want to check our website as well as Smithsonian Associates site for more details, but we have Sara and Brittany today.   Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman will share with us some very old and very unconventional fairy tales and discuss modern LGBTQ+ twists on old tales and traditions. From a little-known 12th-century (and possibly even older) version of Snow White to literary fairy tales being written now, learn how fairy tales can be surprisingly inclusive and wonderfully disruptive to our expectations.

Please join me in welcoming to The Not Old Better Show Smithsonian Associates interview series on radio and podcast, folklorists and Smithsonian Associates Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman.

My thanks to folklorists and Smithsonian Associates Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman..  Sara Cleto and Brittany Worman will be appearing at Smithsonian Associates coming up, so please check out our show notes or the Smithsonian Associates site for more details. My thanks to the wonderful Smithsonian team for all they do to support the show.  My thanks to you, my wonderful Not Old Better Show audience here on radio and podcast.  Please be well, be safe, and let’s talk about better.  The Not Old Better Show on radio and podcast.  Thanks, everybody, and we’ll see you next week.

For more information about Smithsonian Associates, please click HERE:

https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/gender-and-fairy-tale