Man or Wolf?
A young girl is walking alone in a forest. Shadows fall against the forest floor, darkening her path. She is miles from home and miles from her destination when she comes across a wolf.
Her mother told her not to speak to strangers, especially wolves and not to stray from the path, but the wolf seems quite kind and even charming. He tells her where some pretty flowers are and asks her where she is going. “To my grandmother’,” she says. Ignoring her mother’s warning she leaves the path to pick the flowers.
When the girl arrives at her grandmother’s house her grandmother doesn’t seem quite right. Her mouth and ears and nose are all too big, but as the girl gets close enough to be sure of this, her grandmother –who is really the wolf from the woods — gobbles her up.
So many of the older versions of fairy tales have dark themes. They were not necessarily meant to be fun, escapist tales like the tamer Disney versions audiences are more familiar with today. Rather, they were meant to help prepare children for a harsh world using metaphor and fantastic elements to help soften the unsettling truths.
The story of Little Red Riding Hood is a warning to children and young girls in particular, not to stray from the path or be distracted by pretty things. It is a warning to listen to one’s parents, and above all, not to talk to strangers in the woods.
Perhaps one reason Little Red Riding Hood has not been made into a Disney film is that its theme of stranger danger is rather difficult to sanitize. Even the 1966 rock song by Sam and Sham and the Pharaohs acknowledges the predatory sexual nature of the Big Bad Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. The Big Bad Wolf is a potent metaphor for a man with a beastly nature. The confusing and deliberate predatory behavior he exhibits is more like a human than a wild beast. He wants to eat Little Red Riding Hood but he draws the process out. He doesn’t simply attack her. He charms her first. He tricks her. His behavior is predatory, yes, but it is also calculated and deliberate. He distracts her with pretty flowers. He pretends to be a loving member of her family.
Screenshot HQ’s TikTok asking women if they would rather meet a man or a bear alone in the woods was a catalyst for a discussion about women’s safety, but the topic is not new. Society has been discussing ways for women to stay safe since the 1600s and before. Women have always been afraid of meeting the wrong man alone in the woods and caregivers have warned their children to be wary.
While both men and women can be the subject of violence at the hands of men, women are chosen as victims far more frequently. Men who are the victim of violent attacks are also more likely to be attacked by a man than a woman. It’s no wonder that seven out of the eight women who were initially queried by Screenshot HQ chose the bear. A bear doesn’t pretend to be a friend if he’s not. He doesn’t scheme and deceive. It’s not that all bears are preferable to all men, it’s that the worst possible bear is better than the worst possible man.
The Grimm brothers added the woodsman to come save the day in 1812 as if to tell their readers “not all men”. The older version, however, recorded by Charles Perault in the 1697, had no woodsman. Little Red Riding Hood didn’t listen to her mother and death was her consequence. She allowed the wolf to charm her and paid the price for it. There is an element of victim blaming in this. Her safety is considered her own responsibility. Even the title suggests that she is drawing too much attention to herself by wearing red. Perhaps she was asking for it, leaving the house in that. The story warns young girls to be wary and protect themselves instead of warning young boys not to become wolves.
Fairy Tales offer us a unique peek into the collective consciousness of society. The things we tell stories about tell us a lot about who we are as a society and the stories we choose to continue to tell help us shape who we could become. Society has always known dangerous beastly men exist or folklore wouldn’t have so many stories warning children about them. Not just the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, but Bluebeard and so many more. Where are the folktales teaching young boys not to become wolves or how to expose them for what they are? If men like the woodsman are women’s protectors, why is her safety dependent on whether or not she wears red or strays from the path? 400 years and more since the writing of Little Red Riding Hood, why do we still have so many wolves in our woods?
It only took one wolf to destroy poor little Red, and it only takes one man to destroy a woman’s life if it is the wrong man. A man with a beastly nature can destroy her trust in goodness, her faith in not just men specifically, but mankind. The fear is not that it is all men, but that it could be any. Trying to guess who are the wolves and who are the woodsman is difficult because the animals are so good at disguising themselves in order to get close to their prey.
Women have always been afraid to meet a man alone in the woods. We have warned our daughters to be careful for centuries. It’s not a new discussion at all but I wish it were old. I wish this were an issue that was relevant in the olden times. An archaic seventeenth-century danger like cholera and the black death that education and the progress of society has stamped out with time.
Alas, it is not so. There are still enough beasts masquerading as men that women and men alike are at risk when they meet an unknown man alone in the woods. We still warn our children about talking to strangers. In human society friend or foe is not as simple as it is in the animal kingdom. Whether bear or wolf, a wild beast can feel like less of a threat than the risk of the uncertainty of a charming but untrustworthy human.
Perhaps it is time to stop warning young girls to be wary and time to stop arguing about whether or not women have a right to feel fear. Perhaps it is time to start fighting the human beasts who are more frightening than a wild animal, the wolves hiding in men’s clothing.
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