The tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” is one that has withstood the tests of time and has been passed through many generations. Due to its existence over many centuries, the tale has morphed in many different ways; the morality, sexuality, and gender roles have been modified so that the story could identify with its audience of the time. As time has gone on, “Little Red Riding Hood” has lost its sexuality and morale that instructs girls to be woeful when searching for a suitor.
The electronic text, “Red Riding Hood” is a feminist version of this everlasting fable which renews the old morality and sexuality of the original tale as well as giving females back the ability to survive independently of and even overcome men. I find this view of the story to be very intriguing because I have never heard much of these opinions, as I have narrow-mindedly dismissed them as over-analyses of a classic tale. After researching the topic, however, I have found that these ideas are not in the least bit far-fetched but actually very plausible. This version in particular, though still extremely confusing and odd to me, gives a very interesting spin on the classic tale.
In this electronic text, Red, as she is referred to, takes on a new look losing her “riding hood” and gaining a pair of pants; clearly displaying that she is equal to men in the sense that she too “can wear the pants.” As she walks along to her grandmother’s house (one can only assume that is where she is going by knowledge of the original tale because in this one there is no dialogue) the “wolf,” or in this case a boy about the same age as Red, begins to follow her and at one point while she is looking at him, he licks his lips at her. This part of the story alludes to the sexual connotations and morale of the original tale; which is that females need be weary of inappropriate male suitors who are only after them to fulfill their sexual desires. True to feminist beliefs, Red ignores the boy and proceeds to her Grandmother’s house.
After that section of the tale, things get to be extremely strange and confusing. Red falls asleep in a bed of flowers and the “reader” gets to choose whether she dreams or awakes. I am not at all going to get into her dreaming yet because that version takes you through a different stream of extremely bizarre dreams every time and I have not even begun to depict any meaning from them. The version in which you wake her is still almost equally confusing but I believe I am much closer to understanding it. When Red arrives to her grandmother’s house, the “wolf” is in her grandmother’s bed and there is an exchange of angry looks. Following this scene there is one where Red is in bed with a distended stomach and when you scroll over it, there is a mini version of the “wolf” inside. As she is sleeping, however, a man, who I can only assume to be the hunter who saves Red in the modern Red Riding Hood tales, comes and points a gun at her head. Classic feminist beliefs would cause me to believe that Red ate the “wolf” instead of him eating her and the hunter wants to shoot her because he is a man and does not like a woman with power. However, I do not believe that she at the “wolf” I believe that she is pregnant with his child and I do not really have any reason for this other than the fact that the original tale had sexual connotations of rape and sex so maybe this one does too.
I still have much meaning to derive from this text but for now I am only left with a plethora of questions. Is Red pregnant or did she eat the wolf? If she is pregnant, was the sex consensual or was it rape? Is the man with the gun really the hunter and why does he even want to shoot her? And finally, what do those bizarre dreams mean?
