El bello durmiente

Comment:

Based on oral tradition, the author uses the tale of Sleeping Beauty but the story is completely turned round: Sleeping Cute Guy is a handsome prince enchanted by the Moon, waiting for a maid’s kiss. The princess is a brave woman who will struggle to get what she wants: to marry a handsome prince. However, she is not a passive element; she must go in search of him and take risks: she has to get into the palace where he´s sleeping and must be careful not to awake the lions guarding the door. Finally, she has to break the spell cast by the moon, who wants the prince only for her. In addition, the book has another interesting point: when women who think that marriage worth the trouble are out of fashion, the tale shows a rare person with this goal in mind. And, if we make space in literature for gender issues such as homoparental families, boys craving for dolls or women doing the so-called men’s jobs, we should also make room for women whose aim in life is to marry a handsome prince (because this goal does not imply that they are passive, faint-hearted women). When women have the right to decide (and their decision could also be to marry a prince, if they want), women have won their independence and freedom.