Dear Prince Charming, where did you go?
Are you busy traveling the globe
while I wait here patiently, growing old,
investing in my ever-expanding wardrobe?
My fragile glass slippers are not very sturdy
So I can only sit here quietly, trying not to get dirty
Perhaps I’ll trade them for boots made for walking,
And set off on my own story-worthy journey
Fairy tales have always had the power to captivate our imagination and evoke our deepest fears. I've long been fascinated by the narratives we pass on to our children and the gendered messages embedded within these timeless stories. From 2019 to 2021, I created the Happily Ever After art series, which explores the themes found in fairy tales and nursery rhymes. However, these ideas continue to inspire me, and I find myself returning to them time and time again.
One of the key influences on my work at the time was the exhibition All the Better to See You With: Fairy Tales Transformed at the Ian Potter Museum of Art in 2018. This exhibition offered a critical examination of the traditional sexist tropes in fairy tales. You can learn more about it here. By contrast, the more recent Fairy Tales exhibition at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), which I visited in 2024, took a more conventional approach. It emphasized magic and danger but didn’t delve into the gendered experiences or modern reinterpretations of these tales.
Interestingly, All the Better to See You With was curated by Samantha Comte, a female director, whereas Fairy Tales was curated by Chris Saines, a male director. Saines remarked, “While fairy tales have changed form through different eras and societies, their themes have remained universally resonant.” While I agree with his observation, I also believe that the past decade has seen a significant shift. Many of these stories have been reimagined to feature themes of female empowerment—a perspective that was lacking in the GOMA exhibition.
In my own art series, I place female characters at the forefront, empowering them to take control of their destinies. By deconstructing the familiar tropes of classic fairy tales, I reframe women as active agents in their own stories. These narratives challenge stereotypes, flipping the script to redefine femininity as powerful and worthy. My work explores five recurring themes:
Let’s take a closer look at each.
Rebellious Princesses
We’re all familiar with the image of the damsel in distress, passively waiting to be rescued—sometimes even asleep, as in the case of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. These rebellious princesses, however, are not interested in the traditional fates offered to them. To subvert this trope and empower these characters, I often arm them with a weapon, giving them the strength to rewrite their own stories.
Reaching for the stars
These three works on paper celebrate the resilience and ambition of girls who dare to dream beyond the roles historically expected of them. Each print depicts a young girl reaching toward a star, a symbol of empowerment, urging young women to set their sights high.
The Mermaid
Since Disney's Little Mermaid was released in 1989 we have seen the elevation of the mermaid as a popular heroine. While Ariel is an innocent character in The Little Mermaid, in folklore, mermaids were once seductive sirens who employed their beauty and their voices to lure men to their watery deaths. Their sexual allure is certainly still evidenced in modern representations of mermaids, whether for children or adults.
In my recreation of the mermaid, she is shown with text from the She Sells Sea Shells rhyme which is inspired by the Victoria-era fossil hunter named Mary Anning. As a pioneering paleontologist, Anning was responsible for the discovery of several categories of animals. However because she was a woman, she received little credit for her achievements and many of her discoveries were attributed to men.
The names of women like Mary Anning, who succeeded in the face of adversity, remain largely uncelebrated in popular culture; hence the rhyme sits behind the subject’s head or the mermaid, out of sight. Meanwhile, the hyper-sexualized image of a mermaid remains highly visible to the girl in popular culture, upfront and center.
The Wise Owl
The depiction of an owl alongside a girl in my paintings seeks to challenge the gendered personality traits traditionally assigned to each sex. Owls are almost always portrayed as wise, male figures in nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Inspired by The Wise Old Owl and The Owl and the Pussy Cat, I noticed that these rhymes cast the owl as observant, worldly, and charming—qualities stereotypically attributed to men—while female characters are often defined by their beauty or desire to marry. Historically, this reflected women’s limited access to education and independence, but these outdated stereotypes continue today.
Despite shifts in societal norms, many popular children’s shows continue to portray wise owls as male. Even in Australia’s Giggle and Hoot, the male owl character is more prominent than his female counterpart (who was a later addition).
In my series I subvert this narrative by portraying the wise owl as female, leaning in with the girl to symbolize their shared connection and mutual strength. Through this depiction, I aim to redefine wisdom as an attribute equally belonging to women.
The Sisterhood
Have you ever noticed that the female lead is often alone, surrounded only by male characters, with no women to support her? Often the mother dead, or is represented by an evil stepmother or a is rarely-seen fairy godmother. She never has a sister or a female role model to guide her. Often she has a small male character following her around to provide a small amount of protection (like Flounder for Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Rajah for Jasmine in Aladdin and the Seven Dwarfs in Snow White), but rarely do we see a comforting or wise female character. This is a subtle way of keeping women apart and setting them up against one another, rather than encouraging women to band together.
So in my reimagined fairy tales, the heroine gets a twin sister to help her through her trials and tribulations. Out with the male babysitter and in with the sisterhood! Two of these artworks feature Rapunzel where an additional head of hair means more means of making an escape rope. You can read more about my Rapunzel escape fantasy here.
I hope these reimagined fairy tales have given you a new and inspired perspective on your favourite classic fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Check out the entire series here.
About the artist
Leah is a Melbourne artist who makes figurative work about womanhood. Follow her artist journey on social media @leahmarianiartspace.
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