Where did "A Pair of Winged Pigs" come from?

 

"A Pair of Winged Pigs" might seem like an average fairytale, but in fact there's a lot of backstory to this tale. Ever since I was a child, I always loved reading folklore and fairytales. The simplicity, the fantasy, and the good vs. evil themes always made it incredibly enjoyable to read. But as I got older, I started to realize that women in fairytales were portrayed in certain ways that made it hard for me to identify with them, or rather want to be like them. Usually in helpless situations, the only value these women had was either being beautiful and kind, or married. There weren't that many options for females in fairytales. It was either that, or they were ugly, evil witches. As a Communications major, I grew to love analyzing media and looking for underlying gender ideologies in music, movies, or even books. For my capstone, I wanted to do a project that incorporated everything that I learned over the four years of my college career. Inspired by "Sleeping Ugly" by Jane Yolen, I decided to write a fairytale for tweens that had the elements and similar styles of a fairytale, but in essence was about the empowerment of young men and women who were against the gender rules placed on them by society. In this background section, it includes interviews, articles, and books that I read and did research on in order to write my fairytale. 

 

Peruse for your enjoyment!