Why Little Red Riding Hood is caught between innocence and sexuality
Is Little Red Riding Hood just a naive little girl? Only in the tale by the German Brothers Grimm. In older versions of the story, she flirts and the wolf seduces her. Here's a look at various Little Red Riding Hoods.
German Romanticism
The Brothers Grimm describe Little Red Riding Hood as a young girl, innocent and blond - but that wasn't always the case. The girl is much older in other versions of the tale, and there wasn't always a happy ending either. That was a German twist to the story. Little Red Riding Hood first started in France.
The seductive French wolf
"Viens te coucher avec moi" - Come to bed with me. That's how the wolf tries to entice Little Red Riding Hood into his bed. Accepting his invitation, she undresses - clearly an allusion to sex. In 1697, Charles Perrault wrote his story of the "Petit Chaperon Rouge;" the copper engraving was done by Gustave Doré. In those days, the story was told as a warning against male seducers.
First English version
The tale of the coquettish French Little Red Riding Hood was adapted into English in 1729 - without a happy ending. Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother are devoured by the wolf, and that was that. No hunter came to their rescue. Typical for the English version is that the girl wasn't only wearing a red hood, but also a red riding coat.
Little Red Riding Hood with a happy ending
The first German version of the Little Red Riding Hood was not the work of the Brothers Grimm, but of writer Ludwig Tieck. The romanticist who disliked the gloomy ending of the French version added a hunter who rescued the girl to the original tale. And in 1812, the Brothers Grimm turned the flirtatious Little Red Riding Hood into an innocent little girl, avoiding any sexual connotations.
Little Red Riding Hood gets famous
Very quickly, the tale of Little Red Riding Hood became a hit in Germany and the rest of Europe. Elements from the story were printed on post cards and imitated in parlor games. Even today, the sweet little girl with the red hood embellishes champagne bottles, cheese packages and chocolates.
A modern, headstrong girl
Little Red Riding Hood continues to be en vogue while being constantly reinterpreted. In his children's book "Rothütchen" (Little Red Hat), Geoffroy de Pennart turned her into a recalcitrant girl that even attacks the wolf, reflecting a modern idea of obedient, but self-conscious children.
A less violent take
The 1980s were dominated by yet another educational theory. Back then, the objective was nonviolent education. That's why, in a more contemporary version, the wolf didn't devour Litte Red Riding Hood, but restrained himself to controlling her movements with a loop around her foot. That's illustrated here in the book "Le Petit Chaperon Rouge" by Laurence Batigne and Bruno de la Salle.
The wolf as a sex object
The 1990s saw yet another reinterpretation of the tale. This bold 1993 fantasy by Bettina Bayerl called "Keine Gnade!" (No Mercy!) brought back the obscenity and sexuality that was only hinted at in the original French version.
Little Red Riding Hood becomes the villain
In this version, Burgi Kühnemann portrays Little Red Riding Hood as the real villain who overruns the poor wolf, which is threatened with extinction. Kühnemann is a book artist who works fairy tales. In another version, she draws parallels between Little Red Riding Hood and Hitler, who she claims loved calling himself "Uncle Wolf" and enjoyed being adored for his manliness.
Little Red Riding Hood - a bit abstract for a change
There's also a version of the Little Red Riding Hood that does without any moral assessments. In the 1960s, artist Warja Honegger-Lavater depicted the tale only with dots. The resulting radical abstraction permitted all kinds of possible and impossible fantasies on the theme, releasing is from various cultures, eras or age groups.