Amnesty International’s recent PSA “No Consent = No Fairy” highlights issues surrounding consent, or the lack thereof, in fairy tales. In the video, talking animals chastise a prince for kissing a sleeping princess. View the PSA below:
In their analysis of the PSA, the fairy tale news website Once Upon a Blog… argues:
“What fairy tale folk and storytellers should be aware of is the enormous role and obstacle that myth and stereotypes play to adopting the consent-based definition. This, of course, includes how fairy tales are being told and retold. Our modern versions of ‘happily ever’ after might appear cleaner on the surface (with the “it’s just a harmless kiss” mentality) than older tale versions that blatantly include the obsession of a prince with a dead body, or the rape of a sleeping maiden alone in the woods, but it’s clear these “sanitized” versions have added to the harm by romanticizing acts of obsession, power and violence over (mainly) women and children.”