The title of this particular version, “Little Rural Riding Hood”, really intrigued me. The focus of this particular Red Riding Hood story is not remaining true to the fairy tale itself, but is to show a stark contrast between rural and urban areas.
It opens with a stereotypical country bumpkin Little Riding Hood, who has a thick Southern accent, poor grammar, buck teeth, and is not wearing shoes to cover her big feet. After we are introduced to the tall and lanky rural riding hood, we meet the wolf at grandmother’s farm. He is already in the grandmother’s bed, wearing overalls and a bonnet of course, and he explains that he is supposed to eat the girl, but he refuses to do that. Instead, he eagerly says that he will catch her and then hug and kiss her. The rural wolf is like a Goofy figure that is silly, dumb, and eager to meet the girl. After the wolf chases the rural riding hood around the house for a while, he receives a letter from his cousin living in the city. His cousin, who is more sophisticated and cosmopolitan, tells the rural wolf to come to the city to meet a real woman. The cousin will teach the ignorant wolf how to treat women and live in the city. The urban riding hood is a singer at a nightclub, who sings the Andrews’ Sisters “Oh Johnny Oh” song with the words changed to be about the wolf.
In the end, the cousin says city life is too much for the rural wolf so he takes the wolf back to his home in the country. However, little rural riding hood is still there waiting for the rural wolf, and the urban wolf immediately falls in love with her. The roles of the wolves are then reversed, and rural wolf says the country life is too much for the city wolf so he takes him back to the city.
Some interesting observations:
-Instead of one wolf and one girl, there are two wolves and two girls.
-The grandmother is left completely out of the story.
-The wolf does not desire to kill the girl, but instead has a weird, almost childlike attraction to her.
-Only the rural riding hood wears red, but both girls have red hair.
-This may be a stretch, but the urban riding hood seemed almost like a Marilyn Monroe figure, while the rural riding hood was like an unattractive Daisy Duke.
This version seems to be a social commentary that simply perpetuates the stereotypes of rural life and the types of people it attracts. It is an entirely new and different take on the traditional “Little Red Riding Hood” story that we all know so well.
Just as a note I remember seeing this cartoon episode and laughed just as hard as before. However, I also made observations that I hadn't before.
ReplyDelete-Yes the grandmother is completely left out of sight but is mentioned or given a "shout out" by the wolf; this alludes to the idea that everyone knows or is familiar with the "red riding hood story"
-I find it interesting that "Red" is a "country bumpkin". Though she does live on the outskirts of the forest, we can assume it is rural area, in my mind I wouldn't imagine her as a "country girl" (to categorize in a stereotype unfortunately) with no shoes, heavy accent, messy hair etc.
-The wolf wanting to not eat her but rather hug her and kiss her is a form of intimacy but not explicit which is okay for children to view and society to not censor.
-"Red" enticing the wolf in a playful manor is another form of eroticism but since he's just trying to kiss her it's not raunchy, moreso a playful banter.
-I found the "Sexy Red's" song interesting in that her words are "oh wolfie you give me the shivers." She is excited by the wolf in the song and seems to enjoy his presence. However she has more sex appeal and her mannerism is seen as taunting the wolf in the audience in a "come hither." She dances and bends over which is more sexualized.
Overall, I enjoyed this parody of red riding hood since it gave some comic relief to the "big bad wolf" but looking at it through the lens of this class it also sexualizes red riding hood in a different way with two versions; she is not taking clothes off, she's dancing erotically, trying to kiss the wolf, flirting/seducing the wolf and letting herself be objectified.