Afterword: Positioning Practices and the Process of Identification of the Reader

Abstract

The analysis has brought into relief the sexism hidden in the traditional versions of the story, and the uneasiness of the most recent versions; sexism, in fact, presupposes a sexist readership that shares the values and beliefs conveyed, leaving little room for those readers who do not recognize themselves in such persuasions. The problem with this is that children, the privileged audience, who are highly unlikely to adopt a critical position because of their innocence and naivety as readers, are drawn into decoding the message ‘in terms of the view of the world in which it has been encoded’ (Clark and Ivanic, 1997, p. 174), which means that the child who happens to read one of the conventional versions will be misled into believing, for example, that being pretty is the most important quality in a girl, what is worthy of attention anyway; it will attract attention from writers, affection from mothers and grandmothers (good, old, frail beings) and it will also attract the wolves’ attention. And since being pretty is clearly a social value in these stories, it is understood that to be desired by wolves is also a social value, although it is bad to yield to wolves’ desires. Girls should not look for pleasure (such as listening to wolves with winning ways or enjoying themselves in the wood) because if they indulge in it they can cause their own death.