ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the subversive strategies used to rethink gender codes and conventions employed by fine artists referencing fairy tales in their work. It addresses the rejection of the traditional tale in its sanitized and popular state is what connects the artists. Traditional European fairy tales featuring a female protagonist typically conveyed to their readers the need for caution, modesty, chastity and comportment on the part of young women. The chapter presents the analysis of three anti-tale art works which reveal how fairy-tale narration in parodic and subversive visual form begins to unpack and destabilize some aspects of gender performance. Fairies play ambiguous roles in fairy tales. As fairy helpers, figured in the form of the fairy godmother, they are generally considered good. The chapter deals with art works made by female artists in Europe and the readings that have been made address alternative expressions of gender.
