In her novel Woman Hating, Andrea Dworkin explains the inherent sexism and misogyny that exists in the roles, interactions and values taught through fairy tales. Fairy tales, described for one as “the primary information of the culture” (Dworkin, 34) or, more sinisterly, “educational propaganda for children” (Duncker, 5), have been the recipients of much feminist criticism. This simple, catchy quote bears the weight of patriarchal values: beauty as woman’s main asset competition as the only sanctioned relation between women. “Looking-glass upon the wall, who is fairest of us all?” (Grimm, 214). In doing so, she challenges the lessons about identity, gender and sexuality disseminated through both genres. Carter combines the fairy tale, that most basic and innocent form of moral education, with pornography material that also occupies the realm of fantasy, but for the antithetical purpose of eliciting erotic excitement. Yet despite these criticisms, an unmistakable feminist agenda can be found underlying the works of The Bloody Chamber. The explicitly violent and pornographic nature of Carter’s writing has also been accused of merely re-producing and amplifying the patriarchal binary of the victim and the oppressor (Kappeler, 133). She criticizes Carter’s failure to alter the “deeply sexist psychology of the erotic” (6). Patricia Duncker, in her essay titled Re-imagining the Fairy Tales: Angela Carter’s Bloody Chambers, argues that “Carter is rewriting the tales within the strait-jacket of their original (patriarchal) structures” (6). The anthology catalyzed a considerable amount of controversy. One theme that is especially foregrounded is female desire and sexuality. Carter’s interpretations specifically shift the focus of the original fairytales away from the male heroic figures and towards female heroines, while simultaneously complicating the construct of the heroic model itself. The blatant misogyny and unapologetic reinforcement of patriarchal values they display has prompted a host of contemporized re-imaginations such as those of The Bloody Chamber.

Of Virginity and Violence: The Bloody Chamber as Moral PornographyĬertain qualities of classical fairytales and myths beg for feminist adaptations.

The bloody chamber