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Every day, women and children are killed by intimate partners and family members, rendering moot the argument of stranger danger that is so often put forward by people when they speak about gender-based violence, and that also is at the heart of the original Red Riding Hood tale writes Prof Juliana Claassens.
Once upon a time, there lived a little girl whose mother made her a little red riding-hood…. All too familiar is this story we tell children. However, upon a closer look, this classic fairy tale is filled with violence, particularly against those most vulnerable, and probably should come with an age restriction.
Central to this story of Little Red Riding Hood, who takes her grandmother some cookies and gets eaten, or almost eaten, by a wolf, depending on the version, is the theme of stranger danger coupled with the fear of woods and dark places.
