After thinking about these feminist fairytales that I love so, I am going to add another letter to Reel Girl’s rating system. And the letter is…T, for Traditional. If Reel Girl assigns a book, movie, or product a T, it means that the subject in question confronts a traditional theme of girls or women in fantasy world (beauty, marriage, passivity etc) in an original, insightful way. I think the T is important because we live in the society we do with thousands of years of cultural mythology to wade through. Though I personally adore when writers and movie makers say fuck it, I’m just going to create a world where genders are equal, I want to give a shout out to those who consciously twist conventions in order to show the heroine triumph.

I think of a T as sort of similar to PG meaning parental guidance suggested. If your child is reading a book, watching a show, or playing with a toy that has a T, your kid may get the most out of the experience if you ask her some questions or dialogue with her about the traditional themes presented here.

Reel Girl will continue to assign the dreaded S, Double S, and Triple S.