The State - News from Sept. 10, 1989

The Little Red Riding Hood of today is a “real wimp” compared to the original heroine of ancient folk tales on which the character is based, according to UC Berkeley anthropologist Alan Dundes. “Male writers completely ruined the tale . . .,” said Dundes. “They made the girl a weak little thing who had to be rescued. The original folk tale is a female story in which the mother sends the daughter out and the little girl is triumphant.” What’s more, he said, she didn’t wear a hood, red or otherwise. He said the culprits who rearranged the tale were 17th-Century French writer Charles Perrault and, later, the Grimm brothers--Jacob and Wilhelm.