Activity: Pick a fairy godmother for yourself. Who did you pick and why? What do they look like? How are they different from you and how are they the same? Are fairy godmothers human? Do you think fairy godmothers age like humans do? Is your fairy godmother older, younger, or the same age as you? What kind of powers do they have? Where does their power come from?
The Fairy Godmother is a character in fairy tales who bestows guidance and good fortune on the protagonist, usually a younger character. She may or may not be benign, and she may or may not be described as a fairy or even as a godmother.
The most famous fairy godmother is Cinderella’s, who transforms lowly household objects and creatures such as a pumpkin, mice, a rat, and lizards into a coach, coachmen, and footmen, as well as Cinderella’s rags to a gown and glass slippers, before the ball.
Fairy godmothers also appear in some variants of “Sleeping Beauty,” such as Charles Perrault’s. In Perrault’s version, seven fairy godmothers are invited to bestow gifts on the infant princess. An older, uninvited fairy shows up, begrudged to have been left out, and puts the curse on the princess of someday being pricked with a spindle and dying. The youngest fairy, however, softens the curse by changing the outcome to a long death-like sleep—the best she can do to alter a “senior-ranking” fairy’s magic. In the Grimms’ variant, “Brier Rose,” the fairy godmothers number 13 and are called Wise Women. Instead of old age, which isn’t mentioned in the Grimm tale, the 13th Wise Woman is left out because there weren’t enough plates for the festivities. She shows up anyway and wreaks her revenge with her curse.
As a non-protagonist, the fairy godmother character usually doesn’t get described in fairy tales, with exceptions such as in Perrault’s focus on age in his “Sleeping Beauty.” In most “Cinderella” variants, the gifts and blessings don’t even arise from a godmother, but from a bird or fish or from the protagonist’s own perseverance, cleverness, or goodness. But most visual conceptions of the character have been an older woman in human form. Currently, the fairy godmother image that dominates is Disney’s 1950 animated Cinderella version. Google “fairy godmother” and the vast majority of images are of this older, plump, white-haired, kindly, somewhat forgetful woman in a shapeless, hooded blue dress, holding a wand and singing “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” (voiced by Verna Felton).
In Disney’s 1959 Sleeping Beauty, the three fairy godmothers are also older women, small and winged, who garner much more screen time and speaking parts than the title character. Maleficent, the fairy godmother who curses Aurora, is portrayed as taller, horned, and dressed in black. Imperious and yellow-eyed, she’s called a “wicked witch” by Merryweather, one of the good fairies.
But we know Maleficent’s true character. Disney revisited this less kindly fairy godmother figure in two live-action films in 2014 and 2019, with Angelina Jolie playing Maleficent. These films borrow on the visual conception of the 1959 animated film to tell Maleficent’s backstory, with the three more traditional fairy godmothers reduced to a much less significant role. Aurora calls Maleficent “Fairy Godmother” whether Maleficent likes it or not, and in the sequel she is identified as a “dark fey.”
A wicked parody of the fairy godmother character—that also raises her to a whole new level of meddling and magnificence—is found in Shrek 2 (2004). Voiced by comedian Jennifer Saunders of Absolutely Fabulous fame, this godmother is all business, a factory and warehouse-owning maker of magic potions who takes out billboards in the prime real estate of Far Far Away and plots to get Princess Fiona’s parents to throw over their daughter’s new husband, the ogre Shrek, for Fairy Godmother’s handsome but vain and vacuous son, Prince Charming. Pushy and gauche, Fairy Godmother is not above threats, bribery, and donning a fiery red dress while belting out Bonnie Tyler’s 80s hit “Holding Out for a Hero” on a piano.
In the dozens of film versions of the Cinderella story, the fairy godmother character has been played by Whitney Houston, Celeste Holm, Helena Bonham Carter, and Vivica Fox, among many others in roles not always explicitly identified as "the fairy godmother" in movies not always explicitly identified as a Cinderella tale--but the audience knows. The Shrek 2 and recent live-action Maleficent movies notwithstanding, Hollywood seems to prefer a benign, kind fairy godmother, perhaps to better counter the evil step-parent figure, who in movies is also usually an older, female.
Recent versions have been challenging depictions of the fairy godmother character, however, including in age and gender. A new movie that came out in 2020, Godmothered, makes the fairy godmother the protagonist and much younger—in fact, younger than the Cinderella figure she is supposed to be helping. The film’s humor attempts to play off the young fairy godmother-in-training’s inexperience and the older Cinderella figure’s jadedness. Martin Short played a fairy godfather in 1997’s A Simple Wish. The movie’s trailer says, “Sometimes the best fairy godmother for the job is a man.” Well . . . a quarter century on, another new live-action Cinderella film is in the works for 2021/22—this time with a genderless fairy godmother, called Fab G, played by Billy Porter. “It’s time,” said Porter about this new approach to a timeless role that challenges gender stereotypes and binary gender constructs. In interviews Porter credits young generations with "getting" the pushback against gender constructs. But as a 50-something actor, his years of experience of the stage and screen and in life will surely lend to the charisma, wisdom, and knowing humor the role deserves.
Below is an interview with Billy Porter on his genderless fairy godmother role and a video of Shrek 2's unforgettable Fairy Godmother. The annotated bibliography page includes sources featuring fairy godmother characters.
Photo credits: Header--Flickr, Tom Simpson, Concept art by Mary Blair / Thumbnail--Wikimedia Commons, illustration by William Henry Margetson
The Fairy Godmother is a character in fairy tales who bestows guidance and good fortune on the protagonist, usually a younger character. She may or may not be benign, and she may or may not be described as a fairy or even as a godmother.
The most famous fairy godmother is Cinderella’s, who transforms lowly household objects and creatures such as a pumpkin, mice, a rat, and lizards into a coach, coachmen, and footmen, as well as Cinderella’s rags to a gown and glass slippers, before the ball.
Fairy godmothers also appear in some variants of “Sleeping Beauty,” such as Charles Perrault’s. In Perrault’s version, seven fairy godmothers are invited to bestow gifts on the infant princess. An older, uninvited fairy shows up, begrudged to have been left out, and puts the curse on the princess of someday being pricked with a spindle and dying. The youngest fairy, however, softens the curse by changing the outcome to a long death-like sleep—the best she can do to alter a “senior-ranking” fairy’s magic. In the Grimms’ variant, “Brier Rose,” the fairy godmothers number 13 and are called Wise Women. Instead of old age, which isn’t mentioned in the Grimm tale, the 13th Wise Woman is left out because there weren’t enough plates for the festivities. She shows up anyway and wreaks her revenge with her curse.
As a non-protagonist, the fairy godmother character usually doesn’t get described in fairy tales, with exceptions such as in Perrault’s focus on age in his “Sleeping Beauty.” In most “Cinderella” variants, the gifts and blessings don’t even arise from a godmother, but from a bird or fish or from the protagonist’s own perseverance, cleverness, or goodness. But most visual conceptions of the character have been an older woman in human form. Currently, the fairy godmother image that dominates is Disney’s 1950 animated Cinderella version. Google “fairy godmother” and the vast majority of images are of this older, plump, white-haired, kindly, somewhat forgetful woman in a shapeless, hooded blue dress, holding a wand and singing “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” (voiced by Verna Felton).
In Disney’s 1959 Sleeping Beauty, the three fairy godmothers are also older women, small and winged, who garner much more screen time and speaking parts than the title character. Maleficent, the fairy godmother who curses Aurora, is portrayed as taller, horned, and dressed in black. Imperious and yellow-eyed, she’s called a “wicked witch” by Merryweather, one of the good fairies.
But we know Maleficent’s true character. Disney revisited this less kindly fairy godmother figure in two live-action films in 2014 and 2019, with Angelina Jolie playing Maleficent. These films borrow on the visual conception of the 1959 animated film to tell Maleficent’s backstory, with the three more traditional fairy godmothers reduced to a much less significant role. Aurora calls Maleficent “Fairy Godmother” whether Maleficent likes it or not, and in the sequel she is identified as a “dark fey.”
A wicked parody of the fairy godmother character—that also raises her to a whole new level of meddling and magnificence—is found in Shrek 2 (2004). Voiced by comedian Jennifer Saunders of Absolutely Fabulous fame, this godmother is all business, a factory and warehouse-owning maker of magic potions who takes out billboards in the prime real estate of Far Far Away and plots to get Princess Fiona’s parents to throw over their daughter’s new husband, the ogre Shrek, for Fairy Godmother’s handsome but vain and vacuous son, Prince Charming. Pushy and gauche, Fairy Godmother is not above threats, bribery, and donning a fiery red dress while belting out Bonnie Tyler’s 80s hit “Holding Out for a Hero” on a piano.
In the dozens of film versions of the Cinderella story, the fairy godmother character has been played by Whitney Houston, Celeste Holm, Helena Bonham Carter, and Vivica Fox, among many others in roles not always explicitly identified as "the fairy godmother" in movies not always explicitly identified as a Cinderella tale--but the audience knows. The Shrek 2 and recent live-action Maleficent movies notwithstanding, Hollywood seems to prefer a benign, kind fairy godmother, perhaps to better counter the evil step-parent figure, who in movies is also usually an older, female.
Recent versions have been challenging depictions of the fairy godmother character, however, including in age and gender. A new movie that came out in 2020, Godmothered, makes the fairy godmother the protagonist and much younger—in fact, younger than the Cinderella figure she is supposed to be helping. The film’s humor attempts to play off the young fairy godmother-in-training’s inexperience and the older Cinderella figure’s jadedness. Martin Short played a fairy godfather in 1997’s A Simple Wish. The movie’s trailer says, “Sometimes the best fairy godmother for the job is a man.” Well . . . a quarter century on, another new live-action Cinderella film is in the works for 2021/22—this time with a genderless fairy godmother, called Fab G, played by Billy Porter. “It’s time,” said Porter about this new approach to a timeless role that challenges gender stereotypes and binary gender constructs. In interviews Porter credits young generations with "getting" the pushback against gender constructs. But as a 50-something actor, his years of experience of the stage and screen and in life will surely lend to the charisma, wisdom, and knowing humor the role deserves.
Below is an interview with Billy Porter on his genderless fairy godmother role and a video of Shrek 2's unforgettable Fairy Godmother. The annotated bibliography page includes sources featuring fairy godmother characters.
Photo credits: Header--Flickr, Tom Simpson, Concept art by Mary Blair / Thumbnail--Wikimedia Commons, illustration by William Henry Margetson