Changing of Fairy Godmothers

After reading "A wave of the magic wand: Fairy Godmothers in contemporary American Media" by Jeana Jorgensen, I kept thinking about how the image of your traditional fairy tale godmother has changed over the years. As Jorgensen stated in older versions of fairytales the sexual aspect of the fairy godmothers simply were not there. They were seen as strictly magically beings whose only role in life was to help the heroin. They had no real background, no real story of their own, nor did they have a hidden agenda. Jorgensen also makes a good point about the more recent fairy godmothers, and how they seem to have not only more of a background but a sexual aspect as well.

In Shrek 2 the fairy godmother has not only a sexual aspect but also a background and a hidden agenda. She wanted he son to marry Princess Fiona. She also advertised herself in a sexual way and expected her clients to do the same if they were to find that "happily ever after." They even gave her a background involving the King and her own arrangements as to what would happen to the princess from a very early age. (As i did not see the movie, or i did and simply dont remember, the latter more likely, im taking all of this from the article) In The Fairy Godmothers its the same idea. The godmother Elena has her own story, her own background, and her own agendas. She is described as good looking and she is actually looking for love. It is also told that she was formally a Cinderella herself.

All this reiteration of the article leads me to my point, that fairytale characters change with time. As the audience viewing the fairytale changes, the characters change in order to appear more approachable to the audience. For a long time fairytale godmothers had no real depth, nor did they have any agenda of their own. As time passes we find the idea of magic harder and harder to believe, even as a child, so a character who is stictly a magical being (such as a fairytale godmother) is incredibly hard to relate to. When these fairytales first started to be told (LONG LONG AGO) the idea of magic wasn't so far fetched, making these characters much easier to relate to. In the Fairy Godmothers Elena seems to be very approachable, I use the word "seem" because I myself have not read the book, but from what I take she seems very much like a normal person. She has likes and dislikes (such as the prince who she turned into an ass) just like the rest of us do. Also, while she was a cinderella, the reality is that there was no suitable prince charming for her, so she adjusted her plans and became a fairy godmother. Things not going as they should is an idea everyone can relate to.

The whole point is that as time passes people and cultures change. In order to stay in our current culture, fairytale characters have changed as well. As the movie Shrek makes evident, Fairytales are no longer always about prince charming getting the princess and everyone living happily ever after (as Shrek is far from prince charming and both him and Fiona end up as ogres at the end of the first movie). The image of the Fairy Godmother has changed to suit the needs of the audience, they are no longer always this magical being whos only purpose is to help the protagonist. They have backgrounds and stories of their own, as Jorgensen points out.