Of course it is all too easy to tune out our bodies, to ignore how they communicate our need for nurture. What are the practices that help us listen to our bodies? What are the rhythms and rituals that connect us to those deep, vulnerable parts of our bodies and souls that are crying out for care? Our students and alumni have been wrestling with these questions in beautiful, creative ways for many years, and we often turn to their voices when we need to remember how to be present in our bodies. Today we鈥檙e sharing a few of those voices鈥攖houghtful presentations inviting us to engage the rituals, rhythms, and age-old practices that draw us back to our deeply human need for nurture. And if you鈥檇 like to join us in the gift of learning from the integrative and insightful work of our students, save the date for the annual Integrative Project Symposium on May 31.

At our second annual Symposia in 2016, Heather Stringer (, 鈥�10) presented 鈥淏reaking Frozen Seas: How Rituals of the Body Transform Clients and Communities,鈥� exploring how intentional, sensual rituals open us to learning from our bodies as we pursue healing from trauma. 鈥淚 think our body longs to teach us, it longs to mother us, it longs to remind us,鈥� says Heather. 鈥淎nd without ritual, we foreclose creativity and shared open language about what is happening, and we dissociate.鈥�

鈥淚 think our body longs to teach us, it longs to mother us, it longs to remind us.鈥�

Also at Symposia 2016, Jenny McGrath (MACP, 鈥�15) talked about 鈥淗ealing Trauma Through Movement,鈥� sharing how dance had been an avenue of healing and growth in her own life, and how movement and dance can be used therapeutically to bring counseling and rehabilitation for trauma survivors. Jenny shares about her work in northern Uganda, researching the therapeutic power of movement in the wake of war and exploring how dance can help communicate emotional realities that are beyond language. 鈥淲e are affected not just neurologically, but neuro-physiologically when we go through trauma. We are not just floating heads,鈥� says Jenny. 鈥淪o there needs to be some form of engagement with our bodies if we are truly to develop a sustainable model for people to recover from their trauma.鈥�

At Symposia 2017 Jenny Wade (MACP, 鈥�13), a therapist and founder of in Seattle, shared about 鈥淔inding Beauty in Embodied Resistance.鈥� In this profound talk, Jenny starts with the disgust that so many people feel toward their bodies, and the million ways we are taught to believe that our bodies are not worth trusting. 鈥淚 believe that bodies are good,鈥� says Jenny. 鈥淭hey are good, and they are wise, and they are beautiful. [鈥 But trauma, both collective and personal, separates us from the felt experience of our body. When we experience trauma, our body feels foreign. Our body doesn鈥檛 feel like it鈥檚 ours.鈥�

(For more on this, we also deeply appreciated J. Knox Burnett鈥檚 (MACP, 鈥�13) presentation, )

When we are more fully connected to our bodies, we are more able to attune to spiritual practices and soul care. This is much of the work that Lacy Clark Ellman (MA in Theology & Culture, 鈥�12) fosters in her work as a spiritual director. In 2017, Lacy presented 鈥淏eyond Borders: Cultivating Awareness, Resilience, and Transformation through the Practice of Pilgrimage.鈥� In 2017 she shared about the ancient art of pilgrimage and the archetypal human stories that have so much to reveal about the journey of separation, initiation, and return. 鈥淭his adventure of the hero and journey of the pilgrim is built within each one of us,鈥� says Lacy. 鈥淎nd claiming it as our own, we are aligning with our divine imprint as seekers of the sacred.鈥�

(Kate Davis [Master of Divinity, 鈥�15] also powerfully reflected on the transformative insights of ancient human stories in her Integrative Project presentation, )

Across cultures and generations, these categories of initiation, wilderness, and pilgrimage have been central to questions of what it means to be fully human鈥攁nd yet for many of us, they feel so foreign today. That鈥檚 why we appreciated this Symposia 2016 presentation from Doug Wheeler (MA in Counseling, 1987), 鈥淣avigating the Masculine Journey with 鈥楽herpas鈥� Nouwen, Jung, and Peck.鈥� Doug reflects on the archetypes that help clarify the terrain and trajectory of human pilgrimage. 鈥淭here is no entry fee, but it will cost you plenty to make this journey. Pack a lunch, lose your map, travel lightly.鈥�

On May 31 we鈥檒l gather to hear from students in our Master of Divinity and MA in Theology & Culture programs as they present on the projects that serve as a capstone of their time in graduate school. The Integrative Project Symposium is always an inspiring, grounding, and thought-provoking time. All are welcome!

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What first drew you to this class?

I鈥檝e always been drawn to imagination and fantasy and children鈥檚 stories. I grew up in the Czech Republic, so I remember as a little kid noticing that different cultures have really different fairy tales, and that the kinds of fairy tales that I would hear from school, from my peers, were really different. They were influenced by Slavic, more Russian fairy tales, compared to the Brothers Grimm and Disney.

And the fact that I am pregnant and am going to have a baby soon. I was thinking, if it鈥檚 a girl, I want something to help me think through Disney princess culture. There鈥檚 a lot of stuff that I find problematic, but at the same time I don鈥檛 want to deprive a child of mine of a lot of joy that can come from that whole world. And if it鈥檚 a boy, I thought the class might still be helpful. Because patriarchy has harmed both men and women, even if men don鈥檛 always recognize it.

For example, we were watching Disney鈥檚 Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and the group I was in was looking at how men were portrayed in the movie. I noticed that Prince Charming has very, very few lines鈥攊n fact in his song at the end, he鈥檚 saying, 鈥業 have but one song…but one heart, steady and true.鈥� He only gets to play one role. He really doesn鈥檛 need to be on screen at all, because we already know what his role is. He鈥檚 in some ways just as restricted as Snow White is, in terms of his choices and options. Like, what if he didn鈥檛 want to save the princess? What if he wanted to, I don鈥檛 know, go be a poet?

How do you see this class complementing the rest of what you鈥檙e learning at 天美视频?

I鈥檝e been thinking about my internship鈥擨鈥檓 hoping to work with kids. And even though fairy tales weren鈥檛 originally written for children, one thing I really liked in the class was paying close attention to stories that are often about children and are often dealing with deep, primal human longings and terrors. As I think about working with kids therapeutically, the main way that children communicate is through play. Fairy tales, play, and dreams are all areas that the larger culture tends to see as meaningless鈥攁t best neutral, at worst frivolous. But I think all three of those areas have almost a direct line to your unconscious. In our Psychopathology class I learned that every dream is significant, and I think the same thing with the stories we tell and the way children play. This class was a great, practical way of giving me sharper ears, or at least a desire to pay closer attention to those avenues to the unconscious.

鈥淭his class was a great, practical way of giving me sharper ears.鈥�

What did you focus on for your final project?

We were given the option: you could either write a research paper or do an artistic project, like writing (or rewriting) an original fairy tale. I wanted to rewrite Cinderella, but from the perspective of the stepmother. We had studied one modern retelling of Snow White by Neil Gaiman, where it鈥檚 from the Queen鈥檚 perspective, and you end up sympathizing with the Queen, but at the expense of Snow White. That鈥檚 one thing you see a lot in fairy tales鈥攊t鈥檚 the psychological concept of splitting. A lot of the characters, especially the female characters and mother figures, are usually just purely good and angelic, or like demonic and totally evil and one-dimensional. There鈥檚 not usually any room for any nuance. As I鈥檓 becoming a mother I think about all the emotional baggage with my own mom that I鈥檝e been processing over the last couple years, and I鈥檓 struggling with bringing the split together. How can the same mom who I received comfort and nurture and affection from also be a mom who, in some ways, neglected me and harmed me?

So I was somewhat personally invested in wanting to write a story where we鈥檙e exploring how we can bring the split closer together, without sacrificing Cinderella for it. I wanted to find a way that the stepmom and Cinderella鈥攖hat you still are rooting for both of them, and yet hard stuff still happens, where the stepmom is put into a place where she has to make some really terrible choices because of things outside of her control.

It seems really meaningful to take a concept like splitting, which you鈥檙e learning about theoretically in other classes, and explore it in a new form that feels so alive鈥攂oth the writing of a nuanced, complex story and the art of oral storytelling.

A good friend of mine, Aubrey, is an amateur oral storyteller. Starting in middle school she composed elaborate, detailed stories in her head and just kept them all in her head, and in college she would tell these stories out loud to another friend and me. So I very much wanted to try to do that, to tell it orally, because I had never experienced anything like that鈥攊t was so engaging and immediate, more addicting than a really good TV show. When we鈥檇 hear her stories, it felt like this must be what it would have been like in the village around the campfire, after the huntsmen came back, all the feasting and telling stories. It was really bonding. So I wanted to try my hand at that.

One writer I like, Lois McMaster Bujold, once said in an interview that the way she writes her plots is she gets her characters, and then she asks herself, what is the worst thing that could happen to this character? She does that twice, and then she works them out of the mess. I wanted my story to still be recognizably Cinderella, so I had to get them into a position where Cinderella has to do drudgery and manual labor most of her life, but I didn鈥檛 want it to be because the stepmom is really cruel. Only desperation would drive them to this situation where you would actually recognize it as Cinderella, so I had to think about outside systems and supernatural circumstances that might make them that desperate.

On the final day of class there was this fairy tale festival鈥攃lassmates and guests gathered together to witness the final projects. What was it like for you to finally share this story?

It was scary and exhilarating. I had worked really hard to memorize it, not word for word, but to be able to tell the story without any notes, because I wanted to give the people in the class the experience that I got to have with my friend Aubrey鈥攖he experience of that eye contact, the immediacy of the story. If I were to have read it, then I think that puts the text itself as the main focus. Whereas if I鈥檓 telling it off book, then it鈥檚 the connection between us, between me as the storyteller and you as the listener, that鈥檚 the main attention and the main focus. It ended up being really exciting, and I felt the energy in the room. I could sense people鈥檚 responses, both at the pit of despair of the story and the eucatastrophe at the end鈥攊t was really special to share that.

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In the past year or so I鈥檝e increasingly encountered texts, podcasts, and movies that are challenging the false reality of the fairy tale romance. While this isn鈥檛 a new critique, it seems to be almost as ubiquitous as the fairy tales themselves these days; the two are often hand-in-hand now (just watch and you鈥檒l get the idea). I was drawn to the 鈥淒isney, Fairy Tales, and Feminist Theory鈥� class because I wanted to think more about popular culture鈥檚 role in shaping our beliefs and becoming our reality. How are the stories we tell both speaking to what exists and speaking something into existence? (Plus, any class with movies on the syllabus is my jam.)

My particular focus for the final project was on pop culture鈥檚 romanticism of the male caregiver (the new rescuer) archetype through placing women in a role of fragility or harm. Using Disney鈥檚 Sleeping Beauty and Snow White for comparison, I examined three contemporary true stories of women in comas to understand how fairy tales have become real life鈥攚ondering why these stories continue to be told and what this says about the need for new archetypes in stories of romance.

Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are distinct fairy tales that share the common narrative elements of each woman falling into a deep sleep (at the hands of a wicked woman, whether fairy or stepmother) from which they can only be awakened by a kiss. Of course, they are not left to sleep for eternity but are found by princes (with whom they have had minimal, if any, interaction) who can provide said kiss to awaken them and hustle them off to 鈥渉appily ever after.鈥� These are two of the foundational fairy tales of the Disney empire and are continually told and retold by Disney itself and wider culture. While thinking about the comatose women in need of rescue in these tales, I was reminded of the stories of three other real-life women that seemed to contain some of these fairy tale elements.

(film), (podcast), and (book) all chronicle the true stories of women who become comatose. I chose these stories because all three women fall asleep but, like our Disney princesses, wake up as well (there鈥檚 a whole other category of stories that end in death, i.e. A Walk to Remember, but I was not ready to go there). But these women are not alone: they (like the princesses) awake to a male partner who, in these stories, plays a key role as the protagonist and caregiver while the women are sleeping. Because of these features, all of these stories are love stories in one way or another. Somehow, the fairy tale elements have come to life and, because of this, we are still romanticizing stories that depend on women becoming ill and passive. I am curious about why we proclaim fairy tales as problematic yet still tell stories that place women in a similar predicament.

鈥淲e are still romanticizing stories that depend on women becoming ill and passive.鈥�

Examining these stories led me to think about how this might be happening as a response to shifting gender roles within society. With the critique of the Disney princes as problematic, perhaps culture is responding to new ideas of what masculinity means today. It becomes apparent from these stories that the male rescuer in modern times is no longer a prince on a galloping steed but a partner willing to push around a wheelchair and fill out endless paperwork. Ideally, they鈥檒l have some conflicts with the parents in the midst of this as well (rather than battling dragons). The modern romance places men as caretakers who are capable of navigating difficult emotional situations, proving their steadfastness by sleeping in hospital waiting rooms for days. Because of this, a new type of archetype is emerging, one who can provide care and tenderness rather than fulfilling the traditional role of rescuer.

While this movement towards roles that redefine masculinity is important, women are still being placed in roles of passivity as victims of illness so that the new masculine archetype can exist. Perhaps storytellers are not so sure about what to do with damsels in distress, particularly when they have families, are successful, independent, and do not especially need their partner to rescue them. If the romantic genre is to be fulfilled in the way the audience still seems to desire, the woman must be rescued from her condition鈥攕o she must play the role of victim. I believe that these stories reveal how much we desire to see fairy tales be our reality even while we critique them. We know that what happened to Sleeping Beauty and Snow White isn鈥檛 okay, yet we are still drawn to stories that reflect those narrative elements. We still hope the stories of our childhood have a chance at being our story.

The stories I examined reveal the power of the stories we tell to change the stories we live. Clarissa Pinkola Estes writes, 鈥淪tories are embedded with instructions which guide us about the complexities of life. Stories enable us to understand the need for and the ways to raise a submerged archetype.鈥� Perhaps that is what is happening with these stories as I see some roles shifting and some staying the same. I can see that a new archetype is emerging for men today that is representative of the changes in perception of masculinity. Yet I am still looking for stories that can do this without making dying women, as Dr. Swanson told me, the 鈥渕illennial Snow White.鈥� Fairy tales, for better or for worse, can provide a framework for understanding our roles, our conflicts, and our triumphs, and it is up to us to live into that or to tell a new tale.

Resources

A Walk to Remember. Directed by Adam Shankman, 2002. USA: Warner Bros.

Abumrad, Jad & Krulwich, Robert. 鈥淔inding Emilie.鈥� Radiolab. Podcast audio. January 24,
2017.

Brain on Fire. Directed by Gerard Barrett, 2016. Canada: Foundation Features.

Cahalan, Susanna. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness. New York: Simon & Schuster
Paperbacks, 2012.

Pinkola Estes, Clarissa. Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild
Woman Archetype. New York: Ballantine Books, 1995.

Sleeping Beauty. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, 1959. USA: Walt Disney Productions.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Directed by William Cottress, 1937. USA: Walt Disney Productions.

The Big Sick. Directed by Michael Showalter, 2017. USA: Apatow Productions.

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What drew you to this class in the first place?

I was a Disney fan when I was a little girl. Like other girls, I was so fascinated by fairy tales and dreamed of being a princess, but I was not aware of the implications that those stories hold. When this class was offered exploring feminist ideas in Disney stories, I felt the need to trace back what I’ve learned and uncover something different.

Can you tell us about your final project and how the idea came to you?

When Kj offered the final project idea, I started to think about something familiar with which I could bring some multicultural perspectives connected to the theme. I tried to look through all the Disney films, and Mulan came to my mind suddenly. It is a perfect topic for me since I was quite familiar with it when I was young, most Americans are also familiar with the Disney version, and Mulan is a feminist figure which fits the work of this course. So I decided to talk about the Mulan story under the different cultural lens.

What did the story of Mulan mean to you as a child?

I actually saw Mulan as my hero when I was a child. I could recite the when I was in primary school. There were also dramas and musical performances based on the story of Mulan in my country. Such a female character was deeply rooted in my mind, and I wished to become a heroine like her鈥攖o do the right things, be kind, and try my best to help others. Maybe her obstinateness touched me in my early life and let me become who I am.

What are some of the main differences between the original and the American version?

First, they have a different emphasis. The original Mulan story emphasized filial piety to the family and loyalty to the monarch, whereas the Disney version of Mulan has a strong highlight on how the woman can do the same as the man, or even better. Second, the story鈥檚 structure changed in the American version. Disney added the romantic love between Mulan and General Xiang, and Mulan saved the emperor at the end of the film, which we didn’t see in the Chinese version of Mulan. Third, the Disney version spends a lot of time to draw on the service life of Mulan and offers a strong feminist idea on the Mulan figure, which is barely seen in the original Mulan. Although the original Mulan has a sort of feminist idea, it is implicit.

Why does it seem important to compare these versions, to look at how a story is told differently in different contexts?

Seeing the story in multicultural contexts reveals different ideas. From where we are born and our different cultures, we can think about things in totally different ways. Through a Western lens, the feminist Mulan fights for her country and becomes a hero, but through a Chinese view, Mulan is a brave woman who feels concern for her parents and loyalty to where she belongs. What a difference we can see when we compare and contrast the same story in different contexts.

鈥淲hat a difference we can see when we compare and contrast the same story in different contexts.鈥�

How has the work of comparing these stories impacted your understanding of feminist thought?

This was the first time I tried to explore different interpretations of Chinese feminism and other feminist thought. Feminism in the Mulan stories varies based on each cultural lens, and it changes with time and the backdrop of history. I started to realize that a multicultural perspective is helpful to understand each version of feminism. Different critics criticize the same story using their cultural lens. For instance, some American critics see Disney鈥檚 Mulan as an anti-feminist film because it contains gender stereotype and sexism. At the same time, the Mulan figure in the Disney movie is the first female character who is neither a princess nor born into a wealthy family. The audience, basically girls in all classes of families, are able to see that they are equal to men and can reach what they want through hard work (which can be connected to the ethos of the 鈥淎merican dream鈥� during the 19th and 20th centuries). It depends on which perspective I choose to stand.

What was most surprising to you as you worked on this?

In my research, I was aware of how Chinese feminism is changing with Chinese history. The meaning of it must be informed by the specific historical circumstance. As the researcher Feng Lan has written, the old Chinese feminist is implicit within Chinese philosophical ideas of gender roles; whereas not many females can speak out publicly under a patriarchal society, rather the communist Chinese view of feminism involves much activity in either family or social work under Mao Zedong鈥檚 communist revolution. Meanwhile in Disney鈥檚 Mulan, we can see the strong Western view of feminism, which doesn鈥檛 fit into the historical Chinese background鈥攊t is Americanized Chinese feminism. It is a clear image of influences based on cultural differences, and a reminder that Chinese Feminism cannot be interpreted individually.

Overall, how do you think this class has impacted you? How might it affect your ongoing studies?

This class drew me into a fantasy world which I felt close to but unfamiliar with. I thought I knew those stories well already, such as Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, but I hadn鈥檛 yet known their implications on feminist thought. Exploring the interpretations of these stories, and looking at the historical context underneath, is a field I had never worked in before, which is exciting to me. Because I was born in a communist country, all I learned is Asian ways of thinking, affected by ancient Chinese philosophers. Learning about American feminism and different ideas of seeing fairy tales has given me a broader space to think about stories and consider theories in my future studies.

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The genesis for the 鈥淒isney, Fairy Tales, and Feminist Theory鈥� class actually started in Summer 2012 when Jev Forsberg (Master of Divinity, 鈥�12) and I co-taught, 鈥淐ultural Exegesis: Pop Culture and the Kingdom鈥� with Dr. Derek McNeil. That was the summer I really noticed a boom in fairy tale film and TV adaptations, especially revision-minded fairy tales attempting to address problematic issues around how female fairy tale heroines (mostly princesses) were portrayed. That year we had Snow White and the Huntsman, Mirror, Mirror, as well as the first seasons of ABC/Disney鈥檚 Once Upon a Time and NBC鈥檚 Grimm.

In that class, we encouraged some students to explore these retold fairy tales for their final projects that summer, but I kept pursuing my own questions on the subject, a path which took me to Reykjavik, Iceland three summers later for an academic conference where I compared the themes of patriarchal curses within recent film adaptations of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. While I still begrudgingly give credit to the popularity of Stephanie Meyer鈥檚 Twilight Saga for this renaissance in atmospheric fairy tale retellings (2011鈥檚 Red Riding Hood directed by Catherine Hardwicke par exemple), there are more connections to fairy tales in contemporary culture that I wanted to explore.

With the opportunity to teach another Theological and Cultural Engagement elective class this summer, I saw a chance to explore the intersections of two powerful cultural influencers鈥攆airy tales and the Walt Disney corporation鈥攁s an introduction to applying feminist critical theory to cultural texts. There are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about fairy tales, both about how they鈥檝e been passed down and how they鈥檝e changed over time, but the point of the class wasn鈥檛 to become folklore masters. Rather, it was a chance for us to examine together the seen and unseen ways that stories can shape our sense of identity, agency, and community. Paying attention to a certain genre of story or tale type provides a specific lens on how different cultures communicate about themselves, but it can also help us think about the translation, adaptation, and interpretive traditions surrounding other texts, such as scripture.

“It was a chance for us to examine together the seen and unseen ways that stories can shape our sense of identity, agency, and community.”

I definitely wanted to provide some analytical tools to help unpack the messages that global influencers like Walt Disney have been telling us about what it means to be male, female, young, old, beautiful, monstrous, powerful, or vulnerable, but I also wanted the class to be a space to explore the potency and pleasure of hearing a story you already know being told anew. There is a reason (more than one) that fairy tales continue to be told, retold, adapted, and rewritten, and much of that lies in the fact that the stories are allowed to change. Those in search of the 鈥渢rue鈥� Cinderella or the un-Grimmed Sleeping Beauty or non-Disneyized Snow White will inevitably be frustrated; arguably, it鈥檚 not about finding the 鈥渞ight鈥� version, but about continuing to find new insights and possibilities in how a story might be re-imagined or re-contextualized, and what we might learn about ourselves in the process.

Although the Disney versions may be the default fairy tale versions for most of us, the Grimms were doing just as much cultural editing and adapting a century earlier for their German readers as did Disney for his 20th century movie-goers. What might we learn by paying attention to the patterns, the values, the assumptions, and the aspirations embedded in the stories we keep re-telling, particularly when those stories are largely directed towards children? The central question of the class was 鈥淲hy are we telling these stories?,鈥� and for the last day of class, we held a 鈥淔airy Tale Festival鈥� around this theme. It was three parts mini-academic conference, creative workshop, and storytelling circle. Students had a number of options for their final projects, but whether they wrote a research paper, composed a new fairy tale, or workshopped a screenplay, they had to present it to their classmates. It was four hours that included everything from comparative film analysis to a litany for women wounded within fairy tales. It was pretty magical.

I hope that by spending time not just with some of the histories of how these tales have been translated and transmitted, but also with the ways they have been critiqued, celebrated, and questioned, that students were able to find fruitful connections to their own vocational concerns and formational perspectives. I definitely learned a ton (and went joyously overboard composing bespoke fairy tale playlists each week).

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