Barbie, The Fairy Tale, and Socio-Economic Class Division

I like cartoons, so I'm frequently inundated with ads for toys and sugary breakfast cereals under the assumption that I'm a five year old. Recently I have been seeing a lot of ads for the new Barbie Princess and the Pauper dolls.
In addition to the dvds, talking cats, and various playsets to be truly outfited you must buy two dolls, the Princess and the Pauper (true, a construction of Twain's but certainly fits nicely into the fairy tale canon). The dolls are supposed to be identical twins, but since all barbie dolls are made from pretty much the same mold, that could be said of any two Barbie dolls. The Princess is a blonde, the Pauper a brunette. They both wear beautiful dresses, though the Pauper's features slightly less sparkles.
Both of these dolls are programmed to play a song: The Princess' song is about living her dreams and the Pauper's is about finding her true love. I find it interesting that the Princess is provided the freedom to sing about living her dreams, no doubt because of her privileged economic status. The Pauper dreams about finding a husband to secure that same economic security. Even in our supposedly more feminist society the rich blonde doll always beats the poor brunette doll.

Arthur Rackham's rendition of "The Man In The Wilderness". Still a clever little girl, but a rather sylvan/gnomish looking Man...

The Man In The Wilderness

Since we were talking about nursery rhymes and the primer, I thought I'd share my favorite:

THE MAN IN THE WILDERNESS

The man in the wilderness
Asked me
How many strawberries
Grew in the sea
I answered him
As I thought good
As many red herrings
Grew in the wood

In my copy of Mother Goose, the illustration showed a little girl, so she was a SMART little girl. My parents often did not punish me for talking back, because I would say things which cut my parents as both true and painfully funny. I just had to know where the line was and make sure not to cross it. Add to that a pre-adolescent passion for the sea which has not yet ebbed (get it? I'm so funny) and you have my favorite nursery rhyme! (This illustration was by Arthur Rackham and not the one in my version... The Man in the Wilderness was more like the Shaggy Man from the Oz series... All covered in tatters but still human looking.)

Tyler's Displaced Fairy Tale

I chose Tyler's displaced fairytale for further study. His story tells of a young narcotics officer who meets up with the bust of a lifetime on his second day of work. I saw shades of The Magic Fish - When arrested, the first dealer promises him a reward for letting him go; The Three Little Pigs - The narcotics officer visists each of the dealers and threatens them; and most obviously The Billy Goats Gruff- each dealer promises him a sweeter career coup if he'll just leave them alone and go for their boss.
The narcotics officer parallels the position of the Wolf in the Three Little Pigs and the Troll in the Billy Goats Gruff. Although he is ostensibly the hero, he suffers from the greatest fariytale curse of all: hubris.
The story is also built around the classic 3 event set-up, the same number of pigs and goats incidentally. Here, run-ins with the smallest drug dealer, the middle drug dealer, and the big drug dealer.
The signature on this piece was the inversion of the hero/villian relationship. The hero took the role of the villian in the classic fairytales. Also, here the "troll" pursues the goats, rather than the goats infringing on the troll's territory- conflating the story even further with The Three Little Pigs. And in classical fairy tale style, the young detective is heard of no more.