“And those women were sneaky. They understood that including fantastical elements in their tales- golden eggs, signing harps, talking frogs- worked to mask a deeper purpose... it made the stories look on the surface like ‘a mere bubble of nonsense’ within which it was possible to ‘utter harsh truths, to say what you dare’ about the state of women’s lives. Because they were just stories, right? Harmless little fantasies?”
