I've always known that Fairytales were, for the most part, male-centric. Most were written, or recorded, by male scholars and writers---the brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson.... even the fabled "Mother" Goose dealt a severely biased blow toward the girls in her rhymes: Jill tumbling after Jack, Little Bo Peep losing her sheep, Peter Peter Pumpkin-Eater and the "keeping of his wife"..... I know that strong females do exist in some fairytales, Gretel springs to mind as one, but their stories are so out-numbered by the weaker female tales as to make them seem flukes, even mistakes, that perhaps it really was Hansel that pushed the witch into the oven and he just let his sister take the credit. It's no wonder most girls grow up with a diminished sense of self-worth....always needing the strong hero to step in and save them or the fairy-godmother to cast a spell for them. And it probably explains my fixation with the male 'stars' in these tale...