Magical Creatures Week 12 Report

• Lauren B
• 0
• on Nov 22, 2022

This week all of our readings were about the white snake. The textbook chapter, The White Snake detailed how Madam was a seducer who changed her form in order to get more men. She manipulates people, most importantly her husband, and makes them become involved in situations that threaten their life but Madam White always claims to be innocent. The first version of the story showcases that women should be subservient to men but by manipulating men White does the exact opposite of this. Through adaptations of the story this message has changed from one of manipulation to love and involves a translation of yin and yang (demon to human). In the first PDF called Madam White is Forever Kept under Thunder Peak Tower. In Stories to Caution the World: A Ming Dynasty Collection tells the story of Xu Xuan and how his marriage to Madam White blinded him of who he truly was. After meeting Madam White he was enamored with her and she gave him silver which he gave to his brother-in-law. The brother-in-law realized it was stolen and turned Xu Xuan over to the authorities, Xu claimed that Madam White was the person who gave him the silver but when guards went to her house she was gone so Xu was punished. Eventually they reunite and Madam White claims innocence which Xu believes so they get married again. But he grew wary of her, convinced by a priest that she was a demon or evil spirit, which she “proved ” wrong every time Xu tried to make her show her true form. Xu and White break up though later they find each other again and reconcile. On Madam White’s birthday he has a dinner party and one of the guests sees her in her true form but doesn’t tell anyone. Madam White escapes and convinces everyone that she died when in reality she didn’t. Shortly after she appears Xu and his comrades finally capture White and force her into her snake form. In the end White was forced out and Xu joined Buddhism. The last PDF we read was “The White Snake and her Son: A Translation of The Precious Scroll of Thunder Peak with Related Texts.” In the beginning, it went over how Madame White was viewed by the public, first as a femme fatale and then as a brave woman who fought the patriarchy. Then it essentially recaps the story from the other PDF although in a simpler and more concise way. It goes over other iterations of the myth. It was particularly interesting to see how the idea of women’s sexuality evolved over time. This idea of being beautiful and devoted to the men in their life while still being a nuisance to them reminded me a lot of the tv show I Dream of Jeannie, where Jeannie, a beautiful woman also a genie, who loved Tony (her unwilling master) constantly made his life a mess.  

There is nothing on my to-do for this week aside from enjoying Thanksgiving with my friends and family.

This week I continued going through my partner’s half of the chapters we split up when we started. Our goal for going through each other’s chapters was that fresh eyes would help edit the alt text so it would be even better. 

My question for the week is why people fear the power of women so much? The same thing happened to Miss Ren. As a woman she was beautiful and yet mischievous and evil, creating a relationship between beauty/seduction and evilness/mischievous. It’s like they’re saying to be evil to be beautiful and the correct woman is normal looking who doesn’t dare do anything against her husband.