On the cover, I add the word ‘men’ into the title ‘What Women Want to Know’ and place it over the original words, quietly pointing to ‘What Men Want Women to Know.’
I use fairy tales to catalogue ‘What Women Want to Know.’ Both use careful language to create a so-called ‘right atmosphere,’ selling a dream that slowly shapes how women see the world. This keeps sending new waves of worry toward women – through old social ideas and through new, market – driven ‘selling points.’ As a result, women’s own agency is weakened, and they are turned into people to be taught, judged, and ‘improved.’
On the next spread, I compare five fairy tales with five categories from ‘What Women Want to Know.’ Snow White is compared with beauty, Sleeping Beauty is compared with health, Bluebeard is compared with household, Hansel and Gretel is compared with cooking, and Cinderella is compared with cleaning.
Drawing on what these texts share, the left page places similar lines and slogans side by side in the same context, while the right page lists the book details so readers can look them up easily. For example, in the compared of Sleeping Beauty with health, the princess is ‘awakened,’ and the power to restore her health is handed over to the prince.
In the comparing of Cinderella with cleaning, Cinderella’s forced labour is shown next to advertisement that use housework to check whether someone is a ‘proper housewife,’ which turns anxiety into something personal and moral.
With this layout, I make the harm in the language visible and present it in a more direct, plain way.
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