Tales of Virtuous Stepmothers

Georgina Warren, a librarian who works full-time at the Library of Congress, has published a collection of 12 stories under the title Tales of Virtuous Stepmothers. I met her via Zoom on March 11 to talk about it. About the topics we covered, we discussed why she believes so strongly in the importance of having stories—and animated films, such as those made by Disney, no less—that offer positive portrayals of stepmothers rather than the more traditional view presented by the classic Grimm fairy tales and modern retellings. She did acknowledge some examples in recent decades of a few impressive attempts to offer alternatives to many of the more traditional perspectives and stereotypes. Nevertheless, there really has not been a real attempt to alter the stepmother trope specifically. She argues that the oversight has fostered a potentially dangerous trend that undercuts the success of the modern family. Of course, chief in her argument is her own experience as a stepchild. Georgina had a powerful, interesting, intelligent, and compassionate stepmother, a person she began to get to know in earnest with after a swap in her parents’ custody arrangement when she was a teenager. Her stepmother never tried to poison her as the Wicked Queen did to Snow White, nor task her with scrubbing floors like Cinderella. On the contrary, her stepmother overcame her natural resistance to change her outlook and completely overhauled the prejudices about broken-home arrangements that had been formed in Georgina’s mind by fairytales and popular culture. Georgina’s family even created a “Stepmother Appreciation Day,” celebrated on the Saturday before Mother’s Day—so much better than just buying an extra Mother’s Day card and treating her stepmother as a sort of second-class mother with an asterisk on the role, because it meant that both Georgina’s mother and stepmother would be appreciated equally (but differently) rather than undercutting one or the other. The very first story in Tales of Virtuous Stepmothers is a work titled, “Aisimetra and the Manticore’s Eggs.” Aisimetra is a stepmother while the manticore is a biological mother. (They aren’t respectively mother and stepmother to the same offspring. Aisimetra is a human who married a widower with five children. The manticore is a single mother whose unhatched eggs are stolen by thieves. In the plot, Aisimetra and the manticore, who are initially suspicious towards each other due to societal prejudices on both sides, end up working together to save both families. I like that Georgina put this story at the top of the repertoire because it sets the tone nicely for the grander scheme of things—elevating virtues like teamwork and compassion (among women, with and towards other women, no less!) above qualities like jealousy that too often create unnecessary mischief in relationships. Somehow “Aisimetra and the Manticore’s Eggs” did not come up in our conversation, but Georgina sent me a note the day after the interview to make a point about Aisimetra’s inspiration. She reversed the spelling of Artemisia, a reference to the Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi, whose work often featured powerful women from biblical texts. Georgina’s choice of the name, or rather its reversal, for her protagonist was also a subtle nod to the Greek goddess of the hunt. And I have to wonder if there isn’t a more personal reference as well. Georgina’s biological mother is a painter. Aisimetra, remember, is a stepmother—a reminder that this book is about correcting a historical unfairness about stepmothers, not at the expense of biological motherhood, but rather in compliment to the maternal instincts of every woman. In Georgina’s words, the tale of Aisimetra and the Manticore is “one of several stories to uplift the stepmother and offer a glimpse into a relationship that traditional folklore has overlooked—the tempestuous connection between the biological mother and the stepmother, and how their differences can be addressed and resolved.”

Rating: Five stars!

You can listen to my interview with Georgina in the embedded link above or view it in the embedded YouTube video below. The conversation is also available almost anywhere you can listen to podcasts. It is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Audible, Amazon Music, Player FM, Podchaser, and Boomplay.

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