Profs and Pints Online presents: “Happily Ever After?” a look at what fairy tales actually say about love, with Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, former instructors at Ohio State University and co-founders of the Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic.

[ This talk will remain available in recorded form at the link given here for tickets and access.]

Romance, true love, red paper hearts, candy, flowers... that lovely, sappy, butterflies-in-your-stomach mood so many people indulge in this time of year. So often, we connect all of this to beloved fairy tales—in fact, fairy tales have become almost synonymous with the idea of romantic love. So many dream of “true love’s kiss” and hope that someday their prince (or princess) will come.

But what does love—that tricky, powerful, and ultimately indescribable feeling—really look like in these traditional stories? Are fairy tales really as romantic as we are so frequently led to believe they are?

Join Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, who have earned themselves a big following among Profs and Pints fans, as they explore—and complicate our ideas of—the various kinds of love depicted in the familiar tales so many of us grew up with.

Is “Beauty and the Beast” about Stockholm Syndrome—or does it teach us something useful about marriage? Is there anything about love worth salvaging in a story as creepy as “Bluebeard?” Why do we think “Cinderella” or “Sleeping Beauty” stories are so romantic when the characters barely know each other?

We always ask whether a princess could learn to love a frog—but why should a frog love a (rather hateful) princess? What do the tales have to say about love between siblings, as in the tale of “Little Brother and Little Sister,” or among family members or even between friends?

Join Sara and Brittany as they puzzle out romance in fairy tales. There, as in life, it's often a lot more complicated than people want it to be.

Profs & Pints Online: Happily Ever After?