I grew up on stories about worthy men cursed to live as beasts or ogres. Those tales taught that it was a girl’s task to liberate captive Prince Charmings with her love.
At the age of 4 or 5, I rebelled against this lesson. I was so disgusted by the Grimms’ fairy tale “The Frog Prince” that I hurled a once-treasured toy frog with all my strength over the fence at the end of our backyard, banishing it forever.
I’d watched an animated version of the fairy tale from a VHS tape depicting a loathsome frog who stalks a young princess to her home for a kiss.