Once Upon a Dyke: New Exploits of Fairy Tale Lesbians

Once upon a time, four of your favorite lesbian novelists embarked on a magical journey to bring their favorite fairy tale characters out of the closet and into the sheets. The result is a highly erotic and deliciously tongue-in-cheek collection that brings a whole new meaning to the term "bedtime stories."

Lie back and let these fantasy femmes – and a butch in wonderland – take you deep into the forest, high into castles, and through the looking glass. You’ll be enchanted as Rapunzel lets down more than her hair, the Little Mermaid gets soaking wet, and Snow White proves that Sleepy and Bashful are neither. Whether you grew up wanting to be a princess, or wanting to rescue one, Once Upon a Dyke is the book for you!

Rave Reviews from Fairy Tale Experts:
"This book is just right!"—Goldilocks

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, this book’s the hottest of them all."—Evil Queen

Foreward:

Why Fairy Tales?

Fairy tales are about sex. Plenty of serious books have been written on the psychosexual aspects of fairy tales. These books enlighten readers about the sexual symbolism of forbidden forests, candy houses, and tempting poisoned apples.

This is not one of those books.

We're here to have fun. We don't want to pin down the butterfly that is the fairy tale so we can dissect it and study it. We do want to play with it, though, and see if it will fly off in a different direction once we set it free.

For contemporary women, and especially for contemporary lesbians, the old fairy tales can be appallingly rigid. Young is beautiful, old is evil, and a woman's worst enemy is another woman. We all grew up with these tales, whether they were the original, grisly stories or Walt Disney's "sanitized for your protection" Cult of the Princess versions. And for those of us who were not destined to grow up to be the heterosexual princess type, these stories raised some serious questions: Why were the heroines always pretty, pure, passive little things who needed rescuing? And even if a girl did need rescuing (as we all do from time to time), why did she have to be rescued by a handsome prince? Why not a handsome princess, or a comely peasant girl, for that matter? What was so charming about Prince Charming anyway?

The short answer to all of these questions is that fairy tales were a product of their time and culture. But the tales in Once Upon a Dyke are a product of our time and culture. Some of the tales will take you back to traditional fairy tale land, but with decidedly non-traditional twists. Others use a fairy tale as inspiration for a story set in a different time and place. There is more than one road to Happily Ever After.

But no matter what approach the authors in this volume take, these are our tales, tailored to adult lesbian tastes, with heroines that are nobody's gender stereotypes and love scenes that don't fade to black after the first kiss. Fairy tales are about sex, and we re not shy.

Julia Watts & Karin Kallmaker January, 2004