SOURCE: Esrock, Ellen J. “‘The Princess and the Pea’: Touch and the Private/Public Domains of Women's Knowledge.” In Research in Science and Technology Studies: Gender and Work, edited by Shirley Gorenstein, pp. 17-29. Stamford, Conn.: JAI Press, Inc., 2000.

In the following essay, Esrock claims that “The Princess and the Pea” serves to warn women about moving knowledge of their bodies from the private sphere into the public sphere.

When most people reflect on Hans Christian Andersen's “The Princess and the Pea,” they imagine a beautiful young maiden sleeping atop an enormous pile of mattresses. Though readers of all ages seem to recall this picture, what they do not recall with such uniformity is the story itself. What is even more curious are the radical differences in their understanding of what one would suppose was a straightforward fairy tale. Granted, Andersen addressed this story and his others to...