Again? Second thread today. Was I too wordy? Was it because I said Octogenarian? Or I’m just invisible. I must be on everyone’s ignore list. 
How trite …
… nevermind Red bore the Woodcutter’s son but six months later
… nevermind all the condos built on Grandma’s property
… nevermind Red’s villa overlooking Monaco
Blame the wolf …
It’s the big BAD wolf. There’s nothing bad about a wolf eating a girl in the woods, that’s just a wolf (well, if wolves actually ate people, but that’s another discussion). But getting ahead of her, eating grandma, and then putting on her close, the better to utterly destroy Red? Now that is one Bad Wolf. The kind WHO’s legend will span all of time and space. And he would have gotten away with it, if not for that meddling woodsman.
It’s not about calories or nutrition. It’s about sex. It’s an allegory about how young women should be skeptical of young men (or men in general) because men want sexy sexy time.
And they want to do it with Grandmas, too? 
Yessiree.
I wish I could remember where but I read one analysis of the early versions of Red Riding Hood where the moral was religious with the Wolf being a thinly-disguised version of Satan.
I think I get it now. They made up the story of a wolf who eats grandma and wears her clothes because you want your daughter not to talk to men because they are homicidal cross-dressers and they’re only interested in you because they want to kill your grandmother and wear her clothes. That makes perfect sense.
That explains Silence of the Lambs…
Are you kidding? The whole SDMB is one big whoosh!
BWahh Hahh Hahh Haha!
Life is one big whoosh.
Maybe not. You can over-analyze anything, from Mother Goose to Nostradamus. Finding a “hidden meaning” may be nothing more than an illustration of the all-too-human talent for making connections that are merely coincidences.
Such connections can reveal the biases or perversions of the analyzer more than the author.
–Tom Lehrer, Smut
My take on Red Riding Hood is it’s just a story for kids. Folk or fairy tales aren’t required to make sense, and often rely on suspension of disbelief.
Resurrecting this because months after I just realized that her name and attire was a big clue of what **could **be defending her against a lone wolf.
Her horse. :smack:
I think now that many that retold the tale do not bother to mention it because it was implied that a horse is there with Red, as that was one of the reasons one wears that kind of attire. Namely, a riding cloak.
Obviously it’s because wolves are pack hunters and he just didn’t feel comfortable attacking healthy prey without grandma in his stomach to back him up.
Due to a rise in violent attacks from wolves, authorities has set up video surveillance equipment all over the forest. The wolf just wants to be out of sight when he eats little Red.