# Rumplestiltskin is really abbout WHAT!?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 30, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumplestiltskin-is-really-abbout-what/296994 "2005-03-30T20:39:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumplestiltskin-is-really-abbout-what/296994/1 "2005-03-30T20:39:14Z")
In [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=309066) thread about fairy tale rapes, the assertion was made that Rumplestlitskin is thought by some to be a warning against female masturbation. Does anyone know what the symbolism in the story is that would lead to this conclusion because I just don’t see it. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumplestiltskin-is-really-abbout-what/296994/2 "2005-03-30T20:54:01Z")
It was was originally called “Rumple **fore** skin and … um …” Eh, I got nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumplestiltskin-is-really-abbout-what/296994/3 "2005-03-30T21:03:06Z")
In my experience, when it comes to literature interpretation, you can find somebody who’ll say anything really is about anything. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumplestiltskin-is-really-abbout-what/296994/4 "2005-03-30T21:36:37Z")
maybe you need to go to original version, not the desexed modern one “Rumplestiltskin: Rumplestiltskin is a tale to programme the idea that female masturbation leads to steritity. Remember the tale? The miller’s daughter, put in a barn to ‘spin straw into gold’, virginally sits on a little stick that becomes a little man… The dénouement ahs the little man, when his name is finnaly identified, jumping in to ‘plug’ the lady very intametely, and the assembled soldiers can’t pull him out. In the modern version bowdlerised version, this survives vestigially as the little man pushing his foot through the floor and not being able to pull it out, a total non sequitur. SO none of those concerned, king, miller or queen, can procreate (the stolen first child has been killed by the soldiers), and it all ends in tears.” from [http://forums.livingwithstyle.com/showthread.php?p=441431](http://forums.livingwithstyle.com/showthread.php?p=441431) though take with a large grain of salt ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumplestiltskin-is-really-abbout-what/296994/5 "2005-03-30T21:54:41Z")
ignore the last post - my link is probably talking through his hat. Here is a link to twenty or so old rumpelstiltskin type stories from around europe - nothing faintly salicious in any of them [http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0500.html#rumpelstiltskin](http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0500.html#rumpelstiltskin) ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumplestiltskin-is-really-abbout-what/296994/6 "2005-03-30T22:23:03Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > It was was originally called “Rumple **fore** skin and … um …” Well, the foreskin _was_ rumpled. Then it became rather taut… ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumplestiltskin-is-really-abbout-what/296994/7 "2005-03-31T00:34:51Z")
Take a look at this thread, where “Toy Story” and “Woody’s gun” is "deconstructed’ and “interpreted”. 😛 > **[Toy Story- No gun for Woody?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=305728)** > > Ok, i enjoyed TSI. In it, Woody had an empty holster. That makes perfect sense, because I remember little things like guns were the first things lost on toys like that. But in TSII, Woody is brought back to "fully restored’ and still no gun, and he... If we can do that to that film, think what they can do with fairy tales.