Little Red Riding Hood, by Fleury François Richard (c. 1820). (Public Domain)

Little Red Riding Hood and the Invisibility of Older Women

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How old was Little Red Riding Hood? In the earliest, 16th-century versions of the tale, she was around the age of puberty. Other details you might not know include the wolf making the girl eat her grandmother’s flesh (including her sexual organs and breasts) and drinking the old woman’s blood from a bowl before the wolf attempts to ravish the girl.