REFLECTION 1: Cinderella (Movie-2021)
It was just a casual evening last week which I would have spent scrolling through social media or watching the same shows I have seen a billion times yet again but surprisingly I decided to watch the new Cinderella movie and I am glad I did watch it. The new Cinderella is trapped in a basement as well but she is not a damsel-in-distress, instead, she is a dressmaker and hopes to run her own business one day.
Although I watched this movie recently it left a very strong impact on me because I was in awe of the creativity with which the director has used this classic fairytale to make everything about female empowerment. The movie highlights sensitive issues every woman can relate to, be it how society ridicules Cinderella for even dreaming about running a business in a man’s world, or how her stepmother tries to convince her to give up on building a life for herself only to settle down and marry a rich man. Some things I found innovative in the movie was that the fairy godmother role was a genderless character, the introduction of the princess who aims to be king (personally my favorite character) but is subdued by her father (the king) because of her gender, and lastly the strength, sincerity, and genuineness with which the modern-day Cinderella pursues her dreams was very refreshing and inspiring to watch. I think the new Cinderella movie is everything a modern fairytale should depict and something I would want my younger sister to grow up watching instead of the old fairytales which just make girls think that a prince charming will come to save the day however those stories are detached from reality.
If I had to relate this post to my assumption about design thinking, I feel that movies like these which understand the emotions of our generation and making content that we can genuinely relate to or characters that we can look up to is something I would expect from design thinking. Design thinking could be about anything and everything that firstly focuses on understanding what is something that would make a difference in our life be it a small thing like a social media page that makes us laugh at the end of a tiring day or a product that makes a significant difference in our lives.
