Not Quite the Fairy Tale
What’s Wrong with Cinderella?
Cinderella is a story about a poor, young girl who finds her happy ending after she gets a makeover from her Fairy Godmother and escapes her wretched life by being swept away by a rich, handsome Prince. At first glance, you may think this is an innocent story. After all, this Disney story is a classic and has been a part of our culture for decades. Its plot has stayed relevant throughout the years, because newer versions continue to be remade, but looking at this story from an adult point of view can be disappointing. In this article, I will highlight the key issues in Cinderella and discuss some major flaws regarding stereotypes and gender roles.
Although this is an old tale, it is still worth discussing because some major key gender issues in the story reoccur as more modern versions of it are created. The first major flaw in the story is the idea that marrying a young, rich, handsome “Prince” is the ideal life goal of a woman. In the story, all of the single girls of the town are invited to a ball. The whole purpose of the ball is so the Prince can pick his ideal girl and take her hand in marriage. Every single woman in town puts on their best dress and decorates their face with makeup in hopes of getting the Prince’s attention. This imposes that marriage is extremely important and being married to the Prince is the single best thing a girl could do in her life. This is also extremely important to Cinderella. When her Stepmother gives her an endless list of chores and she realizes that she wouldn’t be able to make it to the ball on time, she becomes extremely sad and depressed. She feels like she is not good enough to go to the ball like the other girls. This should not be the ultimate goal for a young woman.
The second major flaw with this story is the role of a woman’s place in the home. When Cinderella is living with her Stepmother, she serves as the maid. She is given an endless list of chores and told to cook, clean, and perform other household duties. When Cinderella is unable to fulfill her duties as a domestic goddess, she is punished. In one scene in the story, her Stepmother locks her in the attic and ignores her pleas and cries to be let out. This notion goes along with Angela Davis’ article, Public Imprisonment and Private Violence. Davis points out that gendered punishment has two modes, a public realm and a private realm. In the case of this story, Cinderella is facing the private realm of punishment. She is locked away as the King’s adviser visits every eligible bachelorette’s home to see if the glass slipper fits. Cinderella cries and screams in her “prison,” but no one can hear her, most people don’t even know that she lives in the house. This goes to suggest that it is in a woman’s best interest to do the housework that is expected of them in order to avoid punishment.
Another flaw worth pointing out is that Cinderella is only noticed by the Prince after she gets a major makeover from her Fairy Godmother. In other words, the Prince wouldn’t take a second look at her if she didn’t undergo a major transformation. It’s also important to consider intersectionality here because socioeconomically, Cinderella is poor and wears raggedy clothes, and the Prince is rich and handsome, therefore, if Cinderella showed up with her shabby clothes, her chances of being noticed by the Prince are very slim. This farther reinforces the idea that a woman needs help from a little bit of “magic” to look presentable for a man, especially if that man has a higher socioeconomic status. Because Cinderella got a bit of help form “magic,” the Prince notices her right away, not considering anything other than her looks. He falls for her appearance, without knowing anything about her personality and character.
Many things have changed since this cartoon came out. For example, women are focused on their education now more than ever. Marriage is not necessary the ultimate goal of every young woman anymore. The women in our society today work hard to get higher education and become functioning members of our society instead of staying at home to cook and clean and support their husbands. In Cinderella, there is no talk of education. It is considered that after Cinderella marries the Prince, she is going to be well taken care of because she has a rich man to provide for her. It seems that all her problems vanish after she gives her hand to the Prince, because once a woman has found herself a powerful man, she doesn’t have to worry about anything anymore. Although caring more about education is a step forward for women, there is still much room left for improvement. We continue to discuss these issues because the idea of a “domestic goddess” is still with us today. Many women have moved on to do better things for themselves, but lots of women continue to play a similar role as Cinderella.
