The Problems with Cinderella Stories

-

               From Annie to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to The Great Gatsby, “rags to riches” stories are extremely prevalent in American society, reflecting the American ideals of being able to come to the country and, with or without hard work, become something great. This idea is especially prevalent in Cinderella stories such as Disney’s Cinderella and Pretty Woman.  Even though the original story is German in origin, the idea of “rise tales” appeals to all peoples, but especially Americans, one of the reasons that both of Disney’s Cinderella stories did so well when they came out. Pretty Woman was just as much of a success, being one of the most popular romantic comedy stories and winning Julia Roberts a Golden Globe Award. Those in lower classes look to the story for inspiration, believing it an example of subverting class structures seen as rigid and unchanging. If Cinderella can do it, why can’t anyone else? This idea is often faulty, however, and usually offers a sense of false reality where status is equivalent to happiness and gained without any significant struggle.
In Cinderella, Cinderella escapes the life of her horrible step-family to join the prince with help from her fairy godmother. In this way, Cinderella does not put in any significant effort of her own, instead relying on her fairy godmother to prepare her for the ball. In the Disney version, however, Cinderella does not have to put in much effort to impress the prince, who taken by her beauty and appearance dances and talks with her all night. Another thing wrong with this depiction is that it is Cinderella’s beauty and charm that initially interests the prince, in comparison to her “ugly” stepsisters. Frequently in children’s tales, those who are not beautiful rarely get what they want, though one can argue that the stepsisters were inwardly ugly as well.  
In comparison, Vivian in Pretty Woman falls for Edward Lewis after entering into a business proposition from him while trying to pay her rent. It is her personality that intrigues Edward, and by the end she sees life much differently than when she started. Though near broke, and not without significant troubles, Vivian like Cinderella is not upset about her life, instead taking everything with a grain of salt. Though she goes through significant, Pygmalion-esque challenges some scenes rubbed me the wrong way. Vivian becomes an entirely different person around Edward’s colleagues, and though she still maintains herself, she has to push her personality down to fit the bill for what Edward needs. She is depicted as much happier at the end of the movie and has risen up in life.

The ideas presented in Cinderella stories that marriage and money are synonymous are toxic and dangerous. Money is more a curse than a blessing, and often provides even more problems than one had before. There are plenty of people that are dirt poor and much happier than the rich, so portraying this false idea as fact is damaging, especially when targeted to a young audience. There is also the aspect of what is lost when one becomes rich. Cinderella does not have significant ties to her family, but this is not always the case. There is a price to pay in getting rich, exemplified by Mr. Lewis and his inability to maintain a relationship, with his work getting in the way.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rugrats, Different Cultures, and Little Red Riding Hood

-
Image
Comic Published: 8/2/1998, Writer: Scott Gray, Artist: Kyle Baker Link To Website In this 1998 social cartoon, writer Scott Gray and artist Kyle Baker discuss the different versions of the famous fairytale Little Red Riding Hood. In this comic based on the hit 90’s television show, “Rugrats” Tommy’s grandparents, Minka and Boris, try to tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood, but both remember very different details of the story. This is a perfect example of how the same story can exist in many different cultures with the same basic storyline with different details. Stories such as “The Tale of the Tiger Woman” and “T sélané and the Marim o” have the same basic story line as the western versions of LRRH (ex. Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood” or the Brothers Grimm’s “Little Red Cap”) but different villains. Just like how the grandparent’s in this comic cannot decide whether the villain was a wolf or a goat, there are also different types of trickster characters in each resp
Read more

The Turtle and The Swan

-
Image
The difference between animal brides and animal grooms is made obvious in the Japanese tale of “Urashima the Fisherman” and the Scandinavian fairytale “The Swan Maiden.” There are two types of stories about relationships between humans and beasts – The Man on a Quest for His Lost Wife and The Search for the Lost Husband . In the stories about a woman with an animal husband, she is usually faced with a terrifying beast or otherwise disgusting animal who then later has his curse broken and becomes a handsome prince. (This does not apply to the story “The Tiger’s Bride,” in which the beautiful woman is transformed into a beast and becomes more like her husband.) In the stories with animal brides, however, the woman does not usually remain a human. In most of these stories, the woman becomes human because of her love for a man. They spend time together, usually getting married, but then one day the woman, either through her becoming her animal form once again or through a folly of her h
Read more

1 Beard, 2 Beard, Redbeard, Bluebeard

-
Image
  I’m not sure why, but I really enjoyed the various Bluebeard stories we read for class, but If I had to pick a favorite it would be Margaret Atwood’s “Bluebeard’s Egg.” My favorite types of stories are ones with nuance, and for me this modern retelling was nuanced in which character matched up with which traditional counterpoint, as well as if the symbols and motifs meant the same things. Something that particularly interesting to me was the concept of the Egg, and how it relates to Ed in Atwood’s story.  In the story, the narrator Sally reads the story of Bluebeard in one of her classes and reflects “Ed isn’t the Bluebeard: Ed is the egg. Ed Egg, blank and pristine and lovely. Stupid, too. Boiled, probably.” (223) This is particularly interesting to me, since the character of Bluebeard in this story is not as obvious and is left up to interpretation over whether it is Ed or Sally’s friend Marylynn who is the Bluebeard figure. The image of the egg itself is also very interesting. In
Read more