I am a huge fan of Disney (especially of our new princess Moana), but there is one princess I believe is completely overrated: Cinderella.
Other than her under dog complex, there is nothing about Cinderella that leads me to believe she is the best Disney princess, nevertheless a good model for children. Cinderella was made in 1950 and is frozen in this time when the ideal female was docile and submissive, expected to do housework and raise children while the man of the house provided for the family. Cinderella is a model of this passive and weak-minded woman as other than going to the ball, she never complains to or denies her wicked stepmother, even if her orders are hurtful and unfair.
Sixty years since, the roles of women have changed drastically as now characteristics such as strength and intelligence are not only praised but expected of females for them to be able to succeed. One of the recent Disney films, Tangled, was made in 2010 and introduces Rapunzel, who is the complete antithesis of Cinderella and a model for the modern female. While she is also detained and forced to do her mother’s bidding, Rapunzel constantly questions her mother’s reasons for keeping her locked up where Cinderella is annoyingly agreeable, showing the evolution of female characteristics and archetypes of Disney characters when put in the same situation.
The biggest demonstration of this evolution is Cinderella and Rapunzel’s actions to escape when they are locked in towers. In Cinderella, her stepmother locks her in the tower so she won’t be able to try on the slipper and prove she was the girl the prince met at the ball. Instead of yelling out the window to the guards below, trying to find a way to climb out of it, or escape at all, she lays down and cries. If her mice friends hadn’t been able to climb the huge staircase, she would have been helpless. On the other end of the spectrum, Rapunzel creates a plan to get out of the tower, with her male companion Flynn Rider only being the missing tool to finally accomplish the task. By being both the rescuer and mastermind, Rapunzel reflects the same characteristics, strength and intelligence, that American culture has decided are needed to become successful.
The ideology that kept Cinderella from escaping the locked tower can be seen in the lyrics Cinderella sings as well. “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” conceives the message that keeping faith in a dream means it will come true, as seen in the lines “Have faith in your dreams and someday / Your rainbow will come smiling through / No matter how your heart is grieving / If you keep on believing / The dream that you wish will come true.” In the 1950s, females weren’t expected to think for themselves and their job was to wait, both for their husbands and their dreams. The lyrics reflect this same idea that if the females wait, “someday” they will be happy. This “someday” is never put on a timeline so it could mean tomorrow or ten years. This song pushes the message of passiveness and waiting for your wish to happen, leaving out messages of hard work and determination.
However, “Almost There” from the 2011 Disney movie Princess and the Frog. does the exact opposite. The movie centers around a girl named Tatiana whose sole dream is to own a restaurant and is willing to work hard to reach her dream. Opposite of passive and weak-minded Cinderella, Tatiana understands she must work hard to accomplish her dream, even accepting that if she wants to have a fairy tale ending she must be the one determined enough to get it, as in the verse “I remember daddy told me, ‘Fairytales can true, but you got to make it happen, it all depends on you.'" Not only does this song embody Tatiana’s plan to accomplish her dream, it also shows the evolution of characteristics Disney has put into its female characters.
While the story of Cinderella does include bad aspects, it does a really good job of taking big ideas, such has the underdog scenario, and condensing them into stories that children can understand before they even learn how to read. In the case of Cinderella, while it is easy to be pessimistic about how she made no effort to save herself, there are children who feel like they too are the underdog in a situation out of their control. Those children can read the story of Cinderella and perhaps unconsciously connect with her, making them feel as they are not alone in their situation.
I do understand that the Cinderella story is an integral part of storytelling and literature across the world. To shield children from it would mean the loss of a iconic fairy tale and a major catalyst of imagination and creative thinking. However, parents and educators should make sure their children can recognize the difference between fiction and reality, keeping the enchantment while distancing the harmful influences.
