Modern Day Cinderella

Modern day fairy tales function in our society as hidden instructions for morals and behaviors that we teach children. One such fairy tale is Charles Perrault’s classic known as Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper, which on the surface seems to be a magical story about a young woman who is forced to live as a servant in her own home due to her evil stepmother and stepsisters, but then is ‘rescued’ by her Prince Charming. However, the story tends to perpetuate numerous gender roles and stereotypes, and defines expectations of ‘goodness’ for women. Cinderella is more damaging than valuable to children because the tale reflects rigid cultural expectations of women's behaviors and goals, and reaffirms and reproduces male dominance and female submissiveness through the portrayal of passive, conformist and weak behavior. In effect, this problematic representation then becomes acceptable and desirable for all women. The fairytale shows us that society expects women to be passive and that women are incapable of leaving a bad situation. Cinderella patiently suffers all kinds of abuse without any complaint and attends to all her stepmother and stepsisters’ daily demands, “The poor girl endured everything patiently, not daring to complain to her father.” (Perrault 4) Although Cinderella remains strong throughout the abuse, she merely wishes for her current situation to change instead of
In result, it is vital to teach women to be more than just passive, beautiful and obedient. It is also problematic that this vision of goodness for women in Cinderella creates a limited range of behaviors for women. Thus, although it is tempting to see Cinderella as harmless entertainment, it is important to be aware of the power this fairy tale has in educating children about women in our