Disney Princesses Revisted: Cinderella

My apologies that it’s been so long since my last Disney Princess post. With all the news about recalls, BPA and The Baby Borrowers, I guess I got distracted. So anyway, let me resume the Disney Princess discussion with one of my all-time personal favorites, Cinderella. The movie Cinderella is a classic rags-to-riches tale, in which the long-suffering but hardworking and never-complaining girl is finally rewarded by marrying a prince and escaping her awful life. It’s also chock-full of catchy songs like Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, so it remains a perennial favorite that will undoubtedly be requested at some point by the little girls in your life. Cinderella is also a key part of most Disney Princess-branded merchandise like Disney Princess bedding, so you will most likely become very familiar with her face.

Like the other Disney Princesses, she has parental issues. Her mom died early on and her dad remarried a woman with two daughters from a previous marriage, which was fine and dandy until her dad died and her step-mother revealed her truly evil nature. Cinderella becomes a slave to the step-mother and step-sisters, basically confined to the house by the endless list of chores they set for her. Luckily, Cinderella doesn’t seem to be too effective of a housekeeper, or otherwise she may have exterminated the mice that later go on to help her land the prince. Instead, she talks to the mice and birds and other animals, which are pretty much her only friends.

At some point, the King announces he wants to find a bride for his son the Prince, and so there is going to be a big ball at which all the eligible young bachelorettes in the kingdom can meet said prince. Cinderella of course wants to go but her stepmother wants one of her biological daughters to marry the prince, so they sabotage Cinderella’s dress before heading to the ball. But Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother appears, and with the help of the animals, essentially offsets any of the sabotage, ensuring that Cinderella finally connects with Prince Charming and eventually lives “happily ever after”.

I like Cinderella because I like the underlying message that hard work eventually gets recognized and rewarded, but I am not sure that marrying out of the situation is really a reward. It seems in some ways like a lateral move to me, simply because in either case, there are probably many restrictions about what she can do with her life. But as a metaphoric reward, I guess it will do.

Anyway, the next Disney Princess up for discussion is Snow White, so stay tuned!