Synthesis Analysis Essay

Gender Expectations in Cinderella

Our culture is full of fairy tales. These fairy tales started out as entertaining stories, but as they were handed down from one generation to the next, they slowly became bedtime stories for children, and through this transition, much has been changed in these tales. In fact, Jane Yolen, in her article “America’s Cinderella,” argues that much has been lost in the changes made in Cinderella. Specifically, Yolen argues that the character of Cinderella has been diluted from the active and strong heroine of the old tales into the passive and weak character marketed by Disney. A look at a storybook for children, Disney’s Cinderella, seems to support Yolen’s argument and further demonstrates that, whatever the intention of its makers, modern day fairy tales function in our society as hidden instructions for morals and behaviors that we give children. On the surface, it seems to be a simple story about a young woman whose wishes come true. However, the story also reflects cultural expectations of women’s behaviors and goals and defines expectations of “goodness” for women.

The story shows us that society expects women to be passive. Cinderella patiently suffers under all kinds of abuse by her stepmother and stepsisters without any complaint. She is “busy with sweeping, cleaning, washing, and dusting” (Marsoli 5) but does nothing in response but sing about “dreams of happiness that she hoped would come true” (6). According to Yolen, one of the ways in which Disney’s Cinderella has been changed for the worse is that she merely wishes for things to change rather than take action for herself (446). Cinderella passively waits to be rescued by her Prince Charming rather than trying to fight for her own freedom. Thus, Cinderella’s behavior teaches women that they should suffer in silence (or at the most, with a song).

It is not only behavior but women’s goals themselves that are being dictated by fairy tales. The women in the story strive, not to be independent, but to be beautiful. Cinderella’s sisters spend countless hours dressing for the ball because they know their only value is in their appearance. Even Cinderella, the heroine, is thrilled by the finery her fairy godmother gives her, exclaiming, “Oh, it’s beautiful!” (Marsoli 5) and “it’s more than I ever hoped for” (6). In fact, Prince Charming falls in love with her “at first sight” not because of her personality but because of the beauty that her new clothes give her. This is evident in his bored reaction to the string of women paraded in front of him and his sudden interest in Cinderella before he speaks a word to her. Before their first waltz had ended, “Both had found true love” (75). The message is that a woman’s worth is in the way she dresses and the way she looks, and thus, little girls who listen over and over again to Cinderella’s story may very well be encouraged to grow up to become women who obsess over their appearances.

Another goal the women in this story share is marriage. Marriage is held up as every woman’s dream regardless of the fact that the potential husband is a complete stranger. Each stepsister “was so excited, in fact, that she could already imagine the prince falling in love with her and asking her to be his bride” (Marsoli 37). Even Cinderella wants to meet the prince so badly that she is willing to tackle the large list of chores her stepmother gives her as a prerequisite for attending the ball (38). However, it is not just Cinderella and her stepsisters who want to go to the ball; the entire population of single women in the kingdom want to go to the ball for the chance to marry a prince whom they have never met. There is never any question of any woman not wanting to marry the rich and powerful prince. The story implies that Cinderella’s only way to escape the abuse in her life is to marry someone she has only know for a few short hours. For the larger world, the implication is that marriage should be the only valid choice a woman has, and the unfortunate result is that career and education are considered secondary.

One last underlying message of the story is that in order to be a “good,” a girl must ascribe to these rigidly defined gender behaviors and goals. From the very start, Marsoli states, “Once upon a time there was a beautiful little girl named Cinderella who was loved by everyone. She was sweet, kind, and gentle” (3). This implies that she is loved for these qualities that are gendered feminine by our society: sweetness, kindness, and gentleness. We see this message reinforced by the juxtaposition of how the stepsisters are rendered. We are told that Drizella and Anastasia, the stepsisters, “could have been pretty, but their selfish, cruel natures made them look ugly” (4). Here, we are shown the consequences of stepping out of proscribed gender roles, consequences so dire that they are physically manifested in a woman’s outer appearance. Granted, selfish and cruel behaviors are not positive character traits, but the extreme portrayal of the “evil” stepsisters and stepmother seem to be a way to reinforce the feminine nature of Cinderella’s goodness. Yolen offers up yet another theory in which she posits that Cinderella’s ambiguous morality was one of the strengths that is lost in Disney’s version: “However, in most of the Cinderella tales there is no forgiveness in the heroine’s heart. No mercy. Just justice” (445). Disney’s Cinderella, however, offers a dichotomous vision of good and evil that serves as a warning for girls to be good by mimicking Cinderella’s passive behavior if they want to avoid the fate of the stepsisters, doomed to be ugly and unloved.

As Rosemary Minard, feminist scholar, says, fairy tale characters like Cinderella are merely “insipid beauties waiting passively for Prince Charming” (qtd. In Yolen 442). Though Yolen later critiques Minard for targeting the folk versions rather than Disney version of Cinderella, Minard does have a valid point. It is important to remember that Cinderella is only a fairy tale; nevertheless, an ideal of womanhood does exist in this society, and that ideal is constructed from the messages we receive as children. If that message is that women should be passive, beautiful, and desirous only of marriage, is it any wonder that women are pressured to be and do those things as adults in this society?

Works Cited

Marsoli, Lisa Ann. Walt Disney’s Cinderella. The Walt Disney Company, 1994.

Yolen, Jane. “America’s Cinderella.” The World Is a Text. Eds. Jonathan Silverman and Dean

Rader. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003. 452-460.