Cinderell View On The Oppressed Gender Roles

The Cinderella Effect: View on the Oppressed Gender Roles.

Throughout time women have been oppressed and confined to certain gender roles and expectations that they must conform to. This has been a problem since the late 1850’s and stories like the Grimm brothers and Disney’s versions of Cinderella both show us the gender roles that are to be followed by a woman. These two renditions of Cinderella present a story that exposes the social expectations for women as empowered or meek: one asserting self-empowerment, and one accepting the gender role, in the end demonstrating that obedience pays off with a “reward.”

Grimms’ rendition of Cinderella exposes the limited expectations for women in the late 1850’s. When you hear the name stepsister, stepmother,

The stepsisters take away cinderella’s nice jewelry and clothing and Cinderella doesn’t even complain once (Cinderella DVD). Cinderella is considered submissive and she seems to be living in her own world. The film demonstrates when Cinderella is cleaning, she seems to be in her own little world. She is singing and not really caring about the fact that is is being put to do physical labor in her own home and is being used as a maid (Cinderella DVD). She is oblivious to the abuse that is happening. Cinderella becomes a scapegoat for the stepsisters. The stepsisters become more personally abusive towards to Cinderella. The stepsisters toss Cinderella their dirty laundry and tell Cinderella to wash it, and they tell Cinderella to clean their rooms and in contrast to Grimm’s the stepsisters are more abusive than the mother. The film also shows us that when Cinderella hears about the ball that the king is throwing for his son Cinderella wants to go and her animal friends help her make a dress and when she is ready to go to the ball the step sisters complain to their mother and beg her not to let Cinderella go to the ball with them and then they destroy her pearls and rip her dress (Cinderella DVD). On the Contrary to Grimm’s is the fairy godmother. Disney gave Cinderella a new mother. The fairy godmother helps Cinderella by giving her a beautiful dress and glass slippers and a carriage to take her to the ball. Perrault most likely invents the glass slipper because there is no trace of it before his version. Perhaps as an iconic device since it's so fragile (Heiner Web). Cinderella should have a fragile shoe to represent her personality. The idea that animates the classic Cinderella is that the prince would not be free to consider Cinderella a desirable mate if he saw her as she is, but he can meet her under false