Cinderella As A Direct Representation Of Anti-Feminism

Cinderella: the story with the wicked stepmother, evil stepsisters, fairy godmother, and a Prince Charming that will fix everything. The age old tale, describes the fate of a young beautiful woman who works tirelessly as a servant for her stepmother and sisters, and eventually gets freed by a handsome Prince. Little do many people realize that this story is a direct representation of anti-feminist acts and mindsets. Cinderella is portrayed as a “perfect, beautiful” woman, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and big red lips. What really is the “perfect” body? This depends on what men like, and surprisingly not what women like. Leading to another large aspect of anti-feminism, the hero of the story is shown as a male, just as it usually is. Why isn’t

Maha, the fisherman’s daughter, is a young, innocent woman who also endures the harsh treatment from an evil stepmother and sisters. Comparative with the story of Cinderella, Maha is a girl who gets trapped within a cycle of doing typical “woman’s work” like cooking, and cleaning. Rather than hire a maid to do all of this work, the stepmother and sisters force Maha to do this because she is “prettier” than they are. Per usual, women in this story are portrayed as jealous of each other's beauty and are associated with never being content with themselves. From a superficial look at this, it seems relatively normal, but this story is actually quite anti-feminist because women are expected to fit this perfect body image and without that image they are considered lesser than other women. The only way for women to escape this lack of beauty is for them to force, and shame other women for being more pretty than they. Earlier in the story, Maha saves a fish from being eaten and this fish grants her three wishes. With these Maha wishes to attend the Henna (similar to the ball), dressed in a beautiful dress and golden sandals. Leading to the next aspect of anti-femininity, which is the fact that for a woman to truly look beautiful she has to be wearing a dress. Women are forced to confine to societies standards and wear prettier clothing, rather than

The Polish story depicts a young woman who lives with her grandfather who is a scholar and constantly studies and encourages Raisel to study as well. Sadly one day, Raisel’s grandfather passes away and she is left all by herself to find a job cleaning so she can make a living. After searching the whole rich side of the town, Raisel encounters a mean, and disrespectful cook who offers her a job and living space with her. Similarly to Cinderella, Raisel works tirelessly and does not get a say in how much work is given to her. One day after dinner, Raisel was going about cleaning up the family's meal and found some scraps that she could eat. As she retreats outside to devour the food, she finds an old beggar woman with whom she gives the food. The old beggar woman rewarded her with three wishes, which she used to be able to go to Purim’s Play (similar to the Ball) dressed in a beautiful ballgown in a horse drawn wagon. In short, Raisel finds a Rabbi’s son at the ball and instead of leaving a shoe behind she tells him a riddle. The man searches all over for her and eventually finds her and they as predicted live “happily ever after”. But, little does the story mention if Raisel actually wants to marry the man. She is almost expected and forced to marry the man because “he is the only person who can get her out of the bad environment she’s in now”. Just like