The Representation Of Psycho-Sexual Identity In Disney's Cinderella

The timeless tale of glamourized abuse, Perrault’s “The Little Glass Slipper” from 1697, more commonly known as the 1950 Disney classic, “Cinderella.” Lieberman claims that the formation of a child’s ‘psycho-sexual identity’ may be negatively impacted by the representation of female and male behaviour in media. “The Little Glass Slipper” follows the story of a kind and gentle Cinderella whose widowed father married a haughty woman with two daughters. Cinderella is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters repeatedly, and her father is never mentioned again in the tale. Her only solace is her godmother, who supports her throughout the fairy tale. In Disney’s “Cinderella,” her widowed father marries Lady Tremaine, who has two daughters. The

Lieberman’s argument is as follows, ugliness and female wickedness tend to go hand in hand, and they often serve as an explanation for wickedness (Lieberman, 392). In Disney’s “Cinderella,” Lady Tremaine orders her around tirelessly, simply because she can, at the very beginning of the story, the power she has is asserted in an obvious manner (Cinderella 0:21:58 - 0:23:30). In contrast, in “The Little Glass Slipper,” it is stated that Cinderella bore her mistreatment “patiently, and dared not tell her father, who would have scolded her; for his wife governed him entirely,” it is clear that the stepmother is the active character in the story, she will do whatever it takes to succeed (Lang 64). This suggests that an active role is possible for female characters, but only if they are evil like the stepmother and stepsisters, Cinderella is described to be the opposite of them, and so she must remain the passive heroine. It paints the idea that a woman can't be both powerful and morally good. If a woman possesses any kind of power over another, then she must be evil. The stepmother strives for power in “The Little Glass Slipper,” she mistreats Cinderella because, in comparison to her, the stepsisters “appear the more odious” (Lang 64). It reduces the stepmother’s motives to be completely superficial; it suggests that not only do powerful women have to

In “The Little Glass Slipper,” Cinderella is described to be “of unparalleled goodness and sweetness of temper, which she took from her mother, who was the best creature in the world,” in fact, the King even says how it has been “a long time since he had seen so beautiful and lovely a creature,” when he sees her at the Ball for the first time (Lang 64; 68). Being referred to as a creature in it itself is already a bit demeaning, it is a subtle but established distinction between being a man and being a woman—it makes it seem as though women are comparable to creatures, something less than human. The same is seen in “Cinderella” when she captures the attention of the King and Duke, who believes that she is the one for the Prince, “the girl of his dreams” (Cinderella 0:48:34 - 0:52:52). The love at first sight trope is seen in almost every Disney adaptation, it makes it apparent how much of a woman’s worth is based solely on her looks. This conclusion is extremely reductive and reduces women down to only their looks—the Prince has no interest in anything other than Cinderella’s looks, and how meek and good-tempered she is. In “Cinderella,” the King even goes on to say that she will make a “suitable mother and wife,” as if all a woman is good for is carrying children and serving her husband (Cinderella 0:48:34 - 0:52:52). Cinderella is