A Woman With Power In Cinderella's Stepmother Eleanor

Cinderella’s stepmother Eleanor has the ability to conduct decisions because Cinderella’s father left Eleanor in charge of his daughter and his estate. Furthermore, Eleanor received the as much power as any other man depicted in the film. In addition, Eleanor is the only female with power. Unfortunately, Eleanor is the only person in the movie to abuse their power. Throughout the film, Eleanor abuses Cinderella and treats her no better than an animal. Eleanor expects Cinderella to complete unbelievably strenuous tasks with no compensation. This depiction of a woman abusing her power socializes children to believe women are not capable of having any power. Disney’s depiction of a woman with power is sexist because she is inferior to the men

with power. Furthermore, this example is a form of priming children to believe women are not eligible to possess power. In addition, Eleanor is a selfish person who abuses her power in order to increase her wealth and social status. Eleanor’s daughters throw themselves at the prince to appease their mother demands, while Cinderella must avoid all contact with the prince. The stepmother wants to ensure that her daughters become royalty and not Cinderella. Eleanor forces her daughters to entice the prince to choose one of them as a suitable bride. In conclusion, this movie depicts women that use their power for greed and self-benefit. This socializes children to believe women cannot possess power because they will abuse others in order to obtain wealth and higher social status. These depictions again are completely sexist and wrong; women should have the same distribution of power as men because they are equal.
Prince Charming disobeys his father’s wishes, and this action socializes children to believe that boys can break the rules, whereas girls must do as their parents command. The king forbids Prince Charming from interacting or contacting the servant girl Cinderella because she is not royalty and deemed an unsuitable bride by the king. The Prince disobeys his father and decides to pursue and eventually marry Cinderella. The Prince breaks the rules and suffers no consequences, whereas when Cinderella broke a rule, Eleanor scolded and disciplined her stepdaughter. This depicts a double standard and displays inequality based on sex. In society, when young boys perform inappropriate acts, mothers state “boys will be boys”. Furthermore, when a young girl performs an inappropriate act, mothers say “that is not very lady like”. In conclusion, this movie socializes young children to accept the traditional gender roles and boys are able to break the rules.