Cinderella - Oppression of Women by Women
Throughout the ages women have always appeared to be victims of oppression by men. There are many cultures and religions that have separate rules for the men and the women. Traditional gender roles have cast men as the providers, while women are the nurturers and stay home to keep the house clean, cook, and care for the children and their husbands. Even the clothes men and women wear are subject to the different rules. Men are free to dress without restraint in order to get the job done, where as women are required to dress modestly - in some religions covered from head to toe, and compelled to cover their hair in others. However, the fairy tale of Cinderella turns the idea of male repression of women on its head, casting women in a position of dominance. It is still a man's world where women must bend to the demands of man, the ball for example. It is in these confines, the ultimate goal in obtaining a suitable husband, that we see what women are capable of doing to one another in order to reach their goals. Women use different techniques in order to keep other women down. As Tony Morrison states she is "alarmed by the violence that women do to each other: professional violence, competitive violence, emotional violence. [She] is alarmed by the willingness of women to enslave other women." (Cinderella's stepsisters, p. 500) In this situation, the women in Cinderella, specifically the step mother and step sisters, dominate Cinderella in many ways: name calling, degradation, mocking, and dishing her false hopes. The story as portrayed in Cinderella by Charles Perrault, Ashputtle by the Grimm Brothers and the Walt Disney adaptation written by Grant as well as the animated film Cinderell...
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Behrens, Laurence and Rosen, Leonard F.Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Eighth
Edition, University of California ; copyright 2003.
Web sources:
1) http://www.northern.edu/hastingw/cinderella.htm
Prof. Waller Hastings
Northern State University
Aberdeen, SD 57401
2) http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault06.html
Source: Andrew Lang, The Blue Fairy Book (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., ca.
1889), pp. 64-71.
Lang's source: Charles Perrault, "Cendrillon, ou la petite pantoufle de verre," Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités: Contes de ma mère l'Oye (Paris, 1697).
Revised October 8, 2003.
Other sources :
1) Walt Disney's animated film Cinderella
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Women have had to fight for equal rights throughout history, but still endure many hardships due to sexism. Marilyn Frye made it a point of her career to highlight these struggles, and did so by identifying three main ways women are disadvantaged. Frye’s analysis begins by elaborating on oppression itself, then she uses this definition to detail the mechanisms in society that are oppressive, and ends with a closer look on women’s limited choices. Even though Frye first published her papers back in 1983 it is still worthwhile to explain and critique the ideas presented, and to analyze their accuracy in 2017.
The Grimm’s stories have strict criteria for good and evil. Good women are not the hero, they do not plan, nor do they get themselves out of bad situations; they are obtuse and wait until a Prince saves them. These qualities doom the female protagonists (and readers) to pursue the only destiny women have, and that is to be a wife and mother (Rowe, 1978). Cinderella is the heroine and the ideal good girl. She is unambiguously beautiful, kind, and compassionate. She does not complain or get angry. This is foreseen early in the Grimm’s Cinderella story:
It could be argued that in Disney’s first era of films women are seen as objects rather than human beings. As mentioned, the female protagonist awaits her fate from the prince to live a happy ending. This promotes that women do not need to fend for themselves due to someone coming to rescue them, enforcing a powerless stereotype. ‘Since women were leading the war effort at home and managing entire households and companies on their own, few would easily of readily identify with the passive damsel awaiting her prince’ (Stover, 2013, p.2). Snow White is a stereotypical homemaker, she caters to the dwarfs every need, never complaining and staying obedient. When put under a spell by the evil Queen, Prince Charming must kiss her in order to break the spell and free her from this life. The sa...
Thinking back to our childhood, we all remember hearing many kinds of fairy tales. Some of them inspired us others confused us, and most of them taught us valuable lessons. Through out centuries tales and stories have been used as a valuable tool to pass on our culture to new generations. There is a strong belief that these fairy tales mirror and influence society. All cultures interpret tales in their own unique way. They add and subtract various aspects of the tale to fit the needs of their particular society. The same tale in the United States is different from the tale told in Asia. A good example of tale evolution can be seen in one of the most famous tales ever told which is “Cinderella”. As a professor of women’s history Karol Kelley points out in her essay Pretty Woman: A Modern Cinderella “There are some 700 versions of Cinderella”.This fairy tale as many others has been changing for many years, and in recent years Cinderella has come under some criticism for its depiction of women’s roles in society.
In a society unbridled with double standards and set views about women, one may wonder the origins of such beliefs. It might come as a surprise that these ideals and standards are embedded and have been for centuries in the beloved fairy tales we enjoyed reading as kids. In her analytical essay, “To Spin a Yarn: The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tales”, Karen Rowe argues that fairy tales present “cultural norms which exalt passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice as a female’s cardinal virtues.” Rowe presents an excellent point, which can be supported by versions of the cult classics, “Cinderella” and “Snow White”. Charles Perrault’s “ The Little Glass Slipper” and the Brothers Grimm’s “ Snow White” exemplify the beliefs that females are supposed to be docile, dependent on the male persona and willing to sacrifice themselves. In many cases, when strong female characters are presented they are always contradicting in these characteristics, thus labeled as villainous. Such is the case of the Cinderella’s stepsisters in Perrault’s “Cinderella” and the stepmother in the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White.” These female characters face judgment and disapproval when they commit the same acts as male characters. With such messages rooted in our beloved fairy tales it is no wonder that society is rampant with these ideals about women and disapprove of women when they try to break free of this mold.
Perrault’s “Cinderella” begins with a young maiden and a set of stepsisters who treat the maiden badly (Perrault 236). The young maiden, called “Cinderella,” responded with kindness to this harsh treatment (Perrault 237). Cinderella could
Pretty Woman is a modern take on the classic Cinderella story where a poor misguided girl meets her prince and her life is dramatically changed. This film has fairy tale elements, but the biggest element in the movie is the use of sex; Vivian, the main character, is a prostitute. She meets her “prince” and is swept off of her feet, but what this really means is that she is bought for an entire week by a handsome, wealthy business man. One would assume that he was buying her for sex, but this is not your average prostitute transaction. This movie has a lot of third wave feminism ideals. Third wave feminism deals with using the female gender and sexuality to further the cause and portray their views. The ultimate goal of this paper is to show that Vivian Ward (portrayed by Julia Roberts), is the poster girl for third wave feminism.
In today’s society, women are faced with oppression in many different ways, whether they are denied a promotion at their job over a man of equal or lesser ability or qualification, or brought up to act a certain way as a female member of society. A female’s fight against oppression, be it social or societal, is certainly a difficult one, and one that - depending on the woman and the society in which she lives- may follow her throughout her entire life. Pride and Prejudice is a novel written by Jane Austen that follows a woman named Elizabeth Bennet through her struggle to fight oppression in a time where certain behaviour and actions are expected of women. In this novel, the reader can view oppression through Elizabeth’s struggle to maintain a sense of self through her constant fight against societal oppression, the Bennet family’s struggles with class segregation, as well as the standards or roles set for the women in the time in which the novel is set.
Fairytales have been around as long as man can remember. Fairytales are told not just for entertainment but try to instill morals and build character. The cultural norms represented in fairytales play a large part in the socialization processes of the child who reads them. Contained within these cultural norms are the beliefs about gender roles that are held by society. The characters in the stories help children to determine what behaviors, traits, or roles are acceptable for children of certain genders. In Angela Carter’s book, The Bloody Chambers, one sees major themes being used to influence people. One of these themes is objectification of women. In every one of Carter’s stories women are objectified. These stories portray women as weak, submissive, dependent, and self-sacrificing while men are powerful, active and dominant. As long as women are primarily bought and sold and are willing to be bought and sold, women will always be looked at as only objects. When looking at the stories, The Bloody chambers, The Courtship of Mr.Lyon, and The Tigers Bride, women are seen being objectified by men. Carter doesn’t give men all the blame, she also shows man as being objectifies in Lady in the house of Love.
The story teaches us that society expects women to be passive. Cinderella’s abuse by her stepsisters and stepmother cause her to live in grief silently without expressing her emotions. She does nothing to fight for her freedom except sing about all the dreams of happiness that she hopes will come true someday. She only wishes for things to change rather than attempt to do anything to change it for herself. Cinderella waits to be rescued by Prince Charming instead of fighting for her own freedom. This teaches women that they should suffer in silence without doing anything for themselves.
Cinderella’s mother passed away and her father remarried a woman who had two daughters from a previous marriage. A few weeks passed and a prince is holding a three day festival and all the beautiful young girls in the town were invited. Cinderella wanted to go but her evil stepmother gave her two impossible tasks to complete before she could attend the festival. Cinderella completes the two tasks with the help of her bird friends and her mother’s grave. Cinderella goes to the festival and she dances with the prince all three days. Finally, the prince has fallen in love with her and eventually they get married. Fairytales and Disney productions threaten gender politics and women’s role by portraying women in certain areas like domestic behaviors