Acabo de terminar patlabor, personalmente aunque entiendo la idea de ultimos capitulos abriendo un conflicto centrado en la relacion de Alphonse y Noa... No siento que haya sido especialmente mejor que los miniarcos hasta ese momento, pero creo que va mas a mis gustos personales en comparacion a lo que la historia estaba tratando de decir.
Algo sobre como todo empezo con Alphonse y termina con el, porque el nombre Alphonse en primer lugar y como todo puede cambiar en cualquier momento dejandote sin control de tus alrededores haciendo buscar un refugio (Noa regresando a casa).
So, what exactly do I mean when I say “All Girl Dream of Cinderella”?
“Cinderella”, huh.
That’s obviously going to get some eyebrows raised. Because while, yes, Cinderella is a very popular story, it still very much is a western one, isn’t it? Why the universality of “every girl dreams of Cinderella?” How can I be so sure of “all girls”.
For starters, I’m not literally talking about the 1950 Disney’s Cinderella.
I’m more so using Cinderella as a signifier. A symbol. Something a bit bigger than Disney.
Truth is, there’s thousands of variants of the folk tale, which expand all over the world. Cinderella just happens to be the French variant.
But it exists in other countries outside of Europe: The Tale of Ye Xian, is Chinese; Tám and Cám, is Vietnamese - with the only noticeable difference being a goldfish instead of a fairy godmother and golden shoes instead of glass slippers. Korea has Kongjwi and Patjwi, which curiously enough, extends after marriage. The Iranian versions is called Moon-Forehead. The fairy tale has an extensive history and it expands far beyond western ideals. It exists in fairly different contexts.
So, I’m not literally talking about Cinderella, the Disney Movie.
I’m talking about the idea of Cinderella. What it represents.
At its core, Cinderella represents the idea of “something rightfully yours to have, being taken from you [Cinderella had a good life until her dad died], having to endure a lot of pain, but because you endured it gracefully, you gain the affection of others [enduring the abuse gets you help from animals and your fairy godmother], and because you’re such a good person you get a happily ever after [the prince]”.
If you switch around the parts and increment things here and there, you’ll find that most, if not all, cultures have something similar. For good reason.
It’s the idea that, even if something you have is taken from you, the universe will help you set everything in place. It’s the idea that good people succeed, and bad people suffer. It’s a good children’s story, that’s why you see it everywhere. The good will triumph over evil; you will get your happy ending.
But what happens when you grow up? Well, you start questioning the world, obviously.
You become a teenager.
You get sick and tired of Cinderella. I mean, who gets to decide what is good or bad? Why is my dream a man? Can’t I be an imperfect bad and messy girl, and still find a happy ending?
You’re exploring the world, so what’s the point of staying trapped in a story where the prize is a man? What’s the point of dreaming of princesses and castles, when there’s a city right outside your door?
So, you do what all teenagers do. You expand your horizons. You look at more nuanced material, you indulge in stories without happy endings, and maybe you experience some yourself. You face the world, you get heart broken, and its-
Exhausting. The world is chaotic, it’s confusing, and you’re suddenly not a wild and reckless as you were at thirteen.
You are tired.
You’ve seen pain, you’ve gotten hurt, you’ve fought, and you’ve bled, and everything is too much.
YET. You still want a happy ending.
And suddenly, you get Cinderella.
The exact same premise of, “your life was good, now it isn’t. But it should. And the universe will make sure you get a happy ending”.
But now, it hit harder. It’s much more real.
And before long, you indulge in it.
Cinderella is just that. The idea (and illusion) that there’s a clear right and wrong, a good and an evil. And, someday, the universe will reward you for being “good” by putting everything in its place.
That’s how stories like this become popular. Specially with older women and teenagers going through a rough patch in their life.
And while I say Cinderella in a very cishet view, there obviously are queer variants. (Trust me, there are plenty BL and GL Cinderella variants, but that’s an entirely different genre so we’ll put it aside for now). The flavor doesn’t really matter here. But the idea that “everything made wrong, will be put right in the end”.
It’s self indulgence, in its most raw form.
That’s why all girls dream of Cinderella.
It’s not that they dream of this Cinderella.
But they do dream about what it represents.
They dream about their rags turning into dresses. Maybe not literal dresses. But they do dream that they’ll look in the mirror and love what they see.
Maybe they don’t dream about a night at a ball, but they dream of night where they can go out and enjoy themselves. Maybe a nightclub, maybe a concert, maybe a bar, or even just an outing with a group of friends where they let loose.
And maybe they don’t dream of a Prince Charming - but they dream of love. Maybe they dream of companionship. Or the financial stability that comes with it. Or maybe they just dream of having an ending where everything feels right.
Every Girl Dreams of Cinderella - doesn’t mean every girl dreams of a cishet wedding; but they dream of a happy ever after where everything feels right. Whatever shape that takes.
Villainess stories, or in general Isekai shoujo and romance novels, are exactly that. A happy ever after, where everything works how it’s supposed to work. It functions in the way that you, as an AFAB person, were taught as a kid that the world works. Where there’s a prince, where there’s a wedding, and where there’s a dress.
While people write the story, I think it’s important to analyze what that story says. What is exactly that “dream” that was sold to us? And what does it mean that we dream of it as adult women, (and sometimes not even women, or women who like princes anymore)? That what Media is for. What is it that we find comfort in, why, and what does it say about us?
That said.
I find most disappointing, when people with the empathy of a straight white man start to talk about it this genre with contempt. Specially, romance literature aimed at older women.
Because while literature can risky, a point and deep and deconstructive - sometimes that’s not what the audience wants, or even needs.
Sometimes, tired women, want to be able to read stories where the obviously good girl wins, and the obviously bad one loses. Where a big strong man takes all your problems away, and you have the fantasy promised to you since you were a kid. Where, you get to sit back, relax and read about how the wold is okay. It’s right. About how things are working they should.
Men get a chance to do that with blockbuster movies, why can’t women have that too?
Are there things to criticize about them? Yes. That’s partially what I’m here to do.
But you also need to do this with compassion and understanding.
This is not a multimillion dollar film, so you (and I have to stress this with permanent market) CANNOT, approach them with the same cynicism you would a video essay about how the transforms franchise is sexist crap.
In normal life, no one will bat an eye about a guy liking the Fast and Furious franchise. But a woman liking Fifty Shades of Grey, or any of those raunchy pulp novels they sell at a discount bin in Barnes and Nobles - is very much mocked. Made fun of. And the same goes for shitty villainess webcomics and novels. Even a teenager liking shitty romance novels.
I mean, just look at the way people treat Twilight, Colleen Hoover books, heck, even Ali Hazelwood’s books are mocked sometimes. And if you turn to see the contempt many have for women publishing they Reylo Fanfic that, in no way affects others, it’s very obvious the scrutiny through which romance novels are put through - even when they’re meant to be thoughtless self-fulfilling fantasies.
For some reason, there’s this expectation that women have to have the moral high ground. All they consume must be perfect. Not raise eyebrows, not be provocative, and definitely not controversial. While men get to ogle at Megan Fox on 4K at a booked-out theater.
It is not an even playing field.
And you have to acknowledge it, before doing any sort of analysis.
Because the literature that women like, is always considered a lesser form of art (sometimes even compared to world war 1, in case you think I forgot about Twilight), the same criticism said, will have a different impact.
If someone points out that Sixteen Candles is kinda creepy, everyone ignores it. If someone points out Twilight is creepy, it causes media to run a hate campaign against teens who like it.
So, I wanted to make that clear.
While what I will talk about in the next few chapters is important, always bear in mind that: It’s not exclusive to the genre, and not a problem only women have to solve.
It’s also important to recognize that individual authors may not even be aware of what they create comes across. Not to say that they’re all completely blameless, but that the fault sometimes lies less in the individual and more so on the broader trends that permeate literature. Which, in turn, are a reflection of our societal expectations and constructs.
In a more digestible example: A single author writing about how the evil character is ugly, may not be bad. But if multiple authors start doing it, it may mean that we, as a society, apply moral values to beauty. And that must be examined. It’s also important to recognize what exactly makes this character “ugly”, and if that’s born out of our standards of beauty, hidden racism or ableism, and what can we do about it? How will you change based on that information?
It doesn’t mean that the author has any moral failing. They’re telling a story. But it’s our job as literature analysts, to decode what that says about us. As a society. And what it means that it became so popular.
I have this disclaimer because we will inevitably confront the ugly side of this analysis. And I have seen people get very weird about them. Rather point fingers about what author is or isn’t racist, or if their work is or isn’t sexist - to me is far more productive to look at it and ask: Hey, if this is popular, what does it say about us? Why do I like it? What ugly truth am I looking at, in this mirror I’m holding?
I do not wish to appoint moral value in what I’m looking at. Not right now. Because if you do, you throw everything into the garbage and say “it’s bad”, “it’s problematic”, or “it’s gross”. It limits your scope.
The scope I want is not to tell you, “this is good” or “this is bad”. I want to discuss the way that certain tropes originated, what this “Dream of Cinderella” means, and how it can potentially impacts us when we read it.
So, to start talking about this “Dream of Cinderella”, first we have to ask:
"Average fictional character has 3 love interests a season" factoid actualy just statistical error. Average fictional character gets 1 love interest per show. DoomFlags Katarina, who lives in dating sim world & gets 2 new love interests every episode, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
Notes; Yet another wonderful character from "none of the main characters are straight". I mean. My Next Life As A Villainess. It was surprisingly hard to find suitable orange stims for her, but hopefully this looks good!
I was looking at the map of the Kingdom of Solcie from the show and trying to see if I can figure out where the locations are… didn’t really get further than the obvious ones Castle and Claus homes… might not even match, but just for fun… here are all the notable locations from the series.
I did not expect this of all things to be the first anime I got truly invested in, but here I am with no regrets (except for the time of night at which I stopped reading fics, haha)
gummygunk
stormborns
origamiaround
areudirty
gamechangershow
vaporwave
germansingergirl
