Once I had a friend (ex-friend) that hated Cinderella the most (even more than Aurora and Snow White) because she wasn't indipendent or smart and she's the sexist view of women, or something like that, and because she was a damsel in distress... I don't I'm the stupid here, because I don't understand why we have to want the feminist anthem in times where women couldn't be much indipendent...
Cinderella was in fact lauded in her time period for being extremely feminist and empowering; Sleeping Beauty was the movie that received criticism from feminists, to the point where Disney failed to create another ‘princess’ movie of its kind until Princess and the Frog.
Cinderella is often insulted by feminists these days, mostly because people don’t remember the story or pay attention to its plot, and because, as I’ve stressed before, she has nothing but feminine traits, and feminine traits are considered weak and worthless.
From the very start, we see her get upset with the clock; she notes that “even he tries to order [her] around.” This, at the very beginning, opens up a major aspect of her character that people choose to forget: she is a victim of abuse. She is also a young adult; she’s nineteen in the movie, and has been under the thumb of her stepmother since she was a child. This movie also attempts to remain true to its historical setting, and back then, until a woman was married, she was to live with her family. Period. So finding her own place was not a thing then. Which meant constantly, constantly living under her stepmother’s shadow.
Despite this, Cinderella helps out a mouse caught in her stepmother’s trap. The very first thing she does is give to another, help him meet friends, and then, when she sees him being bullied for food, pays special attention to ensure he gets what he needs. Despite being harassed and harangued by her family, she finds time for others.
She displays protective instincts over Bruno. I dislike what she says to him, but love how she takes it back by the end. At the beginning, her words of warning to the dog to ignore those vengeful thoughts toward Lucifer and her belief that Bruno hurt Lucifer when he didn’t were absolutely the thinking of an abuse victim - keep your head down and your mouth shut, and you’ll be safe. Well. Safer. But she turns that around in the end, for the sake of her chance at something better.
She also shows the ability to get angry - at the clock, and then later, at Lucifer; after the cat ruins her clean floors, she slaps her cloth to the floor, gets up, picks up the broom, and says, “I guess I’m just going to have to teach you a lesson,” and she is only interrupted by the arrival of the king’s letters of invitation.
Cinderella shows patience, temperance, kindness, charity, and humility. These are all stereotypically ‘feminine,’ especially these days, and are considered weak. It’s better to be ambitious, cunning, strong, courageous - all stereotypically ‘masculine’ traits. When people demand ‘strong female characters,’ what they’re usually demanding are female characters with these masculine traits, without ever thinking about a three-dimensional character or even a character who shows strength in a myriad of different ways. No! Only masculine ways are ‘strong’ to them.
(By the way, Cinderella didn’t want to meet a man and get married. She just wanted one beautiful night at the ball. And she was originally happy with just that. She wasn’t trying to greet the prince; she wanted to check out the scenery. She spent a wonderful night with a man she literally didn’t know was the prince, and then she went home and spoke about how wonderful it all was and how grateful she was for the opportunity to go. It wasn’t until she heard the prince wanted to marry her that she thought about having more.)
But see, Cinderella was not a damsel in distress. She was an abuse victim, right up to the end. And it was her kindness and her ingenuity that got her out. Thanks to her love for others, the mice and birds and Bruno were all willing to put their lives at risk, to sneak into the stepmother’s pocket (the stepmother who set up traps to kill them) and brave Lucifer’s wrath to get Cinderella free. And, when they weren’t enough, it was Cinderella who told the birds to “get Bruno! get Bruno!” because she knew he could take care of Lucifer.
Honestly, I love Cinderella. She shows how a female character can be strong with only feminine traits, how kindness and compassion are traits that will save you, in the end, because they will be answered in kind by those who share them. And it shows that, if you believe a better situation than the one you’re in is possible, then you should grab at it with both hands. Which, simply by holding on to faith (the slipper), she was able to achieve.
