As much as I do agree with everyone and their mom posting “Cinderella is an abuse victim” for the past 10 years, I feel like there are just more interesting, Doylist discussions to be had with Cinderella. For example,
The different depictions of the dichotomy between Cinderella and her stepsisters are coded in ways that reveal various cultural views on “good” womanhood and “bad” womanhood.
Depictions of the stepsisters can be categorized into either “ugly stepsisters” or “slutty stepsisters” (with some crossover between)
“Ugly stepsisters” are unattractive and/or lack feminine grace, and are sometimes masculinized. They usually try to be feminine, but fail miserably to comedic effect. By contrast, their versions of Cinderella are effortlessly feminine, beautiful, and graceful.
“Slutty stepsisters” are beautiful and more successful in their femininity, but are vain, vapid, and immodest. Their Cinderellas have beauty and femininity that is “humble,” “modest,” and “natural.” She’s “not like other girls,” and narratives emphasize her natural superiority to her sisters because of her virtuous, unslutty character.
Though not directly stated, these dichotomies are coded in a way that says: these are good woman traits and these are bad woman traits
I was really inspired by verilybitchie’s Youtube video on makeover movies for this. Sorry for the length lol
Given how widely popular and frequently adapted Cinderella is, and how many variations of it exist in the world, it is indeed a very complex matter under a disguise of simplicity.
(Also, this is something inherent within the fairytale system. When you have a female villain in fairytales, the basic rule is that they must either be dreadfully ugly or otherwordly beautiful and vain. To make a villain plain looking would be a massive subversion of the codes)
