Why Cinderella Makes Me Angry...

After reading “Cinderella” through different lenses in class the other day, I realized how sexist it actually is.  Upon my completion of the short story, I saw it through an AP Literature point of view and after that I suddenly understood why we were reading it in our college-level class.  I had always believed the story of “Cinderella” was a magical and wonderful tale of a woman transitioning from a helpless, terrible life into a dream-come-true.  Though this is true, I had not realized how much the author pushes the work of the man (the prince) and the lack of work from the woman (Cinderella).

First of all, Cinderella does absolutely nothing throughout the fairy tale; I mean, I understand that she has been living a hard life for many years, but all she has to do is make a wish and a fairy godmother swoops in and saves the day by waving her wand and sending her to the ball in a fancy carriage.  What does Cinderella do whilst all of this is happening?  She stands there, watches, then complains that she is still in dirty rags.  The godmother then changes her clothes while Cinderella once again does absolutely nothing.

When Cinderella arrives at the ball, the prince falls in love with her beauty; not her charm or intelligence.  As far as we know, she could have absolutely have no personality, yet she is a pretty girl and therefore wins the heart of the prince.  By this point in the story, any reader with common sense would be able to make the assumption that it is a man who wrote this due to the fact that he claims Cinderella to get all of these amazing things, yet she does nothing to get them but make a simple wish.

When Cinderella loses a shoe, the prince picks it up and tries it on every girl in the town to find the perfect match.  This is yet another problem with a man writing a fairytale; he portrays the man to be the one working at the relationship rather than both of them equally putting in effort.  Throughout all of the scenes, Cinderella is never portrayed as intelligent or funny or an all-around good-natured girl; she is objectified as a stunningly beautiful woman.  The objectivity in this tale is very extreme since the reader never truly understands who Cinderella is.  To us, she is merely a pretty girl who is sent to the ball by a magical godmother.  We never learn her personality.

Back when I was younger I thought this was an amazing story but now I understand it for what it is: a man’s ego written into a story.  The author obviously feels as if men do everything and all the girls have to do to get a “happily ever after” is to sit around and wait for their men to do all of the work; this is not a true reality.  As a girl who was once inspired by this tale, I am truly crushed to learn the realities of this sexist story.