Cinderella Women and Femininity Quotes

So, if you're a girl, have you ever done anything uncomfortable for the sake of looking good? Wearing heels, perhaps, or squeezing into some form-fitting jeans? How about cutting off your toe? No? Good! That's kind of a ridiculous (and gruesome) length to go to for beauty, we think. And we also think it exemplifies the way in which women in "Cinderella" want a husband more than anything else in the world. So much, in fact, that they're willing to spill their own blood. Yuck.

More cynical portrayal of gender roles here. Even after mutilating themselves, and even though they are part of a wealthy family, the sisters must come and try to get back into the good graces of their stepsister. Why, you ask? Because they want wealthy husbands too! This moment casts men and women in some pretty grim gender roles: men as controllers of destiny, women as subservient.

Here it seems as if the "happy" couple has been frozen in their just-married state—she the blushing bride, he the proud prince. That sounds great until you think about the fact that it never gives either of them the chance to change over time. They're stuck in their stereotypically-gendered positions, forever and ever. Depressing.