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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Feminism in Film: Cinderella

For the rest of my Feminism in Film Posts, go here.


Initial Thoughts
The is my other sister's favorite movie! We're going through them all in order.

The Critique
Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Drizella hate on Cinderella. Why? Because Cinderella is kind, sweet, classy, and beautiful. Lady Tremaine allows her daughters to sabotage Cinderella's dress and then locks her in the tower. There's some Queen/Snow White dynamics going on here. Granted, Lady Tremaine isn't as brutal as The Queen. But still. Cinderella is cast into non-existence because she is a good person.

However, I don't really understand why Anastasia and Drizella need to be unattractive physically. Over and over again, we are given examples of how unattractive their personalities are. So Cinderella is the only one who is allowed to be beautiful? Why can't these women be solely evaluated based on their character?

The only female friendship is between the Fairy Godmother and Cinderella. All the other women gang up on her. I really wish the princesses had friends who weren't animals. It's just not very practical.

Whitewashing, again. No people of color here!

In this movie, the prince actually gets to talk to Cinderella. Which is a vast improvement from Snow White's prince. But still. He wants to marry her after a few hours! Not exactly realistic.

Cinderella doesn't save herself. She relies on two male mice to retrieve the key to her locked tower bedroom. And then she is safe from her wicked stepmother by marrying the king.

The Bechdel Test
*two named women? YES (Cinderella, Fairy Godmother, Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Drizella)
*who talk to each other? YES
*about something other than men? YES (usually chores, also Cinderella's presence at the ball)
I don't really know why these women are so bitter towards the princesses.

Final Rating
Two Stars

1 comment:

  1. Loving the Disney princess reviews! I'm going to be tackling them sometime soon too as a "by request" :) so ripe for material!

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