Blankier Gender Roles In Cinderella

Fairy God Medium: Gender roles through shifting adaptations of Cinderella Once upon a time, there lived a story told far and wide. This story goes by many names, but we best know it by the name Cinderella. The Cinderella story is a truly inter-medium story. Its basic structure can be found in books, comics, television shows, the news, and movies. A Cinderella story needs three features: a slipper, an ill treated heroin, and a fall from grace followed by the rise to a greater positon after some suffering (Bettelheim, 2010, p. 260). These features show up in stories from around the world and throughout time (Bettelheim, 2010, p. 250; Ohmer, 1993, p. 231). While the medium changes, the core structure of the story remains (Blankier, 2014, p. 108). However, the elaborations and changes in the details of the story change with the teller and the medium …show more content…
England et. al. (2011) identifies different behaviors that are defined as specifically feminine or masculine, and I will be using these as a guide in interpretations. In the majority of the pieces I analyzed, Cinderella is portrayed as a quintessentially feminine individual. The acceptation to this, Ever After, still portrays the Cinderella character with many traditionally feminine traits. Film portrays messages differently; a visual representation is provided that supposedly matches the ideals in the story. These tend to reflect societal images (Herbozo, Tantleff-Dunn, Gokee-Larose, & Thompson, 2004, p. 30). For example, when a character is described as ugly, the audience imagines certain attributes they consider to be ugly. Film takes away the process of imaging what is ugly and presents you with something that is ugly according to the artist. This concept is usually informed by cultural beauty standards. Adding a visual aspect to Cinderella has altered the messages, especially concerning gender roles, in