Sexism vs. Values in Cinderella

Cinderella, the classic rags to riches story. Nearly every child knows it. Disney has been capitalizing from its success since it first launched the classic animated story into the world. Cinderella’s popularity has been so widespread that there are now Hindi, Korean, and Vietnamese versions of the story, just to name a few alternative languages. In the recent age of feminism and equal rights, Cinderella is an easy target to criticize, especially the role of the protagonist, Cinderella. In critiquing the work, we must also look at the inherent values present in Cinderella herself and may even wish to pose the question to ourselves as to whether the feminist movement has gone a little too far when stories such as Cinderella are blacklisted. While being demeaning to the female gender, the classic fairy-tale Cinderella contains many important values.
Looking at the character of Cinderella herself, one can easily see the demeaning values in the story. Cinderella’s place in the ...