Gender Stereotypes In Peggy Orenstein's 'Cinderella Ate My Daughter'

Many parents/caregivers today may ask themselves if their little girls may be growing up too fast? Are they becoming little women too soon? Stephanie Hanes wrote an interesting and valid article “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect, “ which argue that many young ladies today in age may be impacted by Disney Princess regarding their life expectations. The author talks about the issues of young girls feeling the necessity to mature sooner rather than at a timely matter.

In Cinderella Ate My Daughter Peggy Orenstein examines the triumphs and pitfalls navigating raising a daughter, in today’s mixed message world. From peer pressure and the need to fit in today’s society, young females have commercialism forced at them at every turn and in very clever ways. Doll creators have been pushing the boundaries of good taste with each new season launch. When the more “mature” actresses at the age of 17 feel the need to do something drastic to remove them from the wholesome image created for by company executives, mothers and consumers feel betrayed, and yet then we need to have a dialog with our kids as to why just last month Miley Cyrus was wonderful but now she is not okay for the viewing household.

Cassandra Stover explains in her Journal Damsels and Heroines: The Conundrum of the Post-Feminist Disney Princess, the dramatic shift with Disney princess at the peak of the late 1980s and early 1990s. She explains that the shift can derive from feminist movements and how the change can be directed to the third wave of feminism. She examines the original Disney princesses and decribes them to be more passively aggresive and unindependent, while the new princesses are more independent and brave. The author then explains if the shift from the old to new princesses are actually better, and not just different. Stover analysizes that Disney princesses evolve and are a part of the worlds change on feminism.

Upon reading the book “Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture”, by Peggy Orenstein, I was extremely captivated to absorb the opinions that she had on raising a girl and all of the feminine influences that naturally surround her. The author herself had stated right from the first page how she initially wished for the child in her womb was a boy. My preliminary notion that joined this book to the course material was assumed before I even began reading, as several obvious details it became apparent that the book for sure had to be about gender roles and gender identity. The whole topic of princesses in the title, as well as the way the books cover flaunted pink and shimmery glitter it was just a telltale sign to have gender specific ties. That impression continued as I began reading the very first chapter boldly titled “Why I Hoped for a Boy”. There were such forthright examples making it overly apparent that she, the author, would be discussing the sexes, meaning girls vs.

Both authors make satirical remarks towards princess culture. Orenstein describes a dentist visit where she became “unhinged” after the professional asked her three-year-old daughter, “Would you like to sit in my special princess throne so I can sparkle your teeth?” (326). She describes the dentists remark as a “Betty Boop inflection” mocking the high-pitched tone in which the dentist chose to speak to her daughter (326). As a feminist, Orenstein advocates that women must earn their respect in order to be treated equally. She does not want her daughter, being as young as she is, to grow up thinking she is entitled to being treated as royalty. Therefore she is insulted by the mollycoddling her daughter receives simply because she is a little girl. On the other hand, Poniewozik uses the film 13 Going on 30 to describe how ridiculously

Orenstein begins by using her daughter as an example of a typical girl who is fond of princesses, categorizing her with the many girls influenced by the “princess craze”. Then she continues to analyze how industries use the fixation and further promote it to secure large amounts of money for their company. Subsequently, she returns the argument to her real life experiences, describing a time when her daughter goes to dress up like a princess, saying, “I’m convinced she does largely to torture me — I worry about what playing Little Mermaid is teaching her.” Not only does this statement show how her opinions as a feminist are displayed in her opinion of her daughter, but also introduces her argument of the negative impacts this craze promotes from a parental point of view. The author’s ability to balance her opinions with valid evidence and her relatable worry as a parent, allows her to state her strong opinions openly.

In her article, “Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior,” Elisabeth Panttaja illustrates the important role of parents in a childhood. She talks about the importance the mother plays in all versions of Cinderella as well as evidence showing what lack of parenthood does to children. Panttaja claims by way of the Grimms Brothers version of Cinderella and how each mother wants to guarantee a bright and happy future for their daughters by marrying them off to the prince. The similarities between the wanting of Cinderella and the stepsisters married- and doing anything to get it- contradicts the idea that Cinderella and her mother were morally superior, or different at all, from the stepmother and sisters.

In “Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls,” Pollitt writes about the differences between growing up as a boy growing up as a girl. She brings up the stereotypes that society naturally creates between genders in early ages, which leads to the lifestyle and path that boys and girls are raised in. Parents and feminist alike play a big part in establishing these sex roles. They raise their kids wanting them to be successful at what they are expected to be good at based on their gender and the trend that has been set before them.

Stereotypes are commonly held generalized beliefs that most or all individuals sharing a given trait also should or do share other attributes assumed to be associated with aspects such as race, religion, and physical attribute. While stereotypes can erroneously shape people’s views of others, they can also influence the stereotyped individuals’ behavior as people often attempt to conform to these flawed images, especially in regards to gender stereotypes. Shakespeare’s great play Othello uses its main characters to embody the characteristics of the stereotypical females and males according to society’s liking. The stereotypical woman is loyal and faithful to her husband, while the male stereotype possesses strength, control, and dominance.

Cinderella is a fairytale for children that displayed love, loss and miracles; however, when it is further analyzed, it has a deeper meaning. Cinderella is a story about a young girl who became a servant in her own home after her father remarried a malicious woman with two spoiled daughters. She was humiliated and abused yet she remained gentle and kind. She received help from her fairy godmother to go to the prince’s ball after her stepmother rejected her proposal. Cinderella and the Prince fell madly in love but she had to leave at twelve o’clock and forgot to tell him her name but she left her glass slipper behind. He sent his servants to find her and Cinderella was the only maiden in the kingdom to fit into the shoes. She

Humans have told stories in the oral tradition throughout history. Fairy tales were known first through this same tradition. Although intended for all audiences in their origins, folk and fairy tales have been tweaked to cater to a specific audience – children. Gender roles have also influenced the creation of characters simply because they reflected the sexism within the society that they were being told in. I personally think that Cyrus Macmillan’s The Indian Cinderella has strong underlying sexism that can easily be picked up by children. Such hurtful and rigid gender roles are restrictive and destructive to the young audiences. In my opinion, it could be damaging if the children modeled themselves after the character traits of both Strong Wind and the young girl beyond simply telling the truth (as truthfulness seems to be the main theme in the story) because both characters portray an ideal male and female. The young girl is beautiful, gentle and silent even through cruel treatment; Strong Wind is strong, violent and has great anger. The sexism within The Indian Cinderella is present in the gender roles personified by the characters of Strong Wind and the young girl, these roles are restricting and damaging to children who look past the lesson of truthfulness.

Cinderella should be thankful for the compelling cast it gathered, because they are the only reason why the film is barely tolerable. Not only does the shockingly cowardly film fail to distance itself from over a dozen predecessors, but its continual sympathy for Cinderella and use of language to establish Lady Tremaine’s hegemony shows Disney’s desperation to fit into the crowd, despite representing the upper class themselves. Prominent literary theorist Terry Eagleton defines hegemony as “ways in which a governing power wins consent to its rule from those it subjugates”. To put these wise words in layman’s terms, hegemony is the leadership or dominance of one group over others, typically exercised subtly through education and suggestion. In addition to alienating Cinderella, the hegemony of Lady Tremaine promoted a class-based system (capitalism), which diminished any existing equality in the household. Irony could not be stronger as Disney attempts to promote communism, yet is part of the superior within the hierarchy of classes.

In Westland’s article, she discusses the study she conducted amongst a group of schoolchildren to determine if the feminist hypothesis in which traditional fairy tales reinforce the traditional values of women and the patriarchy vitality to society. She then conducts the experiment consisting of children hearing traditional fairy tales and depicting their favorite character, stating if they would want to be a princess or prince, and lastly writing their own fairytales. She unveils the results of the children responses in the first stage of the experiment the boys and girls had different responses; majority of the girls portrayed a beautiful princess, on the other hand, majority of boys depicted a masculine figure. Concluding the first stage of the experiment Westland states “feminist fears of the harmful influence of fairy tales would be vindicated” (Westland 241). This conclusion, however, develops a different perspective when she hears the children's responses when they answer the question if they would be a prince or princess; the majority of girls state they would not due to the lack of independence while the boys would be princes due to the wealth and power. When the children wrote their stories majority of girls developed a tomboy independent protagonist, however, there were still girls who preferred the more feminine protagonist, and on the other hand, the boys

A fairytale that almost everyone knows is Cinderella. Cinderella is about a young girl whose father decides to remarry after her mother dies. The women who he remarries is evil with two evil daughters. As Cinderella's father is out of town for various things the evil step-mom makes Cinderella do all the chores. They treat her like a servant rather than someone apart of the family. Since Cinderella has no friends she becomes friends with animals who help her complete her daily chores. One day they receive an invitation to a ball. Cinderella is allowed to go if she completes a set of chores but Cinderella ends up staying home while her stepmother and stepsisters go to the ball. Cinderella's fairy godmother shows up and makes her beautiful (changes her dress, etc) but says she has to be home at midnight because her beautiful dress will disappear and she'll go back to her old self. She goes to the ball and the prince falls in love with her but she has to leave at the strike of midnight. As she is running out of the ball she loses one of her glass slippers. The prince searches town for Cinderella. He then finally finds her and they live happily ever after.

When someone mentions the name “Cinderella”, the first thing that usually comes to our minds is the fairytale in which the fair maiden who works so hard yet it treated so poorly gains her “fairytale ending” with a wave of a magic wand. However, the fairytale of Cinderella written by the Grimm Brothers has multiple differences in plot from the fairytale we all usually think of. The plot of the Cinderella written by the Grimm Brothers, written in 1812, is that a young female’s mother passes away early in the story, departing with the message to Cinderella to remain “pious and good”. Cinderella remained true to this message given to her by her mother, and she showed this in her work ethic. Because Cinderella had remained pious and good, her mother, in return, watched over her in the form of the birds above her grave that gave Cinderella help and material things that she needed. In the end, Cinderella has her “happily ever after”, for when the prince held a festival to find a new bride, she was chosen due to her insurmountable beauty. The feminist lens critiques how females are commonly represented in texts, and how insufficient these representations are as a categorizing device. These representations of women often include them being passive and emotional—staying back while the men do the work. Cinderella relates to the feminist lens because she fits into the typical representations of women created by men. Feminist criticism is important to recognize because women are often falsely represented as helpless, thus needing a man to come to their rescue. It is common in literature to see helpless women, crying and begging for help instead of being able to work out their own problems and hardships. Others, however, may believe that it is still important to uphold the fundamentals of the feminist lens because it keeps the man in power, which they say is important in keeping the man the head of the household. Cinderella thoroughly represents the feminist lens because it shows how women in literature uphold the representations of passive and emotional, created by the man.