In “What's Wrong with Cinderella?”, Peggy Orenstein retaliates against the princess culture that bombards her daughter's life. Princesses, it seems, dominate the market for toys to young girls due to their inexplicable appeal to being pretty, pink and - as most girls see - perfect. As a feminist mother, Orenstein feels the need to rebel against this not-so-sudden craze that attracts her daughter's attention. The author assumes that the subliminal messages presented to her daughter's developing mind aren't beneficial to her future expectations in life. Because of this, she critiques the faults of princesshood in order to demonstrate the possible detrimental impacts that the princess culture may have on a young girl.
Both authors indicate parental and business opinions of princesses in pursuance of appealing to many readers. Orenstein expresses her dislike towards Disney princesses by proposing that young girls learn incorrect values from the original princess movies, since they teach women unrealistic love and beauty standards. However, Poniewozik believes that recent live action princess movies demonstrate women achieving their personal goals before seeking true love in order to teach independence and convey his supporting views of modern princesses. While Poniewozik and Orenstein want to see the next generations of females become strong, self-sufficient women that do not need a fairytale lifestyle they disagree with how princess movies in general teach these lessons to young
In the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty, there are 2 perspectives, one is Aurora’s and the other is Maleficent’s. Maleficent is not invited to the christening of Princess Aurora; therefore Maleficent gets outraged and decides to seek revenge. Maleficent is evil because her revenge was to curse Aurora, “that she will die before sunset on her 16th birthday after pricking her finger on a spinning wheel”. Her plan is for
From its onset with its first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Disney has grown to become a worldwide phenomenon today. But over the years, various parent groups, scholars and film critics have accused Disney for creating shallow, stereotypical princesses whose ultimate aim was to find her 'prince charming ' and live happily ever after. In her article, “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” in the New York Times, Peggy Orenstein expresses her concern over the effect of princess figures like Cinderella on young girls ' perceptions of themselves and how they should behave (“What’s Wrong With Cinderella?”).
With little experience, the harlet mistakes lust for love from Proctor. Once Abigail realizes Proctor won’t love her back because he has a wife, she decides to set her up. Abigail plans for Mary Warren, Proctor 's servant and Abigail’s weakest link, to give Elizabeth a poppet. Later in Act II, Abigail charges witchery on Elizabeth because of the poppet. A conversation between Proctor and Mary Warren starts, “You’re coming to the court with me, Mary.
Whenever Rapunzel glances in the mirror, she is either faced with the possibility of her identity being something else (secretly a Princess as she reveals herself wearing a crown). In contrast, Mother Gothel the evil witch, can be seen obsessed with her looks and “unresisting” of a mirror, which contributes to a new Disney ideology: “being obsessed with appearances is bad.” This may be a progressive development, but it may also be a form of shaming the girl who enjoys looking her best. Merida’s imperfectly perfect curls are uncontrollable, a fine allusion to her personality.
The disconnect between the behaviors of the Queen and the mother relate to how people believe how a Queen and a mother should act. These types of people must act kind and sweet while in the classic tales they represent the antagonistic force. Disney changed the title of the evil character to a witch because witches are known as evil people. This notion described a decision made in Snow White; when attempting to kill Snow White, the evil stepmother disguised herself as a witch.
The story is about a young girl named Cinderella whose widowed father remarries but soon dies, leaving his daughter with the evil stepmother and her two daughters. The stepmother prefers her own daughters over Cinderella and has her perform all of the house chores. While Cinderella is kind, patient, and sweet, her stepsisters are cruel and selfish. Meanwhile, across the kingdom the King decides that his son the Prince should find a suitable bride and marry and so invites every eligible maiden in the kingdom to a fancy ball. Cinderella has no appropriate dress for the ball so her friends the mice namely Jaques and Gus, and the birds help her in making one, but the evil stepsisters tear apart the dress on the evening of the ball.
According to Angela Smith these tales introduced the idea that “patriarchy … conceive women as domesticated, passive, and dependent beings” (Smith, 428). The single role that women in fairy tales have, is to fit into the hierarchy system by marrying either the king or the prince. In the Frog King the young princess marries the princess despite the fact that he tries to rape her and has only known her for the span of a couple hours. In the other hand Cinderella marries the prince after only knowing him for to days just because he found her glass shoe. These stories create a false notion of having to get married in general and having to marry into royalty as the only way to escape the hardships that one is facing in life.
A coward is a person who is so scared of others that they do not take responsibility for their actions therefore they often get innocent people in trouble. In Arthur Miller’s retelling of the Salem Witch Trials entitled The Crucible, the character of Mary Warren is the quintessential coward. She is one of the many girls who accuse others of being witches, though she knows it is wrong, she continues to cover up her faults with lies. Mary Warren finally accuses John Proctor of witchcraft in Act IV because she is a coward and does not want to take the blame for the hysteria she has helped to create. In Act IV Mary Warren is afraid of Abigail, so she points the finger at John Proctor to keep Abby from accusing her of being a witch who is very vulnerable and easily persuaded.
Iconic fairy tales such as Grimm Brother's Cinderella and Snow White are not innocent tales about young girls achieving their dreams but are rather misogynist stories. The two fairy tales have the similarity of involving a young girl who is oppressed by a wicked step mother then later on, the girl is saved by marrying a prince. One can discover the misogynist and the men controlled society by examining how the writers represent women in their fairytales. Both, Cinderella and Snow White can be dissected and analyzed through the Feminist theory. The two tales contain gender roles stereotypes, unrealistic importance of superficial beauty and the view of men as salvation for the girl's oppressed lives.