Okay, I'm not trying to be cynical here (reformed, remember?) but my wife and I have been showing our daughter all the classic Disney princess movies (calm down anti-genderists, the boy is watching too, but he's too young to really take it all in.)
Currently, we are watching "Cinderella." Now, everyone knows the traditional narrative; sweet, innocent Cinderella, long abused by her wicked stepfamily, is finally given the happiness she deserves by marrying the prince and becoming a princess, fulfilling her destiny. The karmic balance is restored as her years of patient toil and silent suffering are rewarded.
However, that is a decidedly modern interpretation of the story. Remember that this story can be traced to medieval cultures, and it is through the lens of that historical perspective that we must view the story, if we are to judge its characters fairly.
Now I'm sure others have made plenty of comments bashing Cinderella herself, who does exactly one single thing of value, takes one single action on her own initiative to further her goals: telling the birds to go get the dog. Seriously, that's the only idea in the whole film that she comes up with herself, the rest just 'happens' to her. The animals do most of it, and indeed, she is so used to people taking care of her problems (the real ones, not this "oh, I'm too pretty for housework"shit,) that when a mysterious magical woman shows up to solve her issues, she doesn't even question it. Seriously.
But I'm not here to talk about Disney's second whiniest princess. I want to talk about this story from the point of view of the antagonist, the 'wicked' stepmother. If one turns this story around, you have a rather tragic tale of a desperate mother, bound by the limitations of a brutal, misogynistic society, and trying vainly to create a good life for her doomed children. Shall we?
To begin, let's recap the society in which this story takes place. At this time, women have no real position in society. Sure, a queen or other high royalty may have some power of command over their own destiny, but for a woman of lesser birth (like Lady Tremaine, Cinderella's stepmother,) the only way to improve one's lot was through marriage.
Generally speaking (barring a few exceptional cases,) a woman could not purchase property (she could run her family lands, but could not go out and buy her own land, it simply was not done,) she could not start a business (not a respectable and successful one at least,) and even where such things were not specifically outlawed, to do so would be so unconventional as to make one an outcast in polite society.
And since marriage was the only stepping stone for success, making oneself an attractive prospect for marriage had to be the sole priority of every woman.
And her mother.
Lady Tremaine had done the best she could before the story begins. She had married, and had two daughters. She was safe and secure, with a man to provide for them. But then he died, probably leaving them without much in the way of resources. She then remarries to a widower of some wealth. This would have been not only for herself, but for the security and safety of her daughters.
Was she mean to her stepdaughter? No. The story tells us right away that the trouble only began after Cinderella's father passed away. Then she "showed her true colors" and became cold and cruel. Remember that 'cold' part, it's important.
When she marries Cinderella's father, she and her daughters are once again safe. When he dies, he at least leaves behind enough money for them to live comfortably (it is reasonable to conclude that her first husband did not do so.)
But now she is left with her stepdaughter to raise. That she resented Cinderella is directly stated, as is her subsequent treatment of her. But why? We can conjecture all kinds of scenarios around this; that Cinderella was left a huge trust that Lady Tremaine could not touch, or the fact that the father was a little too doting on Cinderella (we are treated to a scene of him giving her a pony, while the other two girls are in the house watching,) or that she was a whiny bitch. Indeed, a character study of Cinderella makes it pretty unrealistic that she wasn't mean to her new stepsisters, who would have still been grieveing for their own father when they moved into the house of this only child who had been so lovingly treated by her father, and who now had to share that love with two other girls her age. But let's stick with what we can see in the film, and what we know about the world in which the characters lived.
When her second husband dies, Lady Tremaine must now raise all three girls. Two of them are her own blood, and the idea that a mother treats children of her own blood different may seem cold to us today (adoption is no big deal these days, with no stigma attached to raising a child not your own,) they lived in a time where bloodline was extremely important to people, which made folks care a lot more for their own DNA's legacy.
This of course is a cornerstone concept of biology, but we will discuss that subject another day when I tackle the root cause of infidelity. That will be fun, won't it?
But I digress- Lady Tremaine now has one job to do: raise those girls to be the most attractive marriage prospects that she possibly can. That means all kinds of training, and the establishment of a suitable dowry. She will have to pay for tutors to teach the girls languages, elocution lessons, all sorts of skills and knowledge that aspiring brides must know to land a rich husband. That shit ain't cheap, yo.
One of the first terrible things the story tells us that Lady Tremaine does is to let the estate fall into disrepair (no man to run the place after all,) because she is supposedly spending all that money on the vain sisters. What is that money going towards? Well they call the girls vain, so we are meant to assume clothes and makeup and such, beautification aids. But I put it to you that this is not the result of the sisters' vanity, it is because of their mother's love.
She wants her little girls (and remember that she is shown being just as stern to them at times as she is to Cinderella,) to have the best in life. And that can only mean landing a rich husband. So she does her best to provide them with the best clothes, the best hair, and the best training she possibly can.
But here's where we get to the most brutal part of the world in which these characters live. In this world, physical beauty is everything. The Prince's father (I can't recall his title,) wants his son to get married, so he plans a ball where he will be forced to see all the eligible girls of the kingdom, so he can fall in love and ask her to marry him that very night. He even describes the process, pointing out that it is nothing more than instant attraction.
And both the Prince and Cinderella buy into this concept (she starts singing "So This is Love" right after seeing him for the first time, remember? No honey, that's not love, it's hormones whisking blood off to the bits that your bathing suit covers and making you all tingly; it's not an emotion, it's basic biological stimulus. Definitely not the basis for lifelong commitment.
But that's the way it is in this world. A man is expected to see a woman and choose her for his mate based on her physical appeal. It may strike our enlightened, 21st century sensibilities as barbaric, but like it or not, it is expected, it is normal, and it is the way things are done.
And Lady Tremaine knows this. So she has these two exquisitely trained and properly raised daughters that she needs to prepare for marriage.
And they are ugly.
On this point, all versions are in accord; that the two stepsisters are not physically appealing whatsoever. If you looked at a group shot of all the characters, you would call Lady Tremaine "the wicked stepmother." If you saw the two girls, what would you refer to them as?
Right. The ugly stepsisters. That is their defining characteristic. Even though they are shown acting just as wicked as their mother in the film, we don't call them wicked, we remember the ugly. Nice.
Those girls are doomed. They got giant feet, weak chins, and just all around butt-faced monkey looks. It is sad to say it, but their prospects at marriage are very poor. Because happily ever afters are only for pretty girls.
Like frigging Cinderella.
Cinderella is beautiful. Not because she did anything special, she's just born that way (it's never Maybeline.) The composition of her skull was such that her facial features displayed uncommon symmetry. And of course she has blue eyes and golden hair that just behaves perfectly. Bitch.
Cinderella has all the features that money can't buy, and which guarantee her a good chance at love and success in this world. She's pretty, and that is all she ever needs.
"Ah-ha!" you think, "so the stepmother and stepsisters are jealous of Cinderella's beauty!" Yes of course, that is perfectly natural. And for Drizella and Anastasia, that's really all the explanation one need consider. But I'm not talking about them, I'm looking at their mom. And she isn't merely jealous of Cinderella, she sees her for what she really is.
A threat.
In the animal kingdom, just like our own human experience, parents want to protect their children, not just from immediate danger, but by making sure they have the best chance to survive. Plenty of animals work together in collective groups, but if there is only enough food to support one kid, animals work pretty hard to make sure it's their own. Wouldn't you?
Remember that this world requires young women to compete for the best husband, and the only quality that truly matters is beauty. If she brings all three girls to all the functions where one meets prospective suitors, what's going to happen? Blondie McPrettyface is going to take the best husband for herself. What's worse, after the first debutante ball, when everyone sees the three girls together, they will be permanently labelled "Cinderella's ugly stepsisters." Try shaking off that nickname.
Cinderella doesn't need help, she has hotness for that. But those other two (her own blood, mind you,) are doomed if Cinderella shows her perfectly framed face on the social scene.
So what is a loving, worried, calculating mother to do? Keep the girl at home. Give her plenty of work to do around the house (had to let the servants go to pay for dowries and elocution lessons.) Don't let her wear pretty dresses and go out to the local fair.
Keep her neutralized as a threat to her own daughters. From Lady Tremaine's point of view, Fate has been especially cruel to her and her children, saddling them with this extrafamiliar invader that drains resources and reduces the biological offspring's ability to compete and survive to pass on their genetic traits (ugliness, being amongst them unfortunately.) And that is not an unknown phenomenon in nature.
Cinderella is a cuckoo.
She is the egg from another bird, placed in the nest to parasitize the family, taking away resources and evicting the other chicks from the nest.
Much has been made of Lady Tremaine's coldness and cruelty. She pops up on many "most evil villains ever" list, usually noting "she is cruel to Cinderella for no reason, there is no direct profit to herself." But they miss the point. She is that fiercest of females; a mother protecting her children from harm.
Wicked? Maybe. But how hard would your mom fight for you? Or you for your own child? We may look at it differently today, in our soft, baby-proofed world of gold stars and self esteem and child-proofed aspirin bottles, but human nature was a lot more red in tooth and claw back then.
And just in case you think all this is mere speculation, consider this: all that talk of Cinderella one day outcompeting the sisters? What happened the one single time she was let out of the house with her hair and nails did?
Happily fucking ever after, that's what.
Oh and Belle was the first.
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