The Cinderella Effect in Myth and Reality

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the Anne C. Bernstein's article "Women in Stepfamilies: The Fairy Godmother, the Wicked Witch, and Cinderella Reconstructed" which parallels abusive domestic relationships in step families with the story of Cinderella and her wicked stepmother. It discusses what happens to a modern-day abused Cinderella in the real world without fairy godmothers. It looks at how the Cinderella myth has survived for historical and sociological reasons that are still existent in our culture and how women are responsible for the primary care giving in most families and feel a sexual and emotional rivalry with other women for male affection. The Cinderella story reinforces the idea of stepmothers and stepsisters as wicked and avenging, rather than potential allies, in the struggle to develop a new family. Ultimately, all the participants in a new family must discuss the issues raised by the fairy tale.

From the Paper:

"Bernstein traces this discomfort to the stepmother-stepdaughter connection evidenced in Cinderella. However, she nuances the simplicity of the fairy tale, not stating that both mother and daughter are he receptacles of cultural norms of femininity. "Having once been a girl herself," and assuming a certain level of feminine knowledge, a stepmother may be more apt to attempt to parent the girl before the girl is ready than she might be in the case of a boy. A girl may be used to being her "real" mother's confidant and be angry at the intrusion of a stepmother into her relationship with her custodial mother. She may see a stepmother as a rival to her mother; even after the divorce, even after her own mother has died."

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