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Cinderella Gender Roles

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Animation and cartoons are potent socializing agents for young children in the current era and children spend about thirty hours a week watching TV (Witt, 1999). Furthermore, cartoons and other shows are cultivating young children to understand the expectations associated with specific statuses. A status is a human created position in society (Ferrante 43). In addition, a role is “an expectation associate with a status” (Ferrante 52). The movie Cinderella is a cartoon motion picture created by Walt Disney in 1950. This movie displays traditional gender roles and sexism throughout the film. Though it may seem as a virtuous cartoon, this movie implements a patriarchal society where men are the only ones that are able to make decisions, subjects’…show more content…
Cinderella’s story expresses that if a girl abides the rules of being a socially acceptable daughter, she is rewarded with a suitable husband. Throughout the beginning of the movie, Cinderella cleans the house, cooks and performs other household tasks housewives have to complete. Cinderella did not rebel against the unfair treatment and performed the task that she was assigned by her stepmother. Eventually, Cinderella marries the price because she demonstrates the characteristics of a traditional housewife. This socializes young girls to believe that they are only desirable if they concur with mainstream social norms. Furthermore, neither of Cinderella’s stepsisters marry the prince, because, they do not represent the traditional housewife behavior. The stepsisters did not know how to perform any household tasks, and this is another reason why the prince rejects them. In addition, Cinderella is the only female that depicts a traditional housewife, and she is the lucky lady that the prince decides to marry. This influences young girls to aspire to be similar to Cinderella, because this movie teaches them that they want a man to save them, and for a man to save them they need to act similar to Cinderella. Today, women should liberate themselves from the chains of being a housewife, and pursue any career or occupation that will bring them satisfaction. The other stereotype is that men only desire women that exemplify traditional housewife characteristics, and this is completely false. Modern men value a woman who desires to accomplish her own personal goals, and not follow the trends set by
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