What Are the Feminist lessons from Cinderella movie 2021? Let’s Find Out!
The Camila Cabello starer has recently made headlines for bringing out a modern and powerful perspective towards the good old fairytale.
Amazon Prime’s Cinderella starring pop sensation Camila Cabello has pulled off a strenuous task- it is not easy to retell a famous fairytale that the audience is already done with. Fairytales are progressively losing connectedness in our lives — most likely the rationale why writer-director Kay Cannon takes a more modern approach to showcase her Cinderella story. While her patrician may be a lady with a voice and a reasonably musical one at that, Camila stars as Ella in her debut film, within the usual setting of leading a life settled by her stepmother. However, she isn’t let alone in the hopes to make something out of her life. She is in a quest to open a dress-making shop.
Fairytales are more and {more} losing connectedness in our lives — in all probability the rationale why writer-director Kay Cannon takes a more up to date approach to inform her Cinderella story. She tries to dismiss those gender stereotypes to gift a rather oversimplified account of girls making an attempt to seek out their place in an exceedingly man’s world.
The most prominent drawback in the traditional fairytale was that for a woman, marrying well is their sole aim and in the end, it takes a man to make your dreams come true. However, the new movie changes this notion by making Ella (Camila) an ambitious woman whose aim in life is to become an apparel designer. Her dream is not to become a princess but to become a successful entrepreneur.
However, it appears like an impossible dream to have. Here, women do not run the business. Everyone says it, especially Vivian (her stepmother) who, we learn, also dreamed of one day being more than a wife. It was quickly understood that Vivian’s cruelty — less caricatured than in other versions — stems from a deep personal disappointment and that her fierce wish to marry off her daughters in a rich household just because she couldn’t.
When one of her daughters ask Ella if she looks pretty, she says yes and then adds: “What matters is how YOU feel when you look in the mirror,” which symbolises her understanding of the self as an individual rather than just a feminine presence who has to appear in a certain manner.
The film also shatters the myth around Fairy Godmother being a woman- it shows that it is all about being a well-wisher after all and in this case, we get Fab G instead, who motivates her to go ahead and get what she wants instead of sitting back and giving it. We loved this character!
Perhaps the best thing that makes the movie relevant to our times is the focus on work-life balance. As women, we are often stereotyped as giving up our careers for the sake of family and marriage. However, the character of Ella does not shy away from portraying that the prince is a mere coincidence that happens to her and gives her a chance to fall in love. The fact that more importance is given to her career goals in life rather than just marital ones is proof of what every feminist has been demanding for ages. The best part is, the movie portrays feminism as an idea where both men and women are to be given equal opportunities without giving more weightage to the opposite gender.
Lastly, Kay Cannon’s Cinderella is a stark contrast to the previously depicted versions of the character with more realistic and achievable dreams than just wanting to look beautiful for her prince charming. The woman of today definitely does not need magic to transform herself into someone royal- she possesses her mindset to do what she wants and it’s the inner magic and clarity of thoughts that she has which makes her more real and less ideal.
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