As a child, I never could relate to Cinderella, despite being poor like her and wishing for a bit of glamor in my life. Oh, the story of being orphaned and having a stepmother frightened me. The cruelty and unfairness stepmama and her daughters inflicted on Cinders horrified me. But she took it all in stride, like a happy victim. Stoicism in the face of adversity is a trait I admire, but Cinders seemed to be ok with her lot; she just wanted to go to one party.
I've read Cinderella in three languages, read at least a dozen different cultural takes on this story, and seen this performed via puppetry, on stage, tv, film, or cartoon in multiple forms. As a child, I loved Red Riding Hood because she wore red, my signature color. In the versions I read, it was she who outsmarted the wolf, not the huntsman. And I liked Snow White more, just because she had dark hair; shallow, I know.
But the even more shallow reason I couldn't relate to Cinders is her tiny peds. I was 5 feet tall by age 10 with size 8 feet. I eventually grew 5 more inches, and my feet widened and lengthened over time, so now I can't fit into anything smaller than a 9 1/2 W (so I usually wear a 10). In the original version of Cinderella, her stepsisters cut off parts of their feet to fit into the glass slipper. One cut off her toes, the other sliced off the heels. As they limped along with the easily-fooled Prince, a bird flew behind them, telling the stupid Prince to look at the trails of blood left behind.
I know it's my insecurity, and it's completely irrational to dislike a fairy tale character for petty reasons. But petty is what I am when it comes to make-believe because it's not reality, so it doesn't matter. I'm ok with that.
I'm happy to say I passed my pettiness on to my now-adult child. She hated Cinders for being such a pushover and for her tiny feet as well. At 5'8", my daughter's size 9 1/2 feet would never fit into a stupid glass slipper. Plus, who'd want a prince who was more focused on a girl's foot than her face? Her favorite fairy tale princesses were Gretel (not a princess, but whatever) because she was smart and was the one who pushed the witch into the fire; Rapunzel since she had long blonde hair like Rapunzel; and Sleeping Beauty because Beauty got to sleep in for 100 years, and my daughter prized her sleep.
FTR, I've nothing against naturally small feet. Feet are feet. It's the silly obsession that some women have to pretend they have small feet when I can clearly see their cockroach killer shoes are as long as my forearm. (Seriously, that elongated, pointed-toe heels look is not flattering).
Big, small, tall, short, and the oft-forgotten medium are all great. But why the obsession with petiteness as the apex of feminine beauty? It gets weird in books when a heroine is described as having tiny teeth. Like, for real, we're fetishizing baby teeth as sexy?
Anyway, why this rant on a silly fairy tale? There's a Cinderella movie out, and I'm--again--going through books trying to donate to Little Library. I have tons of different Cinderella books from my homeschooling days to give away. Which made me wonder why Cinderella is the most popular fairy tale. Her martyrdom? Her transformation? The fairy godmother? The shoes?
It's always the shoes.
3 stars