It was one of 7 videos I checked out last week on my husband's birthday. I drove over to the Pleasant Valley library-- so named because it is very pleasant and far from the downton, I mean the downtown, library that is being remodeled and is not so pleasant right now-- and as I drove, I listened in the car, to former president Bill Clinton tell his "how I met and married my wife" story and his "why my wife should be your next president" pitch. It was a good speech by someone I don't totally trust, about someone I don't totally trust.
We watched Brave, and Ninjago, and The Iron Giant, and Witches this past week, and then today I realized the movies would all need to go back, and we really should watch them first. We still had Cinderella and two historical movies about Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. They look like they'd be great for a fourth grade unit on American History, but the boys have not been very interested. Nor have they been interested in Cinderella. The cover shows the beautiful actress, photo-shopped and glowing, with her far-too-low-cut blue butterfly dress on, and her hair a bright blond crown around her perfect face. The prince looks dashing, but mostly he looks bedazzled and smitten by this angel he is holding in his arms. A few adjustments to the cover and it would be perfect on a romance novel. So the boys had zero interest. But it is 100 degrees outside, and I put the movie in without asking them what they wanted and so they watched it-- James wandered, and William chatted, but Peter sat and watched it and shushed his brothers as needed.
I stopped watching it after Cinderella got to the ball. I do not love it. I do not even like it. Cinderella is a very good girl. However, she has very little personality. She looks like she's 16. She is terribly immodest for a kids' movie. She does not stand up to her step-mother, but magically has a fairy godmother who speaks unintelligibly, yet manages to make all her dreams come true.
There is probably a twist, right? She has to stand up to her step mother at some point, right? The prince decides he's really attracted to her mind, not her body, right? I could not sit still long enough to see! I think when a cartoon princess looks perfect, and is perfectly good, that is one thing. That is an impossible standard for a woman, but-- hey, it's just a cartoon. It's not real. BUT when the princess is real, and is not only already so beautiful and young, but also has all the camera tricks going for her, then the standard is still impossible, but is perhaps more dangerous.
I would not want to be Cinderella's friend. If I had to be a mouse, I suppose it would be good to be her friend, but otherwise, I find her impossibly good, and beautiful and irritating.
And my boys, who will someday (sooner than I'd like to admit) begin really noticing girls, and deciding who is cute, and who they'd like to ask out, and date and someday marry-- and even kiss (gasp!) do not need to have a Cinderella paraded in front of them, lauded and crowned as the ideal woman. If my Peter-boy does ever meet anyone as impossibly beautiful and good as Cinderella I will give her a thorough vetting and be certain she is also interesting, human, flawed, well-read, well-traveled, and devoted to my son-- and able to change a poopy diaper, make macaroni with one hand, have her own opinion, be willing to vote Democrat, and quote most of Galaxy Quest. I have high expectations for my future daughters in law, and Cinderella just doesn't make the cut!
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