Aaah!!
Reading your writeup, maybe it's just that I'm not that much in the Disney fandom, but I wasn't aware that people see Cinderella as flat and passive. Like you, I've always seen Cinderella as someone who has to deal with an abusive situation and, honestly, the more I think about it, the more I can say that her portrayal is pretty spot-on.
Maybe it's just that some people don't understand that action isn't always boom explosions. Cinderella has to present herself with her guards high, but the movie is about her private emotional depth. I mean, isn't that the freaking point of the movie? Cinderella and her secret wishes?
Maybe it's also that not everyone can understand what it's like to live in an abusive situation like hers, and that she can't just go and have a big fight and storm out. Her safety has to come first. Which to a viewer who doesn't understand what's going on seems like she's giving up, but that's hardly what's happening here. What we see of Cinderella are her strategies of daily survival.
Many people today think empowering/feminist actions have to be loud, brassy, and angry, but Cinderella proves that one can be calmly self-asserting, too.
Amen to that and I'd frame this quote.
The whole point of Cinderella's plot is that she's in a tragic situation where she's being
denied agency and independence. Her greatest and only means of rebellion is to have private dreams. And through the plot of the story, this private fight, this not letting this last part of herself die, is what lets her get out of her bad situation. Like she didn't let go of the slipper. :D
Excellent work, it was a joy to read and I found myself going "yes!" and "I hadn't thought of that, but it's true!" at about everything :D
