Growing up, I thought my mother looked just like Cinderella and had the same pretty voice. I was excited to watch this movie again, with my daughter, because I thought it would bring me back to my childhood. I must admit that while watching it for absolutely different reasons, and taking notes, it was hard to enjoy it as much. Without immediately referring to the sheer passivity of the heroine, Cinderella, I’ve found that this story not only gender-stereotypes, but sets societal norms right out there on the table for you, and agrees and supports every one of them. Cinderella is not the role model I want for my daughter.
Now that’s growing up without a childhood. Jane Smiley seems like a great parent who cares about her children but to allow her daughters to put on makeup even entering their teenage years just isn’t right. Her girls where prematurely growing up, where behaving beyond their age, and with their only priority being beautiful at all times it seem to help them in the long run. As they burned off the “Barbie stage” and grew into more important things down their lives. Like for example Smiley talks about her older daughter, “Now she is planning to graduate school and law school and become an expert on woman’s health issues, perhaps adolescent health issues like anorexia and bulimia” (377).
The fact that most fail to realize, as pointed by the author, is that these two mothers want the same things: they both want the best future for their daughters, and both mothers are willing to do anything to ensure that it happens. It is, however, Cinderella’s mother who surpasses and comes in first place. Panttaja believes Cinderella succeeds in winning the prince’s hand at the ball not because of the goodness of her character, but because she was able to stay loyal to her mother. By doing this her mother rewards her by giving her the most beautiful appearance in the entire kingdom. Cinderella succeeds through her mother’s magic, deceit, lies, and disguises.
Then there is Dee, the older sister, which is out spoken and thinks she is the best looking girl in the world. As for Maggie, she is ok with the way they live, however Dee does not understand why they still live the way they do. The older sister thinks she can take and do as she wishes, as Maggie lets everything go without a fight. If they could just get along, they could change a whole lot in each other’s lives and be allot more understanding of each other. If every person in this world would stop judging, and start listening to each other, there may not be as many wars and deaths.
The Woman of Willendorf may have been looked up to back in Common Era due to her capabilities. Her "womanly features" emphasized to show that she was respected because of what she has naturally, and her ability to reproduce. Barbie, on the other hand, is highly superficial. People look up to her now because she is beautiful, and is successful within her career as she has evolved to become other beings such as Barbie Police and Barbie Doctor. But the biggest difference with her is that achieving her looks may be highly unlikely.
Even though Barbie is put in a professional occupation, they attribute her success to good luck instead of her non-existent efforts. Instead, it is her pleasure- seeking that allows her dog to discover the gold. Even at work Barbie lives a life of leisure. Motz explains how the image of an adult woman that barbie plants on little girls is fictional. However, we all seem to encourage our little girls to play and interact with this dolls.
Dexter’s view of Judy starts to change and he starts realizing it’s not just about the beauty and he is into Irene even though he kind of used Irene for back up. “That old penny’s worth of happiness he had spent for a bushel of content” means he is content with Judy and he just wanted the happiness he got from Judy’s beauty but he realized he was content with how Irene was. She was more down to earth and not just all beauty. The symbolism and imagery found in Judy’s appearance as she approaches Dexter at the University Club was beauty and she was infatuated with Judy due to her attractiveness. The significance of the house at the end of part IV was it was she lived in a mansion and a very rich house.
In the first incident Janesta took a doll away from Emily. In the second incident there did not appear to be a reason, however, no one was paying attention to Emily. I would have two dolls available so that both girls could play with one. I would also give Emily a little one to one attention. I believe that if there are two dolls available Emily will not bite Janesta.
While I understand that this may not be the ideal way to handle a situation, I believe that Nanny did the best she could considering her experiences. I like that Nanny’s goal is to protect Janie. I appreciate the sacrifices she made for her granddaughter. Nanny’s character is true to life. While people may not marry their teenagers off in modern times, most parents have the same desire for their kids which is to see them wealthy and
A baby would make it all better. Once again, I was wrong! Things continued to worsen but I did not allow this to in any way affect my pregnancies. My daughters became my number one priority in life. I quit wearing make-up because becoming a mom became a full time job.