Response to "What's Wrong with Cinderella?"

Orenstein caught my attention immediately with the title "What's Wrong With Cinderella". I personally had no issues with the character - Cinderella is hard-working, does not blame anyone nor complain about her unfortunate situation, and keeps a positive attitude even while being the victim of emotional and physical abuse by her evil step-mother and wicked step-sisters. However, Orenstein failed to hold up to her promising title. I read through the article and came out unconvinced of Orenstein's argument.

I did not understand the author's strong dislike towards princesses. While I do agree that Disney princesses all posses Aryan features, I do think there is an explanation as to why. Disney is an American corporation, developed and based in America, targeting the American population. Therefore, it is understandable that these characters are Caucasian. If Disney had been based in an Asian country, for example Korea (my hometown), then I am 99% sure that the princesses would be Korean with Asian features. The target population determine what sells, and people relate more to things that are similar to themselves.

In class, we discussed children unconsciously picking up implicit messages from films/books that they are exposed to. One may argue that Caucasian princesses enforce the stereotype that girls have to be white to be a princess. However, while I do think this is a valid thought, how can this point be proved and supported with scientific data and research? As of now, it just remains a speculation that sounds quite plausible.

Orenstein provided some food for thought in her piece. I was particularly interested by her analysis of color and its association to gender. I agree with her on this specific issue. Pink is defined as "female" while blue is the color for boys. This was the only part of her piece that I thought was convincing. Although the article was well-written and sprinkled with facts, I was not persuaded by Orenstein but rather disappointed that I did not ever get to find out what exactly is wrong with Cinderella.