Cinderella Told Through The Centuries Reshaping Gender...

Cinderella Told Through the Centuries: Reshaping Gender Stereotypes From the parlours of the French aristocracy, to the folk tales of Germany’s middle class, and now to every child in America, the tale of Cinderella is a relic that has been passed down through the generations. Although the backbone of Cinderella has been relatively consistent, different authors have retold the story to further relate to the audience of the time, which in turn, created a different impression of how appropriate gender temperaments should be conducted. In every version of Cinderella, there is a young girl who is made a slave but still finds her way to marry into high society. In this manner, the modern story of Cinderella still sheds the same light on gender stereotypes that are seen in Charles Perrault’s original version of the story. It was how Perrault and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were influenced by their audience and the appropriate gender morals of the time, that led them to create the ir editions of Cinderella. However, these stories led to the molding of gender stereotypes which still affects the younger Cinderella audiences of today. Perrault’s Cinderella carefully plays to the ideals of women in the aristocracy through the depiction of clothes and beauty trends of the time. When the sisters are getting ready for the ball, Perrault touches on the idea of feminine beauty and how it was achieved in the Victorian era, describing the process of makeup and scar covering patches; â€Å"They