Cinderella- The story of abuse, but with a happy ending.

The story of abuse, but with a happy ending.

So the story has been told and retold in many ways, many times and with many deviations, but ultimately is a story of abuse, perseverance, resistance and hope.

I used to like it then hate it then like it again, it’s complicated. It seems my mind and heart want to love the story, but my logical and practical side say it’s stupid. I can argue both and give reason for love or hate, but right now I’m just stating some facts.

Ok, so, Cinderella’s “original’ story we are never going to find, unless you got a time machine and can trace it all the way back. No, disney did not created it, nope, neither did the Grimm Brothers, and i don't believe Perrault did, but imma look more into that, later.

Anyway, back to the stories. The many versions of Cinderella usually have an orphan girl who ends up with step-family or some relatives who dislike her, there are usually two other girls who torment her and the mother figure who really loathes her. There is one paternal figure, mom or dad, in the beginning of the story but only for a small amount of time and then Cinderella ends up separated from any true family. In most of the older stories she doesn’t even have other relatives or friends, making her completely isolated and thus the better target for abuse without care for consequences. Later stories there is one or two friends but they have little power in the storyline. Usually the friends help to ease the burden of life, but not of abuse. Either they are the same age and don't really know abuse or they are older but don’t know the steps to take when that kind of abuse is going.

The story however told, ends up being of abuse. Different types of abuse, it might not be the one when you hit someone, but you are not treating them with respect and kindness, and usually the main character is always been treated as inferior.

There are different types of abuse:

Physical -The most common I guess

Sexual

Emotional

Mental

Financial

Cultural or identify

I didn’t really know much about it but do a google search and you’ll see.

Anyway if you know any cinderella story you know there is always the financial abuse. Cinderella works her ass off fro other and she nevers sees a penny or even gratitude for it. Because she is usually very young in the story there is really not much she knows or can do about it. Also, this has been going on for some times and she is most likely accepted it as her life or doesn’t even realized she is being abused.

Later adaptations of the story also show emotional or mental abuse, some even go as far as identity abuse, because the evil figure hides or controls the true identity of Cinderella.

In the stories, Cinderella is usually only looking to survive day by day, I mean she doesn’t know any better than completing her chores in time and not being yell at. However there always comes a break in status quo and that is when Cinderella breaks the rules and goes to the ball, or does something she really wants. Different stories tell of different objectives, a ball or a dance are usually included but the reason for going is different. In the Disney story the ball is the reason, in others the ball is a means to an end. She goes because its her opportunity to show someone something, or to prevent something from happening. The point is, she breaks from the status quo and finally realizes how bad she has it. Most of the time she has the help of her fairy godmother, but other versions have substituted the fairy part for that one true BFF.

Then we have prince charming, who is unusually useless as many fairy tales would tell you.

Seriously what’s the deal with him? At least in the Disney’s Cinderella animated story he does nothing, seriously, not even look for her the whole idea was the king’s and the one to execute it was the duke. I want to give him a chance and think that maybe the followed one of the older version when he gets so sick of heartache that he can’t even get out of bed, but doubt it. Thankfully, later versions improve the idea of prince charming and that character is more involved in the story, going as far as actually helping Cinderella out of her min hell.

Back to my point.

My point is, that one of the things to get out of any Cinderella story is to look out for the signs of abuse and break it. Not everyone is a story with a happy ending, and Cinderella had to endure a lot of pain and abuse before getting her happy ever-after (however long that could be).

People don’t have to endure and hope for the best. Not everyone has a fairy godmother or BFF who helps us in bad situations till our prince charming (or the duke) comes to the rescue.

Everyone should be more aware of what abuse entails. Some people like I said before don’t even know they are being abused, they just think that that’s life. Sometimes they will have someone to help them out, but sometimes the break doesnt come and we end knowing about it too late.