Cinderella’s Princely Ever After

Abstract

This paper focuses on three film adaptations of “Cinderella” that appeared in the late 1990s and early 2000s: Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998), A Cinderella Story (2004), and Another Cinderella Story (2008). Close reading the details of the movies, particularly the presentation of the Cinderella characters, the relationships between women, and the role that men play, reveals problematic ideologies about gender and power. All these films are postfeminist adaptations of the Cinderella story that have a veneer of girl power and independence, but actually suggest that most females are not trustworthy and that true power lies with the masculine.