Is Cinderella Feasible for All Women of Different Backgrounds?

For generations, folktales have largely influenced women of many cultures and tongues, both young and old. Its main function is to allow readers to understand the real meaning of life despite the difficult problems and circumstances that all women face in reality as well as provide a strong hope (often in the form of a wish) in desperate situations and heal the emotional scars of a traumatic beginning. Such a tale has manifested itself into the contemporary society, morphing itself to fit the mold of the diverse lifestyles around the world. The simplistic tale of “Cinderella”, accounted as the world’s most popular fairy-tale, has permitted females to look beyond the unfavorable in order to receive a rewarding glimpse of a happy ending. But how feasible is this narrative for women of color? In the short essay “My Best White Friend: Cinderella Revisited”, Patricia J. Williams questions the validity of this idea. Does the sole white Cinderella compensate for women of various ethnic groups? The answer is of course no for the same reason that Miss America (who embodies the same like qualities of Cinderella by the way) wins the hearts of thousands every year for her cute as a button nose, strawberry blonde hair that flows, crystal blue eyes, wholesome outlook on life, and bright personality traits. The importance of identity is very important to Williams as she tries to unravel this notion to her Best White Friend.

The ideal, white Cinderella, though widely accepted all over the world, has planted itself into the minds of girls and women in society today. Cinderella’s character has been “implemented as the cultural norm, and deviation from [the] quest to be like her [is] socially reprimanded severely” (Pandolfo 3). As a result, it has set a standard for perfection some women and girls cannot not ever attain especially for women of color, according to Ellen Pandolfo. Williams enhances this idea, expressing that Cinderella “wasn’t an over-thirty black professional with an attitude” (Behrens 635). Had Cinderella been of another race other than that of a Caucasian, it is plausible to expect a turn in events that lead up to the so called happily ever after ending. Black women have a different type of struggle that that of white woman. As Williams puts it, “We bear the burden