A Change of Women's Identity from Cinderella to Tinderella

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 13, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (Anglistik), course: Cultural Studies, language: English, abstract: The study examines the changing images and the modern role and self-understanding of women through analyzing motifs in Charles Perrault's Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper and in the short video clip Tinderella, written and conceptualized by Emily Axford.

Cinderella was chosen because of the high number of gender-related aspects it contains. A comparison with Tinderella seems useful since it constitutes an example of a woman with a rather modern lifestyle. To give an overview about the debate on the exploiting effect of fairy tales, I like to introduce scholarly work concerning the topic by the authors Marcia R. Lieberman (Someday My Prince Will Come) and Linda T. Parsons (Ella Evolving: Cinderella Stories and the Construction of Gender-Appropriate Behavior).

The expected result would be a clear demonstration of changing gender identity and sexual self-determination. The examination of this topic is important since we are confronted with the current debate on gender identity and gender-related education. Our society recently discusses whether we need gendered roles and have to make a differentiation between sexes with regard to several social issues. Therefore, it is interesting to examine a possible influence on the origins of gender theories and their progress.