Tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed, soft-spoken Cinderella was the first real princess to claim the tiara of popularity and so I wasn’t terribly surprised when my daughter picked her as her “favorite-est.”
At first I was disconcerted that my child would adore someone who looked the polar opposite of herself but then I came to embrace the blue beauty. After all, Cinderella is unfailingly kind, generous to a fault, works well with others — not to mention her complete mastery of animal training. (In another age, she would have been an incredible zoologist, right?) My daughter could have worse role models. So I figured when the new live-action Cinderella movie comes out, my daughter and I would be there at the first showing.
That is until I saw the most recent promotional picture tweeted out by the Cinderella movie. She has apparently undergone rib removal surgery along with losing the majority of her internal organs from aggressive corsetry or Photoshop. I’m not sure which.
Where there is kindness, there is goodness. And where there is goodness, there is magic. #Cinderellapic.twitter.com/HauXIkGuRy
— #Cinderella (@CinderellaMovie) December 16, 2014
Her cartoon version admittedly has a very tiny waist and she is not the only cartoon princess to be drawn in such an exaggerated way, but when an actual human being is involved, I expected a little more realism. What’s wrong with hoping that they’d let a human actress look like a human woman?
The other day my daughter, who is now 5, came in from playing with friends and asked me why her tummy pokes out where her best friend’s is flat. “I’m too fat!” she wailed. The cultural implications of weight had come crashing down on her despite my doing everything I could since the day she was born to shield her from that.
“No sweetie,” I said. “You are healthy and strong and fast and smart.” Then I gave her sweet, rounded tummy a zerbert and added, “And you’re perfectly beautiful.”
“I am the super duper fastest,” she grinned, and went back out to play.
I want her to hold on to that joy for her body and what it can do for as long as she can because I know that confidence won’t last forever. So I guess we won’t be seeing the new Cinderella movie after all. In fact, it seems no one will be seeing much of Cinderella at all at this rate.
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