FEMINIST CRITICISM

What is Feminist Criticism?

 Feminist Criticism “ A criticism
advocating equal rights for women in a
political,economic, psychological
,personal, and aesthetic sense

 Feminist criticism may also look at

intersectionally, looking on how factors
including race,sexuality,physical
ability,and class are also involved.
Feminist Criticism on Cinderella
 Cinderella , just like the other fairy tales,
features a damsel in distress longing for
someone to love her. Just like other fairy
tales, it ends in happily ever after scene with
the protaginist, Cinderella, ending up as a
lucky maiden who married prince and will
one day become a queen. In her journey, there
of course was the antagonist, the step mother,
who gave us the genetic notion that
stepmother can be equated to witches.
 In a feminist perspective, the story
of Cinderella gave the impression
that women are always in need.
And because of this need,there are
negative traits that rises.Just like
the stepmother in the story, her
need for security and wealth made
her evil.It is somewhat degrading
to women because it gives the
impression that women are weak.
 Through in the course of the story,
Cinderella was still able to redeem
herself by being brave enough to
face her step mother and taking the
risk of getting caught during the ball.
It also emphasizes that men rules
above women as they can easily
choose who to marry and that
decisions of a nation or a household
depends upon them.
 In the course of the story, a glimpse of
how unstable a household can be if a
woman is the head of a household was
portrade through the character of the
step mother. The wealth and stability of
the household became shaky when
cinderella's father died. There was an
impression given that there really is a
need for a women to be married for her
status in the society to be preserved or
 to be dignified in a society. Since
the story was written in an era
where women has not yet been
fully recognized in the society, it is a
proof that girl has been a biased in
gender during that age which has
slowly change as compared to this
age.
 On the other hand, the story has not
given match emphasis and role to men
except of course to the prince and the
father of cinderella. Though there are
only two major roles given to men in the
story, still it greatly affected the story.
The characters of these men has
affected the course and decisions of the
other characters in the story. Infact,
because of them, the lives of the other
characters has changed.
 The scene in the story where Cinderella
got lost track of the embodies how
women can be emotionally weak and
lose control of their actions.Because
she got so engrossed with the prince
and the wondrousness of the moment,
Cinderella became disorganized ,she
even left her shoe as she ran away.
 This incident has created an impression
are indeed weak when emotional
matters comes in. There was also an
emphasis on the social status of
women: the step mother being the head
of the house hold and Cinderella being
an orphan.
 In conclusion, the story of Cinderella
balance the different characters of
women. There was also an oppression
between women and women as seen in
the characters of the step mother and
Cinderella. An oppression of the man to
women has not greatly ephasized,
however, it was still felt as there was a
given connotation that women are
followers of men.
 It was also emphasized that men in the
society place a major role in the lives of
women. This was seen in the characters
of the prince and the father of
Cinderella.On the other hand,it is also
worth mentioning that there are women
in the society that may sometimes
seems unseen and mediocre but greatly
impacts that lives of others.
 Just like the step sisters of
Cinderella, with out them,the step
mother could have loved Cinderella
as her own or may not even marry
Cinderella's father at all. However,
it is undeniable that the story of
Cinderella inspires women to be
brave yet humble and be strong
despite rough times.
 Feminism

 Feminism is the ideology that believes

in the equal rights and opportunities for
women in education, employment and
in the cultural and social life. There are
differences between the ideas of
feminists around the world so that no
one description can fit all varieties of
feminist views.
Theory of Feminist criticism

 Feminist theory focuses on analyzing

gender inequality. It examines women`s
and mens`s social roles, experiences
interests, chores and feminist polotics in
a variety of fields, such as anthropology
sociology, communication, media
studies, psychoanalysis, home
economics, literature, education, and
philosophy.
 Cinderella, far from being an innocent
fairy tale about a girl achieving her
dreams is actually a misogynist story
that presents women as greedy and
cruel or pretty and passive, and
suggests that the best way for a woman
to get ahead in the world is to let herself
be abused and wait for help from
someone else.
Example: Applying Feminist
Criticism to Cinderella
 Girl is waiting to be “rescued” from her
horriblelife by handsome prince
 shows women are the weaker sex and
depend on men for everything ( man is
dominant and women is subordinate)
 “Good girl” is beautiful and “wicked girls”
are ugly
 shows that a woman's work is only in
her beauty, lack of beauty.
 SUMMARY OF CINDERELLA

Once upon a time, there was a girl

named Cinderella. She is unhappy after
her mother's death. After how many
years , her father remarried again and
now she have a step mother and two
step sisters. when her father died, they
treat her differently. They treat her
terribly and make and make her work
and never give her anything.
One day, the king decided to have a
big party and called everyone from
the town. The king wanted his son to
choose one of the pretty girls to
marry. The king sent an invite to all
the young maiden for a grand ball at
his palace. Her step sisters went to
the ball and she was left behind.
While Cinderella dreams about
wonderful things and eventually a
fairly-god mother comes and change
Cinderella into beautiful lady. .
She turned the pumpkin into beautiful
carriage. The mice became horses to
drag the carriage and the bird became
her coachman. She remind her that she
will go home before midnight. Cinderella
go to the ball with her beautiful dress.
She met the prince and they fall in love
but Cinderella has to leave she tells him
who she really is. Cinderella loses her
shoe as she runs away and the prince
picks up the shoe.
 He researches for her and eventually
marries her much to the surprise of the
step-mother and sisters.
MEMBERS:

 Almaira Magangcong
 Diether Ytang
 Mealyn Cabobongan
 Jean Doromas
 Rinalyn Sanday
 Jeffty Guiban
 Ibrahim Tin