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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   24105 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026

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It's true, but what the boy has to do to prove to the cat he is worthy is pretty easy – just stick around and do the chores he is told to do.

Narratively it's 7 years of labor. More importantly, it's very clearly framed as stuff the protagonist must do to in order to prove himself.

She has to 'do' a few things like blend in at a high society event, disguising her real identity; sprint out of the ball before midnight to avoid humiliation; and escape being locked in a room by her stepmother so that she can try on the slipper and prove she is the woman the prince danced with.

Those things aren't really framed as labors she must do to prove her worthiness.

So I'm still not seeing it.

No, she isn't proving her worthiness to the prince with these actions. She's proved her worthiness to us the audience through her previous years of suffering with dignity though. The prince etc is her reward for that from our point of view, even though he probably doesn't know anything about her other than her beauty. You'll see this sometimes the other way round where an action hero gets the girl at the end despite her having only a very vague idea of what he's just done. E.g. he runs out of a burning building and they kiss, all she knows is that he's survived. Narratively her love is the reward for what we the audience know makes him worthy. (In such stories there's usually also an A plot in which he saves the world or such.)

I could believe that in-story characters rewarding a protagonist just for being beautiful and themselves is more common with female characters. I think they still have to manifest their character in action for us the audience to see they deserve to be selected by the Prince though.

She's proved her worthiness to us the audience through her previous years of suffering with dignity though.

That's not how the story is framed. And in a fable for children, if such a connection were intended it would be pretty obvious.Just look at the Miller's Boy and Cat story. They don't exactly hide the fact that the protagonist is being rewarded for his 7 years of faithful service.

I agree it's not how the story is framed (it's not a meta story), but it's how the story works. We wouldn't accept her being rewarded if she didn't demonstrate her character by having gone through something tough first. Granted, the Miller's Boy and Cat is not exactly the same in that the princess chooses Foolish Hans, then tests him with the seven years of labour before actually rewarding him. But it's made explicit that he is neither talented nor clever, just someone who gets on with drudgework in an unquestioning manner, so the message is similar in its appeal: that if you're lucky, you may find yourself catapulted from your long suffering peasant life to fabulous riches without having to do anything particularly out of the ordinary.

We wouldn't accept her being rewarded if she didn't demonstrate her character by having gone through something tough first.

Well, what if "going through something tough" had simply been that her (Cinderella's) sisters got nice clothes and such while she had to wear hand-me-downs; the sisters got to go to fancy events while she didn't, etc. In that case, she's not particularly doing any chores. It seems to me that with that change, the story would not be fundamentally different.

Well, what if "going through something tough" had simply been that her (Cinderella's) sisters got nice clothes and such while she had to wear hand-me-downs; the sisters got to go to fancy events while she didn't, etc. In that case, she's not particularly doing any chores. It seems to me that with that change, the story would not be fundamentally different.

It's an interesting thought experiment. There have been uncountable versions of Cinderella around the world, probably some of which have originated independently. It really is a foundational story type. Perhaps there are versions like the one you suggest where Cinderella is mistreated but doesn't distinguish herself in how she reacts to that. And sure the story would still work as there'd be satisfaction in seeing someone who's been treated unfairly winning the lottery, husband and wealth wise. But it's gonna work best if we think she's a good person who bears her misfortune with patience and is kind to small animals. And if we think she's a bad person, who joins her ugly sisters in mistreating others and would happily join their ranks, the story is hardly going to work at all.

It's an interesting thought experiment. There have been uncountable versions of Cinderella around the world, probably some of which have originated independently. It really is a foundational story type. Perhaps there are versions like the one you suggest where Cinderella is mistreated but doesn't distinguish herself in how she reacts to that. And sure the story would still work as there'd be satisfaction in seeing someone who's been treated unfairly winning the lottery, husband and wealth wise. But it's gonna work best if we think she's a good person who bears her misfortune with patience and is kind to small animals.

Perhaps, but it's not an essential element of the story. By contrast, take the 7 years of faithful labor out of the Miller boy's story and it's a completely different story.

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