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Cinderfella, Cinderella, and Prince Charming: Men in Cinderella Tales

While Cinderfella (1960) is satirical and our Prince Charming is infamously mysterious, there's no reason to disregard the men of "Cinderella".

Although Cinderella is classically female, male Cinderellas can be found from the Odyssey to today's retellings. Male Cinderellas tend to focus on similar themes of sibling rivalry and remaining morally strong, but prioritize the agency of our hero. They are typically seen earning their ascent upwards through demonstrations of their talents. Eve Salisbury points this out in her "(Re)dressing Cinderella" noting that, "...these heroes and their stories express the desire for survival against overwhelming odds that leads to a final transformation of the hero. Often the hero's ascendancy is accompanied by the reestablishment of, or return to, an ideal order of some kind."

Male Cinderellas, today, are also seen in LGBTQ retellings. These retellings can adhere to both male and female Cinderella features as these tales are typically newer, less censored than those of the past, and work on exploring different aspects of gender and societal norms. For example, in Jen Wang's The Prince and the Dressmaker, there exist a prince who dresses and masquerades as a princess as his parents seek to find him a bride. Here, we also see the blurring of Cinderella and Prince Charming because in modern times we must ask: why there can't be something in the middle?

 Prince Charming can already be seen anywhere from a cheating husband to Cinderella's equal in every way.We see him as Prince Nevermind in some tales and the main character of others. We see personality and nothing at all, making Prince Charming a true person of interest. Perhaps, it is the ambiguous nature in classical tales that intrigues us and pushes us to personify or completely reject him. In quite a few modern adaptations, we see Prince Charming being much more supportive of female independence than ever before. In fact, in the 2021 adaptation of "Cinderella", Nicholas Galitzine portrays a ridiculous Prince Charming who doesn't want to be King. Instead he is in pursuit of our Cinderella, who also rejects the royal lifestyle in favor of her own ambitions in business. Here, he also helps our Cinderella in eventually bringing her to a job interview and displaying her work for the kingdom to see. Some Prince Charming characters are fitting of the title, but we must also notice that, sometimes, Prince Charming's nature is not charming at all. In Into the Woods (2014) and Olga Grushin's The Charmed Wife we see men who are simply not good matches for their Cinderella wives. They may get their wives at first, but their true characters are revealed eventually.

Below are just a few examples of different men in Cinderella tales.

Here, we exhibit Odysseus, Into the Woods's Prince Charming, and Austin Ames from A Cinderella Story. Where Odysseus follows a Cinderella type plot with his own Goddess Athena as a fairy godmother, Chris Pines plays a Prince Charming who is ultimately unfaithful. Meanwhile in the 2000s, young girls are entranced by Austin Ames and his version of Prince Charming that ultimately supports his independent Cinderella and follows his own dreams rather than those of his parents.

Further reading:

Maier, Sarah E., and Jessica Raven. “Gen Z Cinder(f)Ellas: Girl Powered Gender Adaptations in the A Cinderella Story Films.” Woke Cinderella, Lexington Books, 2020.

Page-Kirby, Kristen. “‘Into the Woods’ Pokes Fun at Fairy Tale Males.” Washington Post, 24 Dec. 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2014/12/24/into-the-woods-pokes-fun-at-fairy-tale-males/.

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