Title page- An investigation into the comparison of the different gendered identities portrayed in Walt Disney’s

adaptation of Cinderella (1950) and Cinderella (2021) ft Camila Cabello.

Introduction

We all know the story of Cinderella. Cinderella is ingrained in young children’s minds; especially girls. The
original story of Cinderella is based on the book written by Charles Perrault; written all the way back in 1697.
The Disney adaptation has been viewed by millions. The messages perpetuated throughout the movie portray
Cinderella as passive and subservient to men. Cinderella (1950) compared to Cinderella (2021), a side by side
comparison between society in the 50s vs modern society. 1950 was the era of men working and females
being left to tend the house My investigation will focus on how language reflects changes in attitudes toward
gender and gender identities highlighted in modern Cinderella whilst comparing it to the Walt Disney
produced Cinderella.

Cinderella (2021) went against the gendered identities that are presented by Disney’s adaptation. The
character, Cinderella is played by Camila Cabello who is known for her body positivity persona. The original
character of Cinderella was thin waisted blonde hair and blue eyes whilst the modern actor that plays
Cinderella is Latina with brown eyes and brown hair. The fact that the actor promotes bodies to be all shapes
and colours and still being perfect shows huge social change as it contradicts the ideas portrayed in the Walt
Disney’s adaptation of Cinderella. In the 1950 Cinderella, the men all have instrumental roles in society whilst
the women are left to obey and not have much power. The social division of power is an important thing to
note as it shows that Walt Disney’s Cinderella promotes patriarchy by presenting a gendered division within
society.

Methodology:

My data is corpus data. My data was collecting via the internet and transcribed by me. Corpus data is very
convenient as it allows people to save time in their investigation. The data collected was qualitative data.
Qualitative data consists of detail and looks at the data from a microscopic perspective. Qualitative data is
commonly used to understand the focus group’s oppression and factors that may have contributed.

My data is pre-existing as it was extracted through two distinct types of spoken mode; the first being taken
from Cinderella 1950 which was based on a book by Charles Perrault and the second one taken from Cinderella
2021 starring Camila Cabello. My data being pre – existing is a huge advantage as it allows time and money to
be saved. The data was already collected so this allowed me to focus on the analysis.

Advantages of corpus data include lack of ethical issues being raised during the collection of the data. Its high
in validity but low in reliability. Reliability means that it may not be the same if someone decided to replicate
the investigation. Validity allows my hypothesis to be near or the same as I predicted. Replicability is not a
main concern as I am taking a qualitative approach rather than a quantitative approach.

The main subjects being examined was two different Cinderella's’ as well as two different fairy godmothers. It
is important to note that item A; Cinderella 1950 is an animation whilst Cinderella 2021 is a live action remake.
A cartoon is a collection of images that are arranged sequentially and recorded through a camera in order to
make static presentation come alive. The cartoon artists can manipulate the images to form an idealistic
society which promotes stereotypes or can go against stereotypes. In a live action it is less easy to manipulate
the representation that the production is presenting as a live action has actors and a lot more people involved.
This affects the analysis as cartoons and live action remakes have different audiences. A cartoon is intended for
children around the ages of 5 -8. A live action can range from the ages of 12 and above depending on what is
included. Presumably, Cinderella 2021 is targeted at ages 12 and above as there is nothing graphic included.

What you watch as a kid can be argued to affect your mindset and your beliefs and values. If children are
watching Disney movies such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, it’s argued that they will grow up being fond
of princes and fairy tales. Live actions will be an adaptation of the cartoon. It can follow stereotypes or go
against them. Disney used the ideal race to negatively promote ideal beauty standards. Live action does not
have to follow each scene word by word. They can add scenes, change the story line however they please.
Cinderella 2021 showcases this by making Cinderella a well-known activist and Latina; Camila Cabello. By
casting an activist, they’ve started going against stereotypes as Disney’s interpretation of Cinderella promotes
idealistic beauty standards of that era as Cinderella is thin waited, has a small nose, blonde and has blue eyes.
By children watching the live action, it allows children to realise that those beauty standards were not a
realistic interpretation of society.

Other differences include the live action presenting Cinderella to be independent and having her own business.
She also rejected the Prince as she wanted to still have her business and could not do so if she was part of
royalty. The fairy godmother being a gay black man who talks in nonstandard, high frequency lexis throughout
the movie. This proves that this live action was created to prove the infamous Cinderella 1950 is outdated.

1950 was made after WW2. Women were given more financial responsibility as the men were off to fight in
the war. As the women were doing the “men’s jobs” arguably there should have been a few more active roles
in the 1950 remake. However, Cinderella is seen as a passive, idealistic, daydreaming, nurturing house woman
as she never talks back and does what she’s supposed to. The film was directed by Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton
Luske, and Clyde Geronimi. Three men made this movie so presumably we can conclude that men were
unhappy with how much more dependant women were at the time and wanted women back to doing
household related tasks.

Data Analysis

I predict that Item B will enforce a stereotypical view of women and whilst being ethnocentric. Item B will have
a more open-minded view as it’s made recently. Item A will be more formal and support Positive Politeness
whilst Item B will go against it.

Analysis

Looking at Item A, I have realised that Cinderella has been interrupted 5 times by the Fairy godmother and the
fairy godmother has been interrupted 3 times. This shows how passive Cinderella is and it promotes the idea
that unwed women should be passive as the males should be more dominant in the relationship. Lakoff
suggested that women use emphatic stress in order to be more ladylike as they believe that cussing or
swearing is unladylike. Cinderella (item A) presents this as she uses expressive sounds like “oh” to present her
frustration. The fairy godmother also showcases this through singing. “♪♪Have faith in your dreams and
someday♪♪”, the song is full of supportive and nurturing aspects and as we know that Cinderella is an orphan,
the fairy godmother is presented as a motherly figure. There’s a semantic field of hope and prosperity through
lexis such as: wish, faith, dream, rainbow, someday, miracles, someday, believing, true. This supports Tannen’s
theory of Women building Rapport through supportive and confirmative language rather than dominant
language. This proves the stereo type of women being passive correct.

Looking at item B, the live action Cinderella has only been interrupted twice. The language between the fairy
godmother and Cinderella seems to be more similar in the live action as they use high frequency lexis to show
this. “Yas” “dang” “queen” “gorgeous” are examples of high frequency lexis used. It also highlights that society
has modernised and has become more exclusive and open to the idea that any social class can speak in
nonstandard English. However, Cinderella (2021) can be argued to be from a low social class as she is
associated with labour. Making the fairy godmother speak less standard can be a form of downwards
convergence as the graphological features of the “fairy godmother” presents him wearing all gold which is
normally associated with wealth. Nonstandard English can also be to do with youth so Fab G can be
presumably young. Lakoff’s theory of emphatic stress can be related to this. However, item B can be argued to
go against Lakoff’s theory as a man is singing phrases such as “wish upon a star” and “your dream will take you
very far”. Lakoff argues that women use emphatic stress as a form to be more ladylike, but this is a male using
it. The singing promotes the opposite as (item B) promotes the idea that women are not only objects to look
at. “make your body big and strong” and “give you strength to carry on” both denotes and connotes the idea
that women can be strong.

Item B promotes the idea that Cinderella is not as passive as Disney portrayed her to be. Cinderella (2021) says
“oh” two times in this scene and it is not through distress. She says “oh” once to highlight the discomfort in the
suit that Fab G has whipped up for her as it seems unusual for the ball. The graphological feature of the suit
was relevant as it visually represents her ideas and ambitions of being a self-made businesswoman. The other
time she says “oh” is through the pain of the glass slippers. By showing discomfort through graphological
features such as facial expressions as well as sounds, Camilla Cabello portrays Cinderella to be a logical thinker
that questions things that should be questioned. This mocks the 1950 cartoon Cinderella as throughout Item A
she has not questioned the fact that magic is possible whereas the live action remake questions it as they use
phrases such as “ figment of my imagination” pure fantasy” and “They’re glass?” to show and present visual
and expressive logical thinking.

Palacios theory of age and language affecting a person can be related to item A as Cinderella tends to use
more negatives than the fairy godmother. “It’s no use” and “I can’t believe” are two examples that Cinderella
use that show negativity through language. The fairy godmother uses negatives to enhance the positives in her
song. “You will lose your heartache” and she uses rhyming couplets; “believing” and “grieving”. “Believing” is
an abstract verb that has positive connotations and “grieving” is also an abstract verb and it connotes negative
things such as death. They can be considered as oxymorons and they are used to present the “dream” to be
valuable and worth the pain. Cinderella uses approximately 10 words that connotes or denotes negatively.
Using graphology, we can tell that Cinderella is far younger than the fairy godmother as the fairy godmother is
presented as quite plump and having grey hair. She’s wears somewhat of a cloak which can visually represent
the fact that women grow carless of their looks after a certain age. Item B highlights that the fairy godmother
can be hip and cool instead of broad and standard by using high frequency slang such as “dang” and “YAS!”.

Presumably, the fairy godmother can be classed as a widow as she did contribute a lot to the fact that
Cinderella ends up a married woman. There is no mention that she married but as the movie promotes the
stereotypical nuclear family type, we are left to assume that the fairy godmother was once married.

Item B portrays the godmother to be male as well as having stereotypical, homosexual qualities. Fishman’s
theory can be linked to item B as Fishman argues that conversations between the sexes fail due to how men
respond / don’t respond. This theory is clearly invalidated using item B as Cinderella and Fab G prove to have a
flowing conversation. However, there are more pauses within their conversation than in (item A) this may
prove that there is less flow than in Item A. Item be is informal, non-standard English and informal language is
normally used with people you are comfortable with. Item A consists of formal language exchanged between
the fairy godmother and Cinderella. This may prove the theory wrong as the informal standard used in item B
may be used as both speakers feel comfortable in each other’s presence. The godmother in Item A uses
belittling terms to address Cinderella such as “child” and “my dear”. This could be analysed to be endearing
and nurturing, but it could also be analysed to be used as a form of condescending, down grading language to
assert power over Cinderella as the godmother has power through her age.

Coates argued that men discuss male topics and that results in topic management and topic shifts to be
controlled by men. However, Item A surpasses this as Fab G talks about “women related” topics such as
clothing with Cinderella. However, sexuality may be relevant as Fab G displays characteristics of a stereotypical
homosexual man. “YAS, future QUEEN! YAS!” The rising intonation on declaratives and intensifiers through
capital letters and exclamation marks portray characteristics of Lakoff’s dominance approach. Lakoff argues
that women’s language cause there to be an imbalance of power between the sexes. Fab G using these
characteristics prove the theory wrong. However, Cinderella uses intensifiers such as “THIS IS GORGEOUS” to
emphasise how divine the dress is. She is also seen being “super polite” as she gives indirect requests such as
“I’ve never seen anything like this” by using this simple sentence it presents the discomfort that she’s feeling
and she’s indirectly stating that she does not like the suit. The pauses could also be argued to prove the theory
correct as she pauses to think before she speaks. She does not wat to seem ungrateful show in “this is…this is
different.” The anaphoric repetition of “This is” shows uncertainty and eager not to disappoint.

(Item A), Fairy godmother has a total of approximately 488 words within one scene. It includes the words in
the song. The character of Cinderella in item A has a total of 150 words. This can be related to Eckert’s theory
arguing that elderly people will have different life experiences that will provide a variety of new opportunities
for communication. As the fairy godmother is presented as elderly. We can assume that she has life
experiences of her own that allows her to talk for longer. It explains her gender centric expectations such as
marriage and being dependant on a man. She also highlights importance of female looks which is quite
outdated. “your size and the shade of your eyes” and “something simple but daring too.” The fairy godmother
is referring to Cinderellas blue eyes and thin figure. She does not mention anything about personality. This
implies that personality does not matter if you look good. This is quite a gender centric idea which also ties into
her chronological age and social age linking as her mindset is quite anti- feminist.

Conclusion - To conclude, Item B had more of a modernised less stereotypical conversation as expected whilst
item B was stereotypical and targeted. It was not expected as it is a movie that has a large platform. Item A
and B did support the idea of Positive Politeness but in different ways.
Transcript Key:
Key:
(.) – micropause
FG – Fairy Godmother
(1)- length of pause in seconds
C – Cinderella
|| - overlap/interruptions J – Jaq-Jaq
UPPER CASE – stress / emphasis on word G – Gus Gus
(italics) – paralinguistic features

♪♪ - Musical notation.

Item A – “fairy godmother” scene – Walt Disney adaptation, Cinderella 1950.

FG -♪♪ You will lose your heartache Whatever you wish for You'll keep♪♪

C - Oh, no. No, it isn't true.

FG - ♪♪Have faith in your dreams and someday♪♪

C - It's just no use.

FG - ♪♪Your rainbow will come smiling through. ♪♪

C - No use at ALL.

FG - ♪♪ No matter how your heart is grieving If you keep on believing, ♪♪

C -I can't believe. Not |anymore.

FG - |♪♪The dream that you wish Will come true. ♪♪

C -There's nothing left to believe in. Nothing.

FG - Nothing, my dear? Oh, now you don't really mean that.

C - Oh, but I do.

FG - NONSENSE, child! If you'd lost all your faith, I couldn't be here. (1). And
here I am(.) Oh, come now(.) Dry those tears(.) You can't go to the ball looking
like that.

C - The ball? - Oh, but I'm |not.

FG - |Of course, you are. But we have to hurry, because

even miracles take a little time.

C - Miracles?

FG - Mm-hmm. Watch. (2) What in the world did I do with that magic wand? I
was |sure

C-
|Magic wand?
FG - That’s strange. (1) I always|

C- |Why then you must be|

FG - |Your fairy godmother?
Of course. Where is that wand? I (1) Oh! I forgot. I put it away.

J - Look at what she did.

GG - How’d she do it?

FG - Now, let's see(.) Hmm. I'd say the first thing you need is, um, - a Pumpkin.

C - A Pumpkin?

FG - Mm-hmm(.) Now, uh, the magic words(.) Uh (3) Oh! ♪ ♪ Sala-gadoola-

menchika-boo-la Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo Put 'em together and what have you got?
♪ Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo Sala-gadoola-menchika-boo-la Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo It'll do
magic Believe it or not Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo Now sala-gadoola means
Menchika-boolaroo ♪♪ But the thing-a-ma-bob that does the job Is bibbidi-bob -
bidi-boo Sala-gadoola-menchika-boo-la Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo Put 'em together
and what have you got? ♪ ♪ Bibbidi-bobbidi Bibbidi-bobbidi Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.
♪♪

J - Oh, looky. Isn't it wonderful?

C - Oh, it's beautiful.

FG - Yes, isn't it? With an elegant coach like that, of course, we'll simply have
to have (4) mice!

GG - Mice?

FG - Oh, this really is nice(.) Why, we'll have a coach and four when we're
through(.) Just a wave of my stick and to finish the trick (2) ♪ bibbidi, bobbidi,
boo ♪ (.)Gracious, what did I do? I was sure there were four(.) There should be
one more(.) (2) (laughs) There you are(.) Bibbidi (1) bobbidi, (1) boo.

C - Oh, poor Lucifer.

FG - Serves him right, I'd say. Now, um... Where were we? Oh, goodness, yes(.)
You can't go to the ball without, um... a horse.

C - Another one?

FG - But tonight, for a change, you will handle the reins, and sit in the driver's
seat, too(.) For instead of a horse, you're the coachman, of course(.) Bibbidi,
bobbidi, boo(.) That does it, I guess, except for (2) Oh, yes! The finishing
touch. And that's you. (2) Yes, Bruno, that's right, you'll be footman
tonight(.)♪♪ Bibbidi, bobbidi, boo♪♪ (.)Well, well, hop in, my dear(.) We can't
waste time.

C - But |uh
 FG - |No, don't try to thank me.
C - Oh, I wasn't... I mean, I do, but. (2)- But don't you think my |dress.

FG - |Yes, it's lovely,

dear, Love –GOOD heavens, child. You can't go in THAT! Now, let's see, dear(.)
Your size and the shade of your eyes(.) Mm-hmm. Something simple, but dar-
ing, too(.) Oh, just leave it to me(.) What a gown this will be(.) ♪♪Bibbidi-bob-
bidi. Bibbidi-bobbidi. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.♪♪

C - Oh, it's a beautiful dress. Did you ever see such a beautiful dress? And
look, glass slippers. Why, it's like a dream(.) A wonderful dream come true.

FG - Yes, my child. But, like all dreams, well, I'm afraid this can't last forever.
You'll have only till midnight, and the |
Transcript Key: Key :
C-
(.) – micropause
|Midnight? Thank you.
FG – Fab G
(1)- length of pause in seconds C – Cinderella

|| - overlap/interruptions
UPPER CASE – stress / emphasis on word
(italics) – paralinguistic features

♪♪ - Musical notation.

ITEM B – 2021 Cinderella ft Camila Cabello. “Fab G” appearance.

FG - Allow me to introduce myself. I am your Fabulous Godmother.

C - But-but why?

FG - Baby, you saved me(.) And so now I'm here to save you by sending you to
that ball.

C - Well, I'm not allowed at the ball(.) And, quite frankly, I think you're a fig-
ment of my imagination.

FG - Okay, let's not ruin this incredibly magical moment with reason(.) Do you
want to go to that ball and meet a bunch of rich people who will change your
life?

C - Yes, I was just crying and singing about it like two minutes ago.

FG - Okay, so that would be an affirmative?

C - Yes.

FG - I can't hear you.

C - Yes!

FG - Like you mean it.

C - (laughs): YES!

FG - Then go you shall. ♪ When you wish upon a star ♪ - ♪ Oh ♪ - (gasps) ♪ Your
dreams will take you very far ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah ♪ ♪ When you wish upon a dream ♪ ♪
Hey, hey, oh ♪ ♪ Life ain't always what it seems ♪ ♪ Sh-Sh-Sh-Shining star,
come into view ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Shine its watchful ♪ - ♪ Light on you ♪ - Ooh. ♪ You,
you ♪ ♪ Oh, give you strength to carry on ♪ ♪ Make your body big and strong ♪
(fingers snapping rhythmically) Uh (3) (chuckling) (snapping stops)(2) You
can't wear that to the ball.

C - (2) I know.

(magical tinkling)

C - Oh. Look at that. (chuckles) This is... this is different. (2) I’ve never seen
anything like this

FG - Okay, okay, dang(.) You said you wanted to be a businesswoman(.) Think,

Fab G, think.

(gasps) Mm.

C - Did I |miss...?

FG - |Wait (3) for it.

C - NO. (chuckles) No, no, no, that design is pure fantasy(.) I don't even know
if it's| possible.

FG-
|Hush. It's magic time. (wind whistling) (wind whooshing)
C - You know, the wind is really picking up(.) I feel like maybe we should take
this inside or

FG - ... ♪ Shining star for you to see ♪ ♪ What your life can truly be ♪ ♪ Shining
star for you to see ♪ ♪ What your life can truly be ♪ ♪ What you can truly ♪ ♪
Be... ♪

C - (gasps) (squeals, laughs) THIS IS GORGEOUS!

FG - YAS, future QUEEN! YAS!

C - What's that, Prince? (gasps) You'd like to dance? Ah-ah-ah. Get in LINE,
Your Highness

FG - Hold on.
C - Where am I going? (2) (gasps) Wow(.) They're beautiful. (2) They're glass?
Any way you can make 'em more comfortable?

FG - No.

C - But you're magic.

FG - Women's shoes are as they are(.) Even magic has its limits.

C - Oh. - (shoes squeaking) (groans) Ow. How am I gonna...? Feet don't work
like this.