As I settle into quarantine, I’m beginning to find myself again. I’ve never spent this much time at home without feeling guilty in the past. I’ve spent a great deal of time reflecting. Today, as I folded clothes, I decided to watch a movie to mute the constant Donald Trump and Covid 19 coverage on my social media. I chose Cinderella. The version that was made in 2015. Pause. I must add the disclaimer that “Ever After” is my favorite movie. I thought that Cinderella 2015 was “Ever After” lite. Unpause. My favorite part of almost every Cinderella movie is when Cinderella walks into the ball in her gorgeous dress and everyone looks at her because she is so beautiful. When that happened in this movie, I became emotional. By the time Cinderella and the Prince started dancing, I had to take deep breaths and consciously stop myself from crying. I’m going to go ahead and admit right now that I might be PMSing, but it doesn’t negate my epiphany.
In this version of Cinderella, the wicked, but very attractive stepmother locks Cinderella in the attic. When the Prince’s men get to Cinderella’s house, they find that the shoes don’t fit anyone (because Cinderella is locked away with some rats) and just before they are about to leave, one of the King’s guards hears Cinderella’s melodious singing. You can imagine how the rest goes. Yada, Yada. When the Prince rescues Cinderella, I got emotional again and by the time they walk out of the door together, I couldn’t hold back my tears. I was happy for her, but the part that made me sob was when she turns toward her wicked, but attractive stepmother and says, “I forgive you”. At that point, I’m done. Tears. Tears.
It was a cute movie, but not cry-worthy cute, so why (besides PMS) was I crying? I blame Donald Trump. Hear me out. First, I think movies like Cinderella set us (meaning women) back. They set me back because I always wanted to be Cinderella(ish). Like Cinderella, I’m not super poor, but don’t come from money. She was always kind to everyone no matter what they did to her. I’m nice to everyone too. She forgave her tormentor. I forgive. I cried when she got engaged to the prince because I was happy that someone good got something in return. I like seeing good people get good things.
This movie set me back because in my heart of hearts, I want to be pure of heart like Cinderella and I believe(d) (I’m still deciding) that I will get my happy ending, but then I see Donald Trump and his success is a glaring reminder that all of the lessons I learned about kindness and virtue being rewarded are lies. It’s more logical that people made up these kindness lessons as a way to make sure people stayed kind and accepted abuse while smiling so that they could continue achieving their goals without resistance.
Hence, Mr. Trump. His life is proof that the bad guy wins. I’m absolutely not as critical of Trump as most people are, so I don’t mean the bad guy in the sense that he’s a diabolical reincarnate of pure evil. He’s just not Cinderella or the noble prince. He was born rich. He will die rich. People try to put him down by saying he’s a millionaire instead of a billionaire. It’s ridiculous. They don’t hear themselves. I heard a correspondent say that she didn’t like his confidence because he had no reason to be confident and had no accomplishments. What?! He’s the President of the United States. That’s a huge accomplishment if you ask me. He’s never waited tables. He’s never worried about bills. He doesn’t have any reason to doubt his abilities. He doesn’t have any reason to believe negative things people say about him. When people mistreat him or call him names, he doesn’t have any legitimate doubt about if they are right. He just thinks, “they are jealous” or “they are foolish”.
In stories, the president is the hero. The hero has humility, strength and integrity. The hero overcomes something. This is why we believe that the guy with super strength or the multi-millionaire can relate to us. In the 2015 Cinderella movie, the Prince’s father died and he chose to marry a commoner over a princess. I’m not buying that he fell in love that quickly, but you get what I mean. I don’t see what Trump has overcome. I’m sure he’s not the only president born with a silver spoon in his mouth without a story of adversity, but he’s the first president that we’ve been saturated with so fully in my lifetime. The disconnect between the winner/hero/leader of my Cinderella story and our actual leader is obvious. There are no obstacles that don’t originate with shadiness. There is no humility. There is no integrity. When I see his corruption, his inability to communicate and his arrogance, it confirms that the good people don’t really get the good things. This ignites an inner cognitive battle within me. In real life, Cinderella’s ass would have remained trapped in that attic while the Prince moved on with his life. She would’ve escaped and moved to a city alone. If her looks didn’t fade, she might have met someone, but she wouldn’t be a princess. She’d think about what could have been if she hadn’t been thwarted by her evil, but attractive stepmother, who stole her house btw . . . but that’s another whole other issue.
I’ve idolized kindness and sincerity so long that I don’t even know how to achieve things without those standards acting as my foundation. How do you succeed with sincerity when the competition lies? How do you achieve with kindness when the competition will beat your face in? I don’t know, but I do know that I don’t want to end up full of regret like real life Cinderella, so I guess I’ll have to figure it out.
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