Not to Be Controversial but Cinderella Has ALWAYS Been a Girlboss

So, I was watching the new trailer for that upcoming Cinderella adaptation that’s got Camila Cabello in the titular role, and all I could think was…they girlboss’d her. Instead of dreaming about a rich man swooping in and saving her through the historically property-focused, fundamentally patriarchal institution of marriage like a NORMAL WOMAN, this movie’s version of Cinderella—sorry, simply Ella—is a dress designer who dreams of opening up her own shop. She even wears a pantsuit in one scene that also features Pose’s Billy Porter! If she leaned in any harder she’d fall down.

But then I did something I rarely, if ever, do: I started to think. And that’s when I realized that Cinderella has always been at its core a tale of girlbossery. It has all the key elements! Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss, etc.

First of all, Cinderella gaslights the prince by going to the ball without wearing a big sign that says “I AM POOR,” which is famously a crime. Secondly, the prince internalizes the harm caused by Cinderella’s gaslighting and begins gatekeeping the women of his village/town/whatever by telling them they can’t marry him because their feet are fucked up. And then in the end, Cinderella wins by becoming a princess in line to be the queen, which is basically the CEO of early-modern fairy tale-setting Europe.

Does this mean I now like this movie? Who cares! Watch the trailer.