08. Talk with a stranger

The man fell in deep thought. He opened and closed his mouth quite a few times but could not find anything to retort. In the end, he only nodded. Arundhati smiled ever so slightly that her lips barely moved but she looked at him with a satisfied gaze. She found an interesting listener who not only heard her opinion but also pondered over her words to think about something contradictory.

"This brings us to the next point. I think this scenario also portrayed how women in general were viewed to be like. See even when given such a golden opportunity to escape her house, Cinderella was crying over not having the dress and accessories to attend the ball instead of planning to steal some and run. Since she had been working as a maid in her own house she must have been pretty familiar with where the valuables were kept. So it seems to me that she's more concerned about catching the Prince's eye and getting married to him than planning an escape. Which shows that society sees women as beings who only think about marriage irrespective of their circumstances."

"But she did get married right? So her visit to the ball was worth it." The man said.

"Yes but why? The Prince only ever saw her at the ball not before. So how could he pick her as his wife just after one dance? The only answer I get is that because of her appearance. She was the most beautiful among all the women who arrived so she caught his eye and he chose her."

"Well, the fairy helped her. That's why." The man frowned.

"Is that really all there is to it?" Arundhati raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" He became intrigued by her mysterious tone.

"What I mean is that to look pretty the first and foremost thing one needs to have is perfect facial and body features as per societal standards. Clothes makeup and jewellery are all secondary factors. Tell me what do we find in the description or pictures of Cinderella?" She enquired.

"That she was fair, had blonde hair, blue eyes, slim body..." The man listed his observations of Cinderella.

"And what were the beauty standards of the West especially Europe a few centuries back?" Arundhati asked with a smirk.

"Fair skin blonde hair blue ey.." The man's eyes widened in realisation.

"She fits each and every requirement."

"Exactly." Arundhati nodded.

"Now let's imagine she had dark skin like mine, dull brown eyes, rough skin from all the labour she did at home, face full of acne because I'm sure she did not have much to take care of her skin and given all the dirt she was amidst developing pimples was nothing uncommon. Let's also make her chubby with black hair."

Arundhati observed the man slowly nodding his head and looking absent-mindedly before him while creating an imaginary Cinderella in his head according to her descriptions. As she stopped listing the features of the new Cinderella he frowned.

"Now tell me if the fairy godmother gave her that expensive-looking chariot and coachmen and gown and accessories, would this Cinderella before you still look as pretty to the Prince as the one in the story?"

The man shook his head.

"So, the protagonist was chosen because of her looks and not her personality. So ultimately what mattered the most was how the woman looked and not what she was like on the inside."

"Riiiight. But, they still had their happily ever after." The man snapped his fingers.

"Who can tell? How are we so sure that a commoner after marrying a royal immediately adjusted to the life in palace? Can we say for certain that she was not ridiculed for her uncouth behaviour inside the palace? What is the guarantee of the Prince still being affectionate to her after getting to know her properly? Cinderella lived like a maid all her life so of course we can't expect her to miraculously learn all royal etiquettes in a day?"

"Hmm, so many factors to consider." The man tapped his chin.

"But we can't say all that in children's books. Those are only for happy things but if adults were to read them they would find certain unhappy things amidst them." Arundhati shrugged.

"That's true. But we only saw that for Cinderella. What about Rapunzel? She was kidnapped by a witch and the Prince rescued her." The man rested his chin on his hand.

"Well, I don't think it was a witch who took her because Rapunzel's parents promised their daughter to the witch once she grows up. Rather I think Rapunzel was somewhat different from other kids. Maybe not someone with seventy feet long hair but something odd and not-so-normal feature. And it had been depicted by the thick long beautiful hair which was a very popular beauty standard for women in society."

Arundhati opened the page which had a picture of Rapunzel singing by the window of the tower while her hair was let all the way down to the foot of the tower.

"Then what about the witch thing?" The man asked.

"Hm, maybe everyone felt scared or intimidated or jealous of that feature of hers. So they labelled her as a witch who harms people for fun and sent her to that tall tower as a means of protection for all and keeping the evil away. Even if I take it that wiches are real who said that they're all bad? It can also be that some influential people wanted something from Rapunzel but she refused, which hurt their egos. So to show her her place they planned to punish her like that."

"Woaah!" The man's eyes widened like marbles.

"Okay, so what about Beauty and the Beast?"

"It seems like people used an orphan as a sacrifice for a beast or someone equivalent to a beast to save themselves. Or how a poor woman was pushed to the den of a beast and no one heard her cries for help because she was just a commoner and a woman on top."

"Then why does it say that the beast was a Prince?" The man frowned.

"Don't you see anything in common? All or majority of these stories are about a Prince and a common woman where the former rescues the latter in most cases except a negligibly few and they live happily ever after. As if Princes do not have the burden of marrying women from influential households to consolidate their power or for diplomatic purposes. It's kind of painting a picture that the common lady gets to live a life of luxury after marrying the Prince. No one questions how they are dealing with their marriage life when they come from two different lifestyles. Or how two absolute strangers decide that they ought to marry after just one glance at each other." Arundhati closed the book.

"Well, when you say it like that it also feels like all these women characters here are only playing the role of someone who needs a man to save her. She doesn't have a brain, nor strength and neither money or influence. All she does is sit there and wait for a Prince to save her. Doesn't it also affect children's thought process while reading these?" The man looked at Arundhati in amusement.