Picture Cinderella, with her apron and her broom and her face covered in ashes. She’s probably scrubbing a floor. She’s probably singing. She’s definitely not complaining or thinking bitter thoughts or doing anything that could endanger her selfless perfection, because that perfection will inevitably lead to a handsome prince coming along and rescuing her from her awful, tedious life.
Now, be honest. You kind of hate her, don’t you?
Back in the days of the Grimm brothers, when women had few rights and few choices and were largely viewed as property of their fathers or husbands, this type of heroine offered hope. It suggested that if a girl were good and pious and silently put up with all the miseries of her life, she had a chance of being lifted up to something better. Not by her own doing, of course—that would just be silly. But by the graciousness of a fairy godmother (or the ghost of her dead mother) and the attentions of a rich and charming prince. Her life could get better, but only if she were the type of girl that deserved it.
