The Cinderella Archetype

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    Something I found myself actively thinking about is the universality of certain archetypes or television styles across cultures. Sure, there are things that vary but at a lot of media's core are longstanding patterns that are reinvented time and time again. 

    When we discussed the rosa/traditional style of telenovela we mentioned the cinderella archetype. In these types of telenovelas, women tend to be innocent and fall in love with a man out of her league (whether that be economically or in social standing) who never fails to fall victim to the efforts of the antagonist trying to keep the two apart. In the end, the man and woman end up together and live happily ever after. What really got me thinking was the point that the context of the story in this archetype is irrelevant and simply decorative because everything about the love story stays the same. This is totally true.

    Thinking back to the movies I watched growing up, particularly those aimed at demographics similar to those Disney Channel attracted, many of them were based on this archetype. Some examples include A Cinderella Story (2004), Another Cinderella Story (2008), A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song (2011), and Cinderella (2021). My personal favorite was always Another Cinderella Story whose female lead, Mary Santiago, was played by Selena Gomez. Regardless of whether they were in a high school or on a college campus or if there was music involved or not, they're all practically the same. One thing I've noticed about these movies is that many find ways to incorporate "it girls" that younger girls idolize. Me, I loved Selena Gomez and she was a really big deal among people my age because of her TV show Wizards of Waverly Place. These other iterations include bigger names like Hilary Duff, Lucy Hale, and Camila Cabello. And it's worth noting that movies don't need to include Cinderella in the title to be actively drawing upon the archetype.







    We've briefly touched on the number of remakes there are in the telenovela universe in class, which is such an interesting concept to me. I feel like in American media that I've seen lots of spin-offs but not full-on remakes of shows. I've been wondering why it is that things that are repetitive like a remake or classic archetypes do well despite predictability. However, making the connection of the cinderella archetype classic in telenovelas rosas to the movies I grew up watching helped me better understand this. Something doesn't have to be unexpected or unpredictable to be entertaining — I mean, that's why everyone has a comfort movie that they know inside and out. Sometimes the predictability of something is actually why we love it so much. You know when you start the movie regardless of the context or how they spin it to be a different movie that it will end the exact same way every time. And that's the beauty of it.

    In modern media, I think we've gotten caught up in things being serious or sophisticated. The movies recognized during awards seasons like Dune and Parasite or "grown-up movies" like Shawshank Redemption or Saving Private Ryan should be what we watch. I will continue to watch those movies but also want to intermittently sit on my couch with a bowl of popcorn and watch a naive person fall in love. Call me a sucker but I do love this archetype from time to time and don't expect it to disappear from telenovelas in Latin America or TV/movies in other countries around the world anytime soon if ever. 



Comments

  1. Ashley GalantiSeptember 2, 2022 at 12:24 AM

    Me gusta mucho el punto que hiciste sobre cómo el contexto de la historia es decorativo porque la historia de amor sigue siendo la misma. Es una locura pensar que una historia como Cinderella que crecí pensando que era una "película de princesas" se convierte en un esquema que puede llenarse de cualquier contexto siempre y cuando la "mujer inocente" se enamore del hombre principal. ME ENCANTA que hayas incluido todas estas historias de Cinderella porque las veo todas repetidas, pero tengo que decir que "A Cinderella Story", con Hillary Duff, es mi favorito (pero todos son increíbles). También me gusta mucho el punto que hizo sobre cómo lo predecible puede ser entretenido. Para mí, es el giro que incluye cada spin-off que puedo prestar más atención a conocer la línea argumental clave que lo hace entretenido.

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  2. Jazmin GarciaNovember 27, 2022 at 3:53 PM

    Hola Marillyn! Yo creo lo mismo! Es muy interesante que hay muchas iteraciones de la misma película - donde la princesa se encuentra con su principle al fin de todo. Mi hermana y yo siempre mirábamos películas de "Hallmark" antes de la Navidad, y siempre tenían la misma situación como describiste en tu blog post. Sabíamos que la mujer se iba a casarse con el hombre, pero siempre había una problema que era como un obstáculo en su relación. Me acuerdo que los argumentos siempre eran similares, pero lo único que me importaba era si los dos acaban juntos. Yo creo que nosotras compartimos la misma experiencia de niñas, no mas que tu estabas viendo a Cinderella y yo unas películas de Hallmark!

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