Disney's Cinderella

Reading Naomi Wood's article about Disney's Cinderella brought back many memories of watching the movie as a kid. So I decided to go on youtube and watch the memorable "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" video clip. However, now after analyzing the text and reading the critics I saw it in a different light, ecspeccially within the concept of gender roles. I noted that in the begining of the song all the female animals are awake and dressed for the day while the male animals are slowly dragging themselves out of bed and one is even having to unknot a knot in his messy tale. You dont see any of the female mice having to do this now do you? No because the females are early risers and they are neat and tidy whereas males are lazy and unkept. I also noticed that when the morning chores begin to be done it is the female animals who make the bed and help Cinderella get dressed while the males are shooed out of the room. Because of course it would be completley indecent for a male mouse or bird to see a naked female. As a child these distinctions seemed commonplace and maybe are at the root of some of my own idead about gender roles, but now looking back it seems ubsurd that we should put these roles onto creatures such as mice and birds. Its almost like subliminal messages we are sending to our kids about what is what in the world of genders and stereotypes. Is this really what we want to be teaching them?

Link To Clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhTjnzlcIeI