The "Cinderella Complex" is the largely repressed attitudes and fears that keep women from the full use of their minds and creativity forcing them to wait for something or someone external to transform their lives (Colette Dowling, 1981). Most modern adaptations of fairy tales, as well as original versions, place negative gender expectations on women. Perrault's Cinderella provides an example of how the heroine of the story must be "rescued" by a man of princely matter …showed first 75 words of 823 total…

…showed last 75 words of 823 total…abuses the power Though the Cinderella Complex is said to increase with age, many young women today are derailing the concept all together. Recent feminist perspectives on Cinderella stories have lead to the deconstruction of the dependent woman, and has broken ground in the construction of an independent, active, woman. The Cinderella Complex, attained from implications of vast Cinderella variations, denounces women as overtly dependent beings who cannot function without a man in their life.