But There Is Only One Cinderella

The other day I recalled a movie called The Ugly Stepsister. It's not the Cinderella you know — it's a dark fairy tale, closer to horror.

The film follows Cinderella's stepsister as she prepares for the ball. It only takes one dance — that's her whole bet to marry into royalty. So she goes through everything: cracking her nose, sewing on eyelashes, swallowing worms to stay thin, bribing her way into dance class. Every bloody procedure, for one goal — to marry the prince.

The makeover works, but she knows it's only a coverup, and a coverup comes due. She draws the prince's eye; then, mid-triumph, she has to slip out to vomit blood — the worm in her stomach is crawling. By the time she returns she has lost her place to another girl: Cinderella. And we all know how it ends — the prince searches the country for the foot that fits the glass slipper. That slipper is the only measure of being chosen, so the stepsister chops off her toes to fit. She cuts the wrong side. Her mother does the other side for her.

It is outrageous. But people in real life are chopping their feet too — not physically. Mentally. Behaviourally.

Have you ever tried to fit into a slipper that doesn't belong to you?

That is the question.

I have met many Stepsisters. They look exactly like the movie:

• She is relentlessly goal-oriented — name anything, and she'll work at it.
• She bribes her way past whatever she lacks in talent.
• She knows her weaknesses well, and hides them behind extreme measures.
• She'll take any risky bet for an impossible goal.
• She'll sacrifice anything, and anyone, in her way.
• She tells inspiring stories that don't match how she behaves.
• She dresses and acts like a princess — but only when someone is watching.