Re-Writing of Cinderella Poem in Pratilipi

I was re-reading the second poem that Pratilipi has published. In some ways, it's a straight-up persona poem, taking on a voice that has not been explored enough in the literature, in my opinion. There is, of course, Gregory Maguire's Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister, and I am glad that I got to know about its existence after I had written this poem. Otherwise, I don't think I would be inspired enough to write my own version of it. When I was writing this poem, I was thinking about two things:

1. The Limits of Solidarity. Feminists have written a lot about solidarity between and amongst women, and given the premise of the movement, it seems to be the most obvious choice. In fact, I would think, all social movements/collective actions are based upon the idea of solidarity. But then, what are the limits of solidarity? When does solidarity become problematic or even impossible? What are the limits of sisterhood?

2. Agency and Ideology. Some of the feminist criticisms I have read about Cinderella read her as a "victim" figure. And I would agree, to a large extent. But is it always so? What if a woman decides that there is real advantage in towing the line, in acting in accordance to patriarchal norms? Sticking to norms always has its own rewards. What if a woman values those rewards too much? So, in that sense, she is using her agency or subjectivity. That's not the issue, the issue is, how we are to read her choices ideologically, politically, philosophically. So what I was trying to explore in the poem was, what if Cinderella had chosen to fit herself with the requirements of the little glass shoe? So, the step-sister's voice, which is angry at Cinderella for that choice, is an extremely loaded voice. The step-sister reveals to the readers her ideological baggage, and it is through that ideological lens that she reads her sister's choices.

So, in certain ways, the poem was meant to be a critique/criticism of the idea of "sisterhood" prevalent in feminist thoughts. And this is something that interests me immensely, and I think, it's also something that has come back in different ways in the poems that I have written during this period.