The Cinderella Test Would You Really Want The Shoe To Fit

A leading psychologist looks at the pitfalls women face when, like the fairytale Cinderella, they focus on pleasing others and conforming to stereotypes instead of expressing their individuality. In this thought-provoking volume, clinical psychologist Vera Maass examines the negative side of the glory of Cinderella's promise: that women buying into the myth's demand for conformity risk losing their individuality and sacrificing their personal goals. Think the tale is too old or too innocent to be relevant? See television's "The Bachelor." Based on Maass' extensive psychotherapy work and interviews, The Cinderella Test: Would You Really Want the Shoe to Fit? provides answers and strategies to issues raised by clients in therapy and women in the community at large—women of all ages and backgrounds. Maass also integrates stories of women throughout history who broke through limits placed upon them by sociocultural expectations and achieved richer, more fulfilled lives. An eye-opening look at the choices and challenges faced by women today, The Cinderella Test shows the dangers of trying to make the foot fit the slipper, and why and how Cinderella herself should be doing the testing.

This book explores how contemporary fantastic fiction by women writers responds to the past and imagines the future. The first two chapters look at revisionist rewritings of fairy tales and historical texts; the third and fourth focus on future-oriented narratives including dystopias and space fiction. Writers considered include Margaret Atwood, Octavia E. Butler, Angela Carter, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing, and Jeanette Winterson, among others. The author argues that an analysis of how past and future are understood in women’s fantastic fictions brings to light an “ethics of becoming” in the texts—a way of interrupting, revising and remaking problematic power structures that are tied to identity markers like class, gender and race. The book reveals how fantastic fiction can be read as narratives of disruption that enable the creation of an ethics of becoming.

Every culture in the world has a version of the story of Cinderella. Surveying thousands of tellings of what is perhaps the most popular fairy tale of all time, this critical examination explores how the famous folk heroine embodies common societal values, traits and ethics. Multiple adaptations in Spain--gay Cinderella, suicidal Cinderella, censored Cinderella, masked Cinderella, porn Cinderella and others--highlight not only Spanish traditions, history and Zeitgeist, but reflect the story's global appeal on a philosophical level.

Detailing the field of feminist psychology since its origins, this book assesses its early figures, theory, and research as well as current and emerging theory and research and its associations with general feminist beliefs. Feminist psychology developed as a reaction to historical psychological thought initiated by men who controlled the theory and research of the field. By holding all of society to "norms" based in male behavior, this so-called "masculine psychology" effectively assigned women lower societal status than men and had disturbing effects on women's health and self-esteem. Feminist Psychology focuses on gender differences, social structure, and the values and principles of women's rights within the world's individual, social, and political spheres. Contrary to popular notion, feminist psychology does not involve man-hating, but instead focuses on loving the concept that women have equal potential to set and achieve goals and to contribute to society. In this volume, psychologist Vera Maass explains the history, theory, research, and current state of this growing field, which is becoming increasingly popular as colleges offer majors or concentrations in feminist psychology, and argues that women are both different from and equal to men.

This powerful book explains the debilitating effects of social anxiety and the development of the disorder, emphasizing the need for a resolution of this disorder and identifying common but unhelpful coping mechanisms as well as true methods to change and live life unafraid of social situations. It is estimated that some 15 million Americans suffer from social anxiety disorder. For these individuals, parties, sporting events, and even workplaces or public shopping environments evoke anxiety and fear. People who suffer from social anxiety disorder—the most common of all anxiety disorders—fear being scrutinized and judged by others in social or performance situations. They know their fear is unreasonable, but are powerless against the anxiety. This book provides comprehensive coverage of social anxiety disorder by covering its history, explaining the symptoms and root causes, and presenting information on how to make the key changes in thought that can help sufferers find relief and be more comfortable in the modern world. The author uses case histories and dialogue in therapeutic settings to provide a realistic depiction of social anxiety that makes the topic more relevant and understandable to clinicians, students, and friends and family members of sufferers who want to help the socially anxious individual. The emphasis on people's resistance to changing or even examining the basis of their underlying beliefs illustrates the importance of this topic to the overall foundation of social anxiety and the urgency of addressing belief systems in the process of resolution and recovery.

In The Angelic Mother and the Predatory Seductress, Ashley Craig Lancaster examines how converging political and cultural movements helped to create dualistic images of southern poor white female characters in Depression-era literature. While other studies address the familial and labor issues that challenged female literary characters during the 1930s, Lancaster focuses on how the evolving eugenics movement reinforced the dichotomy of altruistic maternal figures and destructive sexual deviants. According to Lancaster, these binary stereotypes became a new analogy for hope and despair in America's future and were well utilized by Depression-era politicians and authors to stabilize the country's economic decline. As a result, the complexity of women's lives was often overlooked in favor of stock characters incapable of individuality. Lancaster studies a variety of works, including those by male authors William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, and John Steinbeck, as well as female novelists Mary Heaton Vorse, Myra Page, Grace Lumpkin, and Olive Tilford Dargan. She identifies female stereotypes in classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird and in the work of later writers Dorothy Allison and Rick Bragg, who embrace and share in a poor white background. The Angelic Mother and the Predatory Seductress reveals that these literary stereotypes continue to influence not only society's perception of poor white southern women but also women's perception of themselves.

This book includes case histories from patients, volunteers from the general community and participants in personal growth groups offer insight into how to recognize and break negative relationship patterns and how to move forward to healthier and more rewarding relationships.

Details each of the 10 personality disorders, in a format that makes locating information easy. Personality Disorders systematically explores 10 personality disorders. Each chapter presents a comprehensive and in-depth picture of a particular disorder and its effects, not only on those who suffer from it but also on family, friends, and colleagues as well as the community at large. Chapters focus on important parameters such as symptoms, diagnosis, incidence, history, development, causes, effects, and costs. Relevant case histories and Up Close sections illustrate how the disorder may manifest in different environments and reveal how the disorder can affect a person's interactions within society, at work, and in personal relationships. Research and theories about each particular disorder are also included. Every chapter closes with a discussion of various treatment approaches and a brief list of references, providing for a meaningful presentation for readers at the undergraduate student level and beyond.