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Andrew Garcia
Eng 115
Professor Lewis
10 December, 2014

Princess Julia? More Like Cinderella!

Cinema has long been a source of diminishment towards women and their roles in film.
It is yet another industry dominated by men, while women are structured as show ponies, being
used to attract large audiences with their artificial physical features and exaggerated lives of
luxury. This trend is most common in cinemas blockbusters, where the majority of society is
influenced greatly by what they see on the big screen. These blockbusters range from action
packed films to animated movies such as Cinderella, where the princess main focus is to attend
a ball while basically being hypnotized by Prince Charmings good looks. Although cinema has
produced phenomenal films throughout the decades, the role of the female character has yet to
evolve. This is especially true with Princess Julia from Simon R. Greens novel, Blue Moon
Rising, and how she is portrayed to the reader. Julia initially comes off as a nontraditional
princess who is more of a fighter rather than a beauty queen, however, the same foundational
pillars of the traditional womans role, like in cinema, remains untouched. The image that
Hollywood produces in the eyes of todays society reflects the stereotypes that women are
harassed with on a daily basis, in many cases, limiting the potential of girls and women
everywhere by ignoring the fact that women are human too. And Princess Julia is no different
than the dumbed down female characters that are present in cinema today.

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So how does Princess Julia relate to these imaginary goddesses in film? To answer this
question, you must analyze how women are depicted in these Hollywood movies. In all films
with a starring female character, women play one of three primary roles. One role is the kickass,
seductive, good-looking female assassin that goes around beating up bad guys while also being
very influenced by her emotions as well as the man she is in love with. The second role is the
smart, strong woman who is just trying to make it in this world but needs heavy support from a
man that she must fall in love with in order to be complete. Lastly, there is the sidekick role, in
which the woman is molded to be nothing more than the main characters lover/housewife who
either watches after the children while the man is doing the hard work or is busy doing other
mischievous things. These three roles summarize almost every females duties in every
successful film, sometimes with different variations. Films and cinema series that present these
roles cover a varying range of genres including successes like the Hunger Games, Harry Potter,
Aladdin, Cinderella, Pitch Perfect, Gravity, the Fault in Our Stars, Superman, the Avengers, the
Fast and the Furious, and so on. Emma Tietal of Macleans magazine wrote an article on the
roles women play in film and how they influence the female audience that watches them. She
wrote, expose her to too much Cinderella, Aladdin, or Sleeping Beauty, in other words, and
your daughter may become a kind of princess herself, obsessed with beauty and uninterested in
her own autonomy (13). There has long been criticism of how women are portrayed in movies
but not much has changed and this is especially disheartening because females of all ages
deserve to be whatever they desire, instead of what society suggests they should be. If the role
of women is this downgraded in cinema, it most certainly can be as trashed as it is in the novel
Blue Moon Rising. Princess Julia mirrors these forms of stereotypical female characters
perfectly. Its as if there is a blueprint for creating woman figures in cinema and literature.

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In Blue Moon Rising, Princess Julia does not come off as a savior of the world type of
hero. Julias role is reduced to being a bit of a sidekick as well as Ruperts lover for when he
returns home from battle. Although she does fight demons and saves Ruperts life from time to
time, she is still like many other female characters in cinema, who never get the credit because
their male counterparts overshadow their own abilities. She remains a helpless woman that needs
a mans love to survive this world. For example, Julias thoughts of Rupert when he comes back
from his suicide mission demonstrate the stereotypical mischievous woman that is present in film
today, He didnt know what it had been like in the Castle, on her own, with the darkness closing
in. With him gone, and the dragon sleeping, maybe even dying, it wasnt surprising shed turn to
Harald. Shed needed somebody, and there wasnt anyone else (Green 350). Julia was so
reliant on someone to keep her emotions stable that she turned to the man she hated from the
inside-out, simply because he was a man and she was lonely. The novel shows how the role of a
woman is still hindered by her need to be loved by someone in order to be a part of the big
picture.
Moreover, by further examining the depiction of women in film, it is clearly
demonstrated how women are limited by the characters they are asked to play. Women are more
likely to be a princess than a crime-fighting savior of the world. This has a lot to do with society
and how it has shaped the stereotypical woman. What inspiration do Disney Princesses instill in
the young girls that glorify them? Emma Teitel continues in her article by presenting her views
of how women are put in leading roles but still has no positive effect on their audiences. She
writes that, the classic Disney princess is not only gratuitously airy, helpless, and (save for Belle
in Beauty and the Beast) vacuous, but a threat to the healthy development of the millions of girls
who worship at her pink, saccharine altar, (13). Female audiences arent exactly discouraged

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from being leaders but they definitely arent being encouraged either. The ignorance of what
women are actually capable of doing, in cinema, triggers a rippling effect in the people who
watch these movies. Despite the recent releases of a few films where woman are placed in a
heroic lead role, such as Maleficent, these women are still reliant on a man at some point in the
plot and their emotions are their biggest weaknesses. Its a recurring theme that translates into
Greens novel by the image Princess Julia presents.
Princess Julia is not the traditional damsel in distress like many other female characters
are. She is a fighter, a bit of a leader and brave. However, Julias emotions are overly
exaggerated and only brings her back down to the level of Disney princesses and stereotypical
woman roles. If it werent for her abnormal emotions, she would be a more respectable female
role model. In the novel, she is constantly attacking people out of anger, so lonely that she falls
for two brothers, and so determined that she is just plain stubborn-- completely overshadowing
her better qualities. Julia once told Rupert, Ill kill him, after Ruperts little tussle with the
Champion (Green 101). There was also another incident in the novel where Julia demonstrates
her out of control emotions after her poor boyfriend was insulted, So Julia quite naturally kneed
the guard in the groin and punched the Lady Cecelia in the mouth (71). It is clear that Princess
Julia has some anger issues and her emotions are a factor that brings her from being a solid
female role model down to nothing but an emotional, ill-tempered woman that so happens to be
the main characters lover and sidekick. Overall, Julia is not much different from her sisters on
the big screen.
On the other hand, many readers would disagree that Julia is nothing but a measuring
stick for Ruperts abilities. Yes, Princess Julia fights off evil, stands up for herself and can carry
her own weight, but that does not excuse the fact that she needs Rupert to be happy, goes around

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causing trouble as if she was a toddler and is the total opposite of our beloved main character,
Rupert. Picture a boxing ring with Cinderella in one corner and in the other, Princess Julia. One
princess is hopeless, extremely dependent and is concerned with her beauty. The other has as
much anger issues as the Hulk, is hindered by her emotional ties and does everything a hero
would do but is still just a sidekick. Which is the better role model? They sure are different
upfront, but when both their roles are examined, they are from the same bowl of soup. There is
no question that Julia is a Disney princess in disguise.
All in all, Princess Julia is just another female character trapped in the stereotypical role
that women in cinema deal with film after film. Emotions, dependency and character defects all
factor in to why she cannot be her own unique individual and serve as a role model to both
female and male audiences. These female characters get so close to breaking the mold that has
been created for them but are setback by internal deficiencies due to stereotypes and ignorance
from their creators. Its not much of a coincidence that Julia is so much like every other female
character in cinema. She is just a part of the trend that has been created by Hollywood. A woman
has to be blessed with amazing physical features, have abnormal abilities and fit within the
confines of society in order to be successful in a film that completely downgrades them in the
end. Princess Julia is many things, but not unique. She is what many other female characters
have been for years. Just another woman trapped by the stereotypical image of women that is the
routine aspect in todays cinema. Princess Julia is Cinderella.

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Works Cited
Green, Simon R. Blue Moon Rising. New York: New American Library, 1991. Print.

Teitel, Emma. "Happily Ever After, Minus The Prince." Maclean's 127.28 (2014): 13. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.