her slippers.The prince is determined to find her again, so he sets out to try the slipper on the foot of every woman in the countryside. He sees by the very small size of the shoe that it would fit only Cinderella. When he gets to Cinderella's house, the stepsisters try to cram their feet into the shoes (in the original version of the story, they even cut off their toes to do so). As the Prince is leaving, he sees Cinderella and asks her to try the shoe. Of course, it is a perfect fit, and "Prince Charming" takes Cinderella away from her evil family and they get married and "live happily ever after". This story fulfills several functions in the belief system of our culture, such as showing what lengths women will go to in order to attract a man, showing what jealousy between women can lead to, and presenting the beliefs that a woman cannot be happy until she has been "saved" by a man, and that the most beautiful woman gets the "Prince". This last idea fits into the theory of belief systems as a way of promoting social order and cohesion. A long time ago, this idea may have been correct, but in today's society, it just does not hold water. The most beautiful woman is unlikely to get the "Prince" if she is nothing more than just beautiful.This weekend, I attended a party in L.A. that was full of women who are considered to be among the most beautiful and desirable women on Earth. But while talking to them and watching them, I realized that the men they were attracting were not the true "Prince Charming" variety. Yes, the men these women are approached by and date may be handsome. OR they may be richor intelligent...or simply famous. But rarely are they more than one or two of these things. Most of the women I talked to complained that the men they attracted were sleazy, or dumb, or mean-hardly the "Prince Charmings" one would think these women could date. As I watched four gorgeous women, all just a year or so older than myself, fight ...
