Netflix’s Animated Film “Steps” and Its Cultural Implications

The new Netflix animated movie “Steps” seems to be the latest entry in a long-standing trend aimed at altering how children perceive morality in entertainment. But is this shift really beneficial?

Netflix has a reputation for offering content that often flips conventional morals on their heads. This isn’t exactly groundbreaking; reimagining the Cinderella story through the eyes of the stepsisters, who are often viewed as the antagonists, is just one example. Here, they’re depicted as misunderstood and kind-hearted. This approach feels like a recurring theme in Hollywood, which sometimes struggles to generate fresh ideas.

But there’s a deeper issue at play. The film challenges age-old moral stories, casting the infamous stepsisters as unfairly judged outcasts. It essentially invites children to question the clear-cut characteristics traditionally associated with villains.

Fairy tales, historically, served a crucial role in shaping children’s understanding of good and evil. These narratives taught young ones about the reality of malice and the consequences of bad behavior. In Cinderella, the cruel stepmother and her daughters weren’t portrayed as complex victims deserving sympathy; rather, they were abusive figures tormenting a helpless girl.

By portraying villains in a more sympathetic light, we risk affecting children’s ability to recognize potential threats in real life. Teaching kids that all bad characters could actually be good might lead them to feel compassion for their abusers. This raises real concerns about their judgment regarding people’s intentions; they’ve been conditioned to label everyone as just “misunderstood.”

Moreover, the erasure of personal accountability is another troubling theme. Children learn they can diminish their own actions by adopting a victim narrative, even empathizing with morally questionable characters without considering the fallout.

If indeed the stepsisters were good all along, what happens to the years of cruelty inflicted on Cinderella? Is it simply a matter of misunderstanding? One might wonder if it’s Cinderella’s fault for missing their hidden goodness, suggesting perhaps that their malicious acts were, in reality, mischaracterizations influenced by outdated traditional views.

This appears to be a clear attempt from Netflix to suggest that traditional beliefs about morality are obsolete and that evaluating others’ actions is somehow wrong. Through entertainment aimed at children, they undermine parents’ efforts to educate their kids about identifying true threats, inadvertently making them more vulnerable.