"Stealing Cinderella"

Earlier today I heard the new hit "Stealing Cinderella" by country artist Chuck Wicks. I hear this song all the time and love it, but my attention was really drawn to it today because we've been discussing Cinderella in class a lot. As I was listening to the chorus I could just picture this happy little girl who loved life playing in the sprinklers (which is basically what the chorus says). And as I thought about this picture that had been created in my mind, I realized that most of the Cinderellas, if not all of them, we have been reading about were not like this "Cinderella." They were poor, unhappy young women who were ordered around and usually dressed in rags and covered in dirt. In the end they were usually happy though. Why is this song called "Stealing Cinderella" if this girl isn't really like the real Cinderella? Is Chuck Wicks perceiving Cinderella just as the beautiful happy women she is in the end of all the Cinderella stories? And if so, why?
Here are the lyrics and music video. What's your opinion on why he casts "Cinderella" as happy and with a great life? Do some people these days just refer to Cinderella as the beautiful girl who marries the handsome prince, forgetting about the unhappy, peasant life she lived before that?


I came to see her daddy for sit down man to man
It wasn't any secret i'd be asking for her hand
I guess that's why he left me waiting in the living room by myself
with at least a dozen pictures of her sitting on a shelf

- Chorus -

She was playing Cinderella
She was riding her first bike
Bouncing on the bed and looking for a pillow fight
Running through the sprinkler with a big popsicle grin
Dancing with her dad, looking up at him
In her eyes i'm Prince Charming
But to him i'm just some fella
riding in and stealing Cinderella

I leaned in towards those pictures to get a better look at one
When I heard a voice behind me say "Now, ain't she something, son?"
I said "Yes, she quite a woman"
and he just stared at me
Then I realized that in his eyes she would always be

Playing Cinderella
Riding her first bike
Bouncing on the bed and looking for a pillow fight
Running through the sprinkler with a big popsicle grin
Dancing with her dad, looking up at him
In her eyes i'm Prince Charming
But to him i'm just some fella
riding in and stealing Cinderella

He slapped me on the shoulder
Then he called her in the room
When she threw her arms around him
That's when I could see it too

Playing Cinderella
Riding her first bike
Bouncing on the bed and looking for a pillow fight
Running through the sprinkler with a big popsicle grin
Dancing with her dad, looking up at him
If he gives me a hard time
I can't blame the fella
I'm the one who's stealing Cinderella