Cinderella Complex: A Study of Urban Homemakers ’Life Satisfaction and Television Dependency

Traditionally women in India are expected to be under the guidance of their father and husband in their life. The latter is meant to be the primary one for every woman in society. She is trained to be dependent and taught to feel secure in the hands of a ‘Man ’. A Woman, since her childhood is often encouraged to do only the things that are acceptable by society. Yet, forever the only content that the elders reinforce in a female is that some day, in some way there will be a savior prince who will rescue and fill her life with happiness and joy. With this dream, most women await for a good partner who could change her way of life. But after marriage when the ambition of the expected free-life collapses, a woman discovers ‘it wasn't their own life they had been living. ’At this juncture, the Cinderella Complex operates in a woman's life. Thus her deep-seated conflict with independence arises. Especially, a Homemaker, who is economically and socially dependent on her husband and his family, develops fear to make herself self-sufficient as it could end her up in unloved and uncared, even loss of femininity. In such a way, a Homemaker who is mainly confined to do domestic chores in a family faces tremendous conflict between dependence and independence in her life. Therefore they seek personal satisfaction through television viewing. As a result this might make them to rely on television viewing for their psychological support and escapism. Thus it creates a strong affinity towards television. Homemakers believe that television is the simplest means of enjoyment. Some studies suggest that ‘Life Satisfaction ’might be one of the motives of television use. Betty A. Grable (2006) suggests that television influences satisfaction with life as viewers, compare them to and mimic the lifestyles of people they see on television. Therefore, the study attempts to examine the association of homemakers ’life satisfaction and television dependency. For this purpose a survey on 150 homemakers (women) of three parts of Chennai City (North, South and Central) was conducted, data was gathered through structured questionnaire from urban homemakers.