The Cinderella Myth We Can’t Quit

The same woman who stars as the embodiment of poverty in Netflix’s “Maid” is a brand ambassador for one of the world’s largest luxury companies. How very 2021.

Margaret Qualley has attained mega-celebrity of late, in two very disparate roles: She is the star of “Maid,” a bingeable Netflix series (based on Stephanie Land’s namesake memoir) about a young single mother’s struggle with grinding poverty, homelessness and hunger. And she is a “brand ambassador” for Chanel, representing one of the world’s most exclusive luxury labels.

How do we make sense of these two gigs, which feel light-years apart?

In “Maid,” Ms. Qualley’s character, Alex, flees an abusive partner, takes refuge in a women’s shelter and winds up scrubbing toilets for a living, barely able to feed herself and her young daughter — all while looking after her troubled mother (movingly played by Ms. Qualley’s actual mother, Andie MacDowell).