No, I am not going to tell you a fairy tale or write a review on one of the brilliant works by Disney and Pixar. On contrary. I am going to bring you way down to earth and with a mildly unpleasant bang.
I had a horrible headache yesterday (yeah, all scary stories start like that, don’t you think). Well, I did have a headache. I did slept most of the day. Eventually, I woke up and looked around me… My bedroom wall still has all the Disney Princesses and Pixies decals left from my daughter’s Princesses and Fairies stage. I just could not be bothered taking them on. Plus, laugh as much as you want, I really like those stickers myself. They are pretty))).
Anyhow, I was lying there and thinking (as mothers do)
- I need to take those things off. My girl has grown. Time to let go
- They are pretty. How can I save them? What do I need to save them for?
- Princesses… Beautiful, rich, famous, popular girls and look at how their lives turned out.
Snow White
We all need to take a leaf from this girl’s book. From “I wish” to an absolute faith in happiness and miracles to come.
Snow White ends up spending indefinite time in a company of seven grumpy old men, tending to their every need. Her wish comes through in a shape of a Prince. He simply rides in, kisses the girl and rides off. Think about it. Prince is not really the one rescuing Snow White… The dwarfs do… yeah, right…
Sleeping Beauty
Pink or blue, blue or pink – are the biggest decisions in this girl’s life. Her curiosity gets better of her and she… no, she does not die. She falls asleep
Maleficent is the Evil Queen who puts the girl to sleep (no pun intended). But as we now know, Maleficent is not the Evil here…
Sleeping Beauty choice in life is not even her choice (read Anne Rice grim and sadistic version of the tale). It’s a given. It’s a thing she wakes up to or rather a person. SB has never met her Prince before. She does not know him. She does not even know for sure if he is the one who rescued her (may be it was all fairies’ work). SP ends up marrying a guy on his say so… what a joy
Cinderella
Well, I would have wanted to escape evil stepmother and her nutcases of daughters myself, but… give me more options.
Cinderella marries the guy after he finds her by her… wait for it… shoe. He is not looking for beauty, intelligence, character, soul and all the other important traits in a woman. Prince is looking for a foot that fits. Brrr. Disgusting in a way, don’t you think?
Belle
My favourite princess of them all, a bookworm like myself… Belle finds herself to be a hostage for her father’s curiosity and greed (in some versions even criminal nature. And is some versions, it was all Belle’s fault to begin with). She falls for a Beast (domestic violence bells ringing).
Why would you hate your child so much to send her far away, to a distant and gloomy land to live in a spooky castle with a monster? Yeah, right, she falls in love and changes monster into Prince Charming… never. People don’t change, monsters neither. And we all have heard of ‘Stockholm syndrome’. Plus, from my own experience, a smarter girl is more easily she falls in for a damaged soul…
Wait for it. There are more Princesses and more of their Princessly Bad Choices…
To be continued…
