Not Looking for a Prince

         A friend and I were having a joking conversation the other day about looking for spouses, and he very sincerely told me that he hoped I would find my price. I very quickly shot back that I wasn’t looking for a prince, I was looking for a partner to spend my life with not a fairytale hero.

In the wake of some events that have been taking place in the national media recently, I have been reflecting upon how we seem to set little girls up to fail. We set them up by reading them stories about princes and princesses, in which an overwhelming number of the tale tell of girls needing to be saved. Girls needing a hero. In the stories where the woman is ultimately the hero, she is often portrayed as having weaker characteristics that get her into trouble (think of the foolish decisions of the Little Mermaid a la Disney). We tell little girls that they need to rescued, that they aren’t enough on their own.And we are telling little boys that they need to be heroes. That they have the power and privilege of saving those lesser than them, the women, of their choosing. 

What a tragedy! We tell girls they aren’t good enough and we present a picture for boys that is unattainable, for no one can be the hero all the time. So no, I’m not looking for a prince to save me, I’m looking for a real person to do life with. And there is a very big difference between the two that we are not teaching our children.