Thursday, April 26, 2007

Fairytale

On Yahoo.com this morning there is a feature about Princesses and the affect of the princess idea on little girls. This made me want to post something I started writing awhile back that goes along with the Yahoo.com report. It is nifty to think that my ideas are parralled in some areas, though mine goes abit further and a slightly different angle it is still around the basic topic.

Go to Yahoo and watch the video about "The Power of Princesses" I wasn't able to link it sorry :(

Here is my piece that I started writing, it is an unfinished piece of work so take it for that. Lemme know what you think on the subject.

Fairytales Should Be Banned:

The Study of “Romantic” Love and Its Nonexistence.


Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Beauty and her Beast: what do all these ladies have in common? Besides the honor of being made into classics by Disney they are classic love story fairytales that all children learn at an early age. First there is the girl, having hard times with stepmothers, witches, social ineptness, or evil queens. They are down on their luck but manage to always sing a happy song because they are all gorgeous! Slender waists, flawless features, perfect sized bosom, and hips that make their dresses flair in that epicurean, eye-catching fashion that lend to their “worthy of Vogue cover” status. Second there is Prince Charming, this anonymous male who is the epitome of masculinity. He will go to great lengths to secure the safety of his princess and to hell with anything that gets in his way. He spots this gorgeous creature one time and immediately begins to fall under the spell of romantic love where his intentions are pure and true. He is swept into the romantic songs, dances, or moments that are lighted by moonlight and is filled only with thoughts of how perfect is this woman he holds. It is not a surprise that most fairy tales were written by a man. It is to this fact that I concede that this are not love stories but lust stories watered down by societal pressure. This Prince Charming that appears in the stories was not in love romantically with these girls, he was in lust. Romantic love does not exist.

From an early age a young child learns of these Princesses and their shining Princes who rescue them from their horrible environment and sweep them away to a happy ever after. Children form an opinion of romantic love that stays with them through adolescent years that then is smashed to pieces either quickly or slowly by reality. Girls learn that Prince Charming does not exist. Boys learn that perfect women like the Princesses do not exist from looks to happy, song singing behavior. Why is it that we fill our children’s minds with these fabricated, delusional stories of ever-lasting romantic love and do not tell them “the rest of the story”. What about when Cinderella moves in and realizes that Prince Charming isn’t all she thought he was? He burps, leaves his underwear on the floor, eyeballs Snow White whenever she comes to visit, and five years down the road decides he wants someone younger so shacks up with Rapunzel in her tower. On the opposite side, what about Prince Charming when he realizes Cinderella is really neurotic, she has no same interests as he does, after the first child she lets herself go and that perfect body is gone, and she is constantly jealous when he is polite to Snow White. This romantic love that they claimed begins to wan and they don’t have the fireworks that were there in the beginning. They begin to question if they really were ever in love to begin with or was it just a momentary flash of emotion?

The Greek have four different words for love in contrast to the limit English version of one. Agape is sometimes referred to as a general love or love that God has for the world as defined by Christians. Storge is the love one has for family. Philios is a self love or love for friends, community, and nation. And last but not least is Eros defined as sexual love or basically lust. Eros is commonly thought of as the romantic love but if one was to research and study through the definitions it is basically lust. In today’s society the two are put hand in hand: romantic love equals lust. Not so! It is very common for someone to experience lust for a person to whom they are not romantically attracted.

We have structured our thought patterns into thinking we can achieve this euphoric, electricity inducing emotion that we consider romantic love. We believe that there is an emotion out there that sweeps us up into its’ hold of enthralling pleasure and that we should base decisions about our mate on this said emotion. What if this emotion doesn’t exist and we are just setting ourselves up for failure? Should it not be instead the goal to have a mixture of philios and eros, knowing that at times both will wan and wax but is not put so high on a pedestal that when it falls we are not crushed and the relationship is in shambles? Shouldn’t we be teaching our children that they do not have to be perfect or have this fairytale to be content or happy but instead can strive to find someone with whom they can establish a friendship love of philios and also experience the lust of eros? This would save a lot of heartache and insecurities when reality comes knocking that they are not perfect like Cinderella or the tall, dark, and handsome Prince Charming. This would save a lot of divorce and split-ups if they go in not with the illusion of fairytale but the reality that neither is perfect and somedays they won’t like each other. This would save a lot of girls looking in the mirror and crying because they are “fat” compared to Snow White’s standards.

(Sorry I never finished it.)



(Beach pics will be out later this week!)



7 comments:

G-Man said...

Good Job Melodie!!
Maybe you don't need to finish it..
You seem to know an awful lot about Greek!
Have a great week-end.
G xoxox

Anonymous said...

well you have some great thought process going on in this post.
Can't say I agree with all of it but I think you presented a very good argument about images and self image.
Have a great weekend my impish friend.:)
tc

Anonymous said...

Frodo says hi Imp!
tc

G-Man said...

IMP!!!
Are you OK?
Have you been real busy?
G-Man misses you a lot..
xoxox

Anonymous said...

Ok........where are the beach pics.
Don't give us any of that end of month stuff either..well, maybe a little bit as long as you have a note from work you're excused.
Happy Thursday.:)
tc

Anonymous said...

Have a great weekend sweetie!
c'ya
tc

lime said...

a book you may really like is 'the true princess' by angela elwell. it talks about character rather than beauty as the defining quality.