When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a Princess!

I don't have a daughter of my own yet, but I remember being a small child years ago and playing with dolls, and dreaming of princesses and horse drawn carriages...

Why are there princesses everywhere? I can't go into a dollar store, a shopping mall, a grocery store, a convenience store... OK, I can't go into any store without running face-first into something relating to princesses! I was in a grocery store yesterday, and I saw a mother with an entourage of princesses! They were wearing the polyester, multicolored dresses (you know, the ones sold by a company whose name rhymes with Pisney), plastic tiaras, and sneakers. The poor mother was trying to keep the princesses focused long enough so that she could buy food for the family.

What were the princesses doing? "Mommy, I want this box of cereal!" "Mommy, I don't want to be here!" "Mommy, I want some candy!"

What was I doing? If you guessed "getting the heck out of dodge" you'd be right.

First, being a princess isn't really a glamorous thing! Being a princess means that you are always under scrutiny by the general public. Being a princess means that you have to learn how to behave with others well. Being a princess means learning social rules for both your own culture and other people's cultures. I don't see these little princesses doing any of this! Instead what I see is an outlet that leads straight to over-individuality and an identity based upon consuming. And that's just sad.

But what really frustrates me is that being a Princess isn't a final destination! Why aren't we training our young women to be Queens? To become the epitome of grace, civilization, culture, tact, and diplomacy? To care for those who are in our care, whether we are teachers or mothers or -- heck -- even fast-food workers?

Or why don't we just drop the princess model? The entire concept is flawed to begin with! European princesses rarely were able to choose their husbands. I don't see little girls dreaming about the wonderful arranged marriage her father is planning to strengthen his political alliance with the next door neighbor! European princesses had little to no say in what happened in their lives, unless they managed to become a Queen like Elizabeth, and even then she still made huge personal sacrifices in order to rule her country. And the thought of being forced to wear a chastity belt -- which has to make cleaning certain parts of a woman's anatomy quite difficult -- just doesn't sit well with me! But we've allowed our daughters to become infatuated with a dream of princess-hood that carries over into so many aspects of their adult lives -- prom, engagement parties, weddings that cost $20,000 plus, designer shoes and handbags that are ridiculously overpriced... we could feed countries of starving people with the money we waste on over indulgences on just princessism alone.

When I have daughters I will not allow them to be princesses. We will live in a cave without electricity or television and forage for our food daily.

Well, ok... when I have daughters I won't have much control over what they choose to do. But I will do my best to show them the entire story about princesses. It'll be like telling them the truth about Santa Claus. Hopefully, they won't be scarred for life.