I know
that many of us especially young women have been raised on the beautiful and
romantic stories from Disney that always begin with a beautiful but tragic
female character being imprisoned, treated badly by a vicious step mother or
somehow being trapped by her cruel circumstances.
All of
these women possess amazing character qualities as well as beauty, so as to
make their supposed entrapment seem so unjust and unfair. As she is
helpless all she can do is await a prince to come to save her. Her life is
suspended as she lives in a tower, or lies in a deep sleep, is mistreated by a
mean step mother and she is always unable to rescue herself.
Cinderella, the sleeping beauty Snow white, Rapunzel with the long hair, the
little mermaid Ariel, Jasmine, and Pochohantas all of them can only be saved by
one thing, marrying the prince or the male hero in their story and then
becoming the princess they were always meant to be. Belle even goes so far as
to fall in love with a beast and try to change him with love.
Well I am
here to dismiss this untruth for you - these stories are false and have
entrapped so many other beautiful and amazing young women of this
generation from reaching their full potential, as they suspend their lives
trying to stay beautiful and awaiting their prince hero to arrive and
rescue them from their circumstances. I want to scream “Wake up sleeping
beauty, climb down your own hair Rapunzel, Belle the beast can only treat you
badly if you allow him to and Ariel be who you were called to be and stop
trying to be someone or something else!”.
The truth
of it all is that Disney created these magical stories from the true origins
that are sometimes quite horrific tales of a more realistic nature. We
must teach our daughters that in the real world there is no fairy dust or glass
slipper and that we must remove ourselves from people that have evil intentions
towards us. There is nothing enlightening about suffering while you wait to be
rescued. Not to mention the pressure we have placed on our young men to be a knight
in shining armor that is looking for a helpless woman to rescue. Men of today
have respect and admiration for strong women that are loving and capable of
taking care of themselves.
And yes
there are happy endings but they don’t always look like a Disney fairy tale.
Sometimes the female character does not get married and instead is the CEO of a
large corporation, she does and can live happily ever after if she has
encountered her true self and purpose. Or maybe she looks like mother Teresa
who lived a life of servant hood and rescued others in rescuing herself. She
might be the single mother that is truly a hero for taking the responsibility
that was too much for the prince that ran away from it all. What ever her life
is she must be responsible for her true happiness and not give the
responsibility away to another.
Here are
a few links to share the origin and to dispel the myths that we have come to believe
via our journey with Disney for the past 8 decades.
Charmaine
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