A Passion for Princesses
Some of my daughter's princesses on the bridge of their space ship.
My 3-year-old daughter is crazy about princesses. Since I did not have the same affliction as a child, I am now forced to watch all the Disney Princess movies with her to keep her happy and me partially sane. They’re not as bad as I imagined, though. Here are a few of the points that I picked up from the movies that make me feel better about indulging her princess obsession:
* Cinderella wanted to escape the tyranny of her family to go to the ball. And what girl doesn’t want to dress up and go out and have a good time after slaving away all day? She didn’t even know the man with whom she fell in love was the prince until he sent his underlings to return her shoe.
* Sleeping Beauty didn’t even want to be a princess. She only wanted to marry the man of her dreams. Even the prince spurned his betrothal to Princess Aurora in favor of Briar Rose, a peasant girl he met in the woods. Love rules, royal status drools.
* Belle went in search of her missing father and agreed to be a captive in his place. She fell in love with a beast, not a prince. And spurned the advances of the handsome (and hugely narcissistic) Gaston. This is actually one of my favorite princess movies to watch with my daughter since it shows the difference between inner beauty and outward appearances.
* Ariel actually rescued the prince! Twice! And Ariel’s sisters (also princesses) had horrible singing voices. Now, THAT’S something that no other princess movie has!
* Tiana worked like a dog to make her dreams come true while denying herself everything else. She actually turned a wayward playboy of a prince into a decent fellow before she fell in love with him. Note: my daughter is not a fan of The Princess and the Frog because Tiana spends most of the movie as a frog.
* Jasmine refused to marry anyone that she didn’t love, ran away, and then later used her feminine wiles to distract the bad guy and help Aladdin – who, by the way, wanted to be a prince so that he could marry HER!
* Snow White was the only one innocently dreaming of a prince to marry, but that didn’t stop her from making the forest animals clean the house and shaming the the Dwarfs into washing before dinner.
* Fiona married an ogre, and then chose him again over Prince Charming. (I had to throw this one in. I LOVE Shrek!)
None of these women – Snow White, in my opinion, was just a girl – dreamed of marrying a prince. Most fell in love with someone that they didn’t even know was a prince. They did not want fame, fortune, pretty dresses, servants, or even a crown. All they wanted was love. And who doesn’t want that?
#Jasmine #Cinderella #SleepingBeauty #Shrek #Princesses #BriarRose #Aurora #Tiana #Humor #Ariel #love #SnowWhite