By Abbey Interrante, Editor in Chief, Emerson College
Ariel was beautiful, but didn’t have a voice. Cinderella was beautiful, but was poor and worked as a housemaid for her stepmom. Snow White was beautiful, but… wait, what is Snow White’s flaw? Is it her naivety in moving in with a group of seven men and taking an apple from a stranger? Or is it her ability to sleep in a glass coffin until the prince makes his presence known? Well, anyway, all of the princesses are perfect, except for slight faux-flaws and we, as women, are taught to love them. And growing up, I did. Actually in the name of complete honesty, I still do.
I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with this. These fairy tales represented a life where magic and love at first sight were commonplace, and there was the regular occurrence of a ball being hosted at the local castle. As a child, I loved the Disney movies about the princesses, and once I became a teenager, I immersed myself in the complete works of the Brothers Grimm, reading some of the earliest versions of these tales. (Speaking of, did you know that in their version of Cinderella, one of the stepsisters cut off her toe so that she could fit in the shoe, and the other cut off her heal? This turned out to not be a successful tactic.) The romance and dances and magic in these stories always left me feeling uplifted and made me want to be a princess, but soon I started thinking about these women, and what happened in these stories, more importantly, what happened to them. These princesses were always put in difficult situations only to be rescued by a man, who they always end up marrying. Belle in Beauty and the Beast was actually kidnapped by Beast, yet ends up marrying him and was ashamed of herself for not noticing how wonderful he was before he rescued her from a band of wolves. He actually kidnapped her father, locked her in a room and denied her dinner, yet she was upset with herself for disliking him.
This damsel in distress act has been around for ages. The theme in these stories is that the princess can’t save herself. There needs to be a man there to fix everything once she has the slightest problem. This idea is both discouraging to young girls, and is incorrect in displaying the power that women have. Women don’t, in fact, need a man to pull them from the clutches of our evil foes, whether it is a horrible wizard or opening a door. Though, it’s nice if they’re there and being polite by helping with either situation, it is in no way necessary. As the Cheetah Girls wisely say, “I don’t wanna be like Cinderella/ sittin’ in a dark cold dusty cellar/ waiting for somebody/ to come and set me free/ I don’t wanna be like someone waiting/ for a handsome prince to come and save me/ Oh I will survive/ unless somebody’s by my side/ Don’t wanna be no one else/ I’d rather rescue myself.” And I think it’s that same type of idea that should be taught to young girls who are being told these stories of beautiful princesses for the first time. It’s fine for girls to learn about these princesses, but I think a disclaimer should come with the tale: that each of these girls are strong enough to save themselves, or better yet, be the hero.