Princess Pornography

I have been thinking about the unrealistic standards that the Disney Princesses have set for me!  Living here in the real world, I should not expect to have a 12 inch waist, long perfect legs and gorgeous hair that falls in perfect waves to my waist.  Don't get me wrong, Princesses and fairy tales have their place.  I read a quote a while back that says something to the effect of "Fairy tales don't teach children that monsters are real.  Children know monsters exist.  Fairy tales teach children that monsters can be defeated." Or something like that.  I think that sense of wonder and fear of the unknown and confidence that good will triumph are healthy things for a child's development.  I think the flaw comes from adolesence to adulthood when young women see themselves as princesses and are waiting for their Prince Charming to whisk them away to a castle and a life of leisure.  Just as half naked women posing in skimpy clothes and gyrating in smutty movies create an unrealistic view of a healthy relationship for men, so do romance novels and princesses for women.  How can the average woman compete with the silicone, bottle blond starring in an online video? How then can the average man compete with the white knight riding up on his faithful charger to rescue the damsel in distress and worship her in a castle happily ever after.  I catch myself occasionally comparing my husband to Flynn Rider or Prince Eric or any host of other cartoon males and have to stop myself.  It is so unfair of me to set him up to fail!  I learned long ago that if I want flowers for valentines day or a date night, I need to just tell him and he'll do it!  He is not a mind reader and he is romantic in his own way, but if we are going to both get what we want from the relationship, we have to communicate our needs to eachother.  And when he does pull a Prince Charming on me every now and then, I appreciate it all the more!