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Ain't no Disney princess!



I don't want my daughter growing up on Disney movies. Don't get me wrong, I love them and have myself grown up on a steady dose of Cinderella and Ariel, but I still don't want my daughter watching them. These stories depict everything that women today don't want to be. Extremely girly girls wearing these unmanageable dresses, shy and timid, whose only mission in life is to wait for their Prince Charming to come and sweep them off their feet. 

Sorry, but that's not what I want my daughter to be. 

Childhood is the most brilliant time of anyone's life, where you can dream and fantasise and be anything you want to be. I can't imagine how dull life would be if we did not have these brilliant childhood memories and fantasies where we were allowed to be anything. But if I have to help steer my daughter's dreams, it would be towards seeing herself as Superwoman! Somebody who can fly and lift heavy things and run faster than trains and be a messiah of the masses. She wouldn't need a Prince Charming to come rescue her. She would be more than any of the boys her age can wish to be. 

If we take a look around at how our world is evolving, I believe even men today do not want to be with a fragile touch me not. A man needs to be with a strong woman, who can look after herself and him when the time comes. Who is ambitious, conscientious, hard working, has a mind of her own and can earn a buck. The old patriarchal ways are changing. Nobody thinks it is dishonourable if a woman works. Parents are proud of their scholar daughters. Just like men, women too demand respect in their relationships and they are willing to earn it. A fragile woman who is afraid of cockroaches would only be a liability and not an asset. 

The Disney princesses are irrelevant and obsolete and I wish there were better stories to tell ( or I just might end up telling some of my own). But if my darling daughter must see these movies, I would rather have her become Maleficent, the protector of the moors, than Sleeping Beauty or Rapunzel.

Comments

  1. Charu Anand31 August 2015 at 12:52

    Very well written...well i belong to the old club and am scared of cockroaches and still fantasize...but am strong enough to face the world.U r absolutely right that in todays scenario such timidness won't wrk.
    Love ur article...

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