Cinderella Syndrome

I read in The New York Times on Sunday that Disney is creating a line of wedding gowns that look like the Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty gowns. The long article wasn't even about this, it was mainly about the new director of Pixar, and I don't really remember much of what I read besides this. Oh, and that they are making Toy Story 3.

Maybe I'm the only person that sees the full circle image here. Young girls grow up on stories of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, of Prince Charming's and white horses that will someday come and save them from their mediocre lives. They have it programmed into their minds that once they meet The One, their lives will automatically be magical and perfect. As they grow older, they will (hopefully) realize that a man will not make their lives perfect, but they still wait. They still search for the man who will "save them" in some respects, even if its just saving them from the dating circuit and heartbreaks.

So here are one of the prime makers of these fairytales, the inventors of the Cinderella Syndrome, with endless female characters that wait for their prince to come and wake them up from an endless sleep, from cleaning up after their evil step sisters, or from the boring life of living as a mermaid (which I always thought would have been much cooler than being a human, but I guess the grass is always greener). And now, once you finally have found that perfect man that they promised you'd always find (of course minus the white horse and royalty status, in most cases), you can wear Cinderella's dress! I think it's absolutely fitting. The ideology coming full circle. In fact, Disney will probably barely have to worry about coming up with a clever marketing strategy, they have decades of values already instilled in millions of girls. So now finally, on their wedding day, someone has come to "save" them.

On an episode of Sex and the City, Carrie brings up to her girlfriends the crazy idea that maybe there never will be a man to come save them, that maybe they have to save themselves. Charlotte replies (of course) with, "That is the most depressing thing I've ever heard."

I, however, think the idea of having to wait around to be saved to be the one of the most depressing things I've ever heard.

Men can't be saviors, they're just men. They're humans just like the rest of us. Sure having a good one in your life will make it more fulfilling, but it's not going to turn your life into a new magical experience. But no matter what I say, I won't beat Disney. Many still wait.

And when it comes time for my wedding, I'll probably look up those Disney gowns, because really, who wouldn't want to look like Cinderella on their wedding day?