Princesses

Princesses.  They reign as the epitome of fantasy for four year old girls in a world where monarchies are few and Disney defines their glamor.  Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White are gal-pals with Ariel and Jasmine, each with her own pastel palette and distinctive hair accessories.  Unlike the superhero alter-egos of boys that age, princesses don't have to do anything to keep their hold on little girls' imagination.  They exist to be beautiful, feminine, and ultimately successful in love.  They express their personal power in their ability to charm, to persuade, and fortunately, these days, to show a mind of their own.

The old school princesses, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White, call up a darker and more challenging archetype than the modern princesses.  They enact the latency of girls' sexuality, as it is poisoned by the jealousy of bitter older women and held in paralysis until awakened by contact with overwhelming virility.  They have a passive role in their stories, and as object of a quest requiring rescue, their only duty is to make patience look virtuous.  They are the ultimate submissives, Cinderella a slave, and the other two the lust objects of necrophiliac princes.  Their behavior couldn't be any more innocent of the sexual yearning they spend their waking moments singing about:  "Someday, my prince will cum...."  What could be a better fantasy to circumvent any and all guilt associated with early sexual feelings?

The modern princesses, Ariel, Belle, and even Jasmine to some extent, take charge of their lives.  They are seeking adventure and excitement, and if a man is part of that, then so much the better.  They take an active role in changing their own lives and rescue not just themselves but their princes too.  Plus, they can get away with sounding bossy and demanding.  You'd think that would be immensely appealing to little girls, and it is, but not as appealing as it is to their mothers.

According to all the little girls I talk to about princesses, and believe me they are many, the only one of the modern princesses that is frequently counted as a favorite is Ariel.  Because she is a mermaid.  You can't get anymore latent than having a fish tail when swimming around half naked.  (Jasmine, also skimpily clad, comes in as a distant second, and that is by vote of dark skinned girls happy to have a princess who looks like them.)   Ariel is also darkly and personally cursed, her voice stripped away by a power hungry hag, in the manner of the old school princesses.  She puts a new spin on the archetype though, by choosing submission as a means to her ends and staying conscious throughout the ordeal.  Her prince still has to rescue her, to prove himself worthy if for no other reason, but she is the one who does the chasing.

This Halloween, look around among the spooks and spiders, witches and goblins.  I predict a predominance of Spidermen and Batmen and a horde of princesses.  Super-masculinity and ultra-femininity give clarity to sexual roles as they are emerging in young children's identities.  Look around at adult Halloween parties too.  The woman in leather with a whip probably dressed as a witch in her younger days.  The baby doll/schoolgirl?  She was Sleeping Beauty.  My advice to you guys, if you want to get laid by someone who isn't too plastered to notice what she is doing, is to chat up the mermaid.  However, if you are really lucky, and don't go to that party after all but chase after the moon of your own fascinations, you will run into Belle, with her nose in a book.  With one look, she will pierce through to your core, dance elegantly through your days,  and then howl with you all through the night.