I took my 3 year-old princess to see Tangled, Disney's latest movie about Rapunzel, a princess who goes through some adventures and then lives happily ever after with a dashing young man. There's nothing like laughing with your kid in theater with other kids and their parents, and it was fun to watch her cover her eyes when things got all mushy (they're kissing!). She enjoys imagining she's a princess and I think it's pretty harmless, no less unrealistic than my boys' worship of superheroes.
But the thing is, there's some truth to these fairy tales. Elderly spinsters would probably be missing most of their teeth giving them a pronounced jaw, be very thin, have advanced scoliosis, and the cartilage in her nose grows monotonically throughout life, leaving an old woman circa 1600 looking very much like your average caricature of a witch. There were many step-mothers, because the odds your mom would die having another child were pretty high, and they probably favored their own children over the step children.
Most important to Prince Charming stories, on occasion royalty would add to their gene pool by pulling in a beautiful commoner. A recent example is King Leopold II of Belgium--the guy who created The Congo and sold it to his own country in 1908--who at age 65 fell in love with 16 year-old prostitute Carolyn LaCroix. He had two sons with her. When he died he left her a fortune and the boys were given honorary titles. Even when royalty isn't involved, you have cases like Playboy Playmate and stripper Anna Nicole Smith, who at 26 married Smith met 86 year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall, who lived for a little more than a year and then left her a fortune.
So, except the part about the prince being young and dashing, and leaving out the fact that the best way to meet such men is by being a hooker or a stripper, it can happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment