THE CITIZEN INDEX

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Princess, Who?


 You've probably seen them before if you're reading this. Various mysteriously sourced and rated "Blog Awards," that fellow bloggers pass on to eachother, which is has a nice passing it forward feel to it, and helps knit a sense of community. Last week I was a proud recipient and bestower of the Happiness 101 award, and the next day I received this Princess award from the very principled and wonderful EYE of the Orchid Style blog (http://aygenart.blogspot.com). I'm am very honored by Eye's mention, but have felt a bit uncomfortable with the title of the award.

For you see, this Miss Bella never wanted to play princess. I grew up on fairy tales, and loved them, the old school kind, the Brothers Grimm to the brim and Hans Christian Anderson kind, and I really liked the surreal dark world they conjured. To be honest there wasn't a whole lot of happy endings, well, at least happy endings that didn't come with a price. So this pepto-pink wash on everything girlish brand of Princess is something I never did relate to. Honestly: why would I want to be a snivelling and helpless princess when I'd rather be QUEEN?


Like a Queen in Chess: cut-throat, goes everywhere on the chessboard and is THEE major bad-ass. A royal bad-ass. I like THAT kind of royalty.

Ari, my cool, tall glass of water neighbor, who is a bad-ass woman studies major just turned me onto an interesting website called Fallen Princesse (www.fallenprincesses.com )  where photographer Dina Goldstein did a series exploring the real-life outcome of the princesses found in fairytales.

One of the most iconic images of the series depicts a harried Snow White as housefrau:



Before you think I'm ungrateful, let me thank my Hamburg helper and fellow blogger, Eye for thinking of me. Thank-you. I'm happy to have found you and enjoy reading your blog. I hope others enjoy reading your blog too  (shameless plug):  http://www.aygenart.blogspot.com. But I am no princess. I much prefer power over pamper, and don't need a default handsome Prince to rescue me. Let me bestow upon all of you the sincere wish that you never need a prince to save you...because...GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.


 

6 comments:

feministified said...

I love this post! <3

the Citizen Rosebud said...

Thank-you, Ari. Ari was my inspiration for this post and you can read her Woman-Friendly blog here: http://feministified.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

I have a niece who is 3, a spunky powerhouse of a chick who came to our family from Guatemala, and I made the family promise that there would be no "princess" bullshit. She's not my daughter, but she's my kin, and I won't have it! Her bio-mom gave her up because she already had 6 kids and her husband had left her and she didn't read or write and couldn't care for another child. I'm confident that this amazing woman didn't give up a child to have her come to the US and aspire to be Paris Hilton or Beverly Hills Chihuahua. No t-shirts proclaiming "diva" on the front, no sweatpants announcing that the child is "spoiled" across the butt. I did make her a charming black t-shirt with rhinestones across the front that says "smart" - I'll have to find a photo to send you!

Great blog entry. Thanks.

the Citizen Rosebud said...

Christy, I would LOVE to see that black bling-encrusted T-shirt. In fact, wouldn't mind having one of my own as well. Thanks for your comments! xo. -Bella Q

Vlad said...

Queen also did "God Save the Queen". Congradulations on the accolade.

the Citizen Rosebud said...

Yes they did. And they also did Killer Queen which I also considered posting. But the SP had the cool pic which sort of matched....and that works, right?