Do you all remember when this tweet was making the rounds, perhaps a couple years ago?  This awakens a huge pet peeve of mine–the downplaying of virtues traditionally considered “feminine” and the idea that in order for a woman to be considered “strong” she must espouse traditionally masculine virtues, such as physical strength, leadership, fighting skills, and stoicism.

I do not mean to suggest that women can’t be these things, because of course they can.  But the tweet seems to imply that the princesses of the author’s generation were not worth looking up to. That these generals are what strong women look like, and are what our daughters should strive to be.  But strength comes in many forms, and I’m tired of this narrow-minded, feminist idea of a “strong woman”, and that a woman who is soft, compassionate, obedient, gentle-spoken, and in a word, feminine, is somehow oppressed or a victim of the patriarchy.

All the Disney princesses I can think of, with the exception of Snow White (because that bimbo took an apple from an obviously evil old woman, so it’s more a cautionary tale I think) are excellent role models for young girls.

Cinderella- Cinderella is a good place to start, mostly because she is so well known and I’m fairly certain was my first Disney princess.  My younger sister watched Cinderella on repeat when she was about 3 or 4; something about it simply captivated her.  And Cinderella is a strong female lead.  She is unerringly kind to those around her, especially her animal friends. Even though she has every reason to be bitter and hate her stepmother/stepsisters, we don’t see her really hating them.  True, she gets annoyed by their incessant demands, but who wouldn’t?  In fact, she has greater patience than most people.  Cinderella keeps her head up and keeps dreaming for a better future, even when there seems no escape from her life of drudgery. The only time she was truly desperate was when her hopes of attending the ball were dashed by her stepsisters’ cruelty.  She wasn’t even going to get a man.  Our homegirl literally just wanted one well-deserved night of fun.  But she got a prince as well!  We know the rest of the story, and it should be plain that Cinderella deserved the ending she got.  Poetic justice!  That a kind and gentle spirit is rewarded–a strong spirit–is the basic moral of Cinderella.  Can you argue with that?

And more recently, the live-action Mulan remake disappointed everyone. Because it was no longer about a normal young woman trying to fit in. She was suddenly this absolute badass with no weaknesses…and totally unrelatable. Here’s a link to a well-executed video explaining the Mulan problem a lot more efficiently than I would: https://youtu.be/NXBqG9E9uSA

The point is, femininity is a strength. Feminists promote the idea that an empowered woman must have all the worst traits of a man: aggressiveness, violence, sexual promiscuity, stifled emotions, etc. And if you as a woman put value into things like your home life, if you like cooking for your husband, if you take a long break from your career path to raise children, if you are quiet and gentle when voicing your opinion at work, you are somehow less than, that you’re somehow letting down women by not putting yourself in a STEM field workplace. This is now becoming ingrained in our culture, and it’s dangerous.

Women have often been seen as the moral guardians of society. We temper men’s promiscuous sexual nature and make monogamy a good choice for them. Our softer and more emotional hearts are often quicker than men’s to recognize the awful state of the world, and when we see someone, anyone suffering, we will do anything to help. We are absolutely essential in the rearing of children, primarily as mothers, but also as teachers and counselors. Many people remember their mothers as one of their primary inspirations, more so than their fathers. Both men and women say they prefer interacting with a woman when handling business such as banking or ordering food. We’re more agreeable and less intimidating. We’re better communicators, better diplomats, and more in tune with other’s emotions. This is women at their best.

Of course, this is speaking very generally, as have been my statements about men. There are always exceptions, but these things are largely true and important. Women can wield swords or lead armies (and trust me that’s awesome) but they cannot be men. And men cannot be women.

I have a lot to say about both men and women and their roles in modern society. And I have a lot to say about the institution of feminism and how we got here. Probably I’ll touch on these things in the future, but I hope I got my point across today. Take care of yourselves!

Thank you for reading and for following my blog. I was kinda thrown off by 2020 and I’m very busy these days, but I have several things in the works (I promise!). Stay tuned!