...[S]ince when did every little girl become a princess? It wasn't like this when I was a kid, and I was born back when feminism was still a mere twinkle in our mothers' eyes. We did not dress head to toe in pink. We did not have our own miniature high heels. What's more, I live in Berkeley, California: if princesses had infiltrated our little retro-hippie hamlet, imagine what was going on in places where women actually shaved their legs? As my little girl made her daily beeline for the dress-up corner of her preschool classroom, I fretted over what playing Little Mermaid, a character who actually gives up her voice to get a man, was teaching her.
On the other hand, I thought, maybe I should see princess mania as a sign of progress, an indication that girls could celebrate their predilection for pink without compromising strength or ambition; that at long last they could "have it all": be feminist and feminine, pretty and powerful; earn independence and male approval. Then again, maybe I should just lighten up and not read so much into it — to mangle Freud, maybe sometimes a princess is just a princess....
Peggy Orenstein, Cinderella Ate My Daughter
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Lots of book collectors collect fantasy. It's a very popular genre.
But not every fantasy is concerned with elves and goblins, wizards and witches, dragons and dragon slayers, damsels in distress and knights in shining armor who have been unfairly usurped from their thrones. Sometimes fantasy is about the lives, or the supposed lives, of real people whom fate, circumstance, whatever, have made richer, more beautiful, more successful, more powerful, more [insert your own personal envy here]. In these cases, bookshelves devoted to fantasy often are devoted to ... souvenirs of Royal Weddings:
Sometimes these real-life fantasies work out (or at least appear to)...
...but oft times they do not:
Failure of these real-life fantasies (however defined) does not seem to make them any less attractive to folks who collect books, souvenir programs, orders of service and other items that are associated not only with royal weddings, but with most other royal events as well (coronations, funerals, etc.):
According to a recent news report, when Diana Spencer and Charles, Prince of Wales, were married in 1981, a little less than 600 members of the world press were credentialed to cover the event. For the pending marriage of Kate Middleton and Prince William, over 7000 members of the world press have been credentialed.
The bookshelves, they soon will be a-groanin'....
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