Prince Charming and his Damsels in Distress

Let's talk about Prince Charming. He's that man all of us heard about as a child, the one who seemed to be sweeping every princess in every fairytale off her feet. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White - they are all rescued by their Prince Charming. I think that, because of these stories, a lot of us girls grew up thinking that there existed a perfect man out there, somebody who would find us, rescue us, and fall desperately in love with us. But, thinking about this, it makes me feel slightly sorry for the guys out there! Because of this Prince we heard about in our childhood, many of the men we meet in our lives may not live up to our high expectations. We might complain that he's not romantic, or he's not witty enough, or he lacks those good looks and charm we crave. The fairytales set the bar pretty high. But, I guess in time the expectation that Prince Charming is going to come along fades. We start to realise that no such person exists outside of fiction. But perhaps, in a sense, the concept is real. Maybe not universally, but subjectively. When you fall in love, that guy is probably, in your eyes, your knight in shining armour, your prince. He may not be fighting dragons and witches, or searching entire kingdoms to find you and return your shoe to you, but in his own way he probably shows you how much he cares. I think it must be kind of programmed in a guy to look after his girl. And perhaps, in a way, they themselves have adopted a 'Prince Charming' persona when it comes to relationships. I don't know, but I think that if some girls have clung to the idea of a Prince coming to rescue them, it's quite possible that this element is dormant somewhere in the male subconscious too.
But, there is something a little annoying about these fairytales, especially for the modern woman. Each Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella need a man to rescue them. Don't get me wrong, I'm no feminist. But there is something very unsatisfactory about a girl waiting to be kissed so she can wake up from a hundred years of sleep. And who would be ditzy enough to lose a shoe on a night out?! Or eat an apple forced upon her by a suspicious-looking stranger? But I guess they are just stories after all. Yet, these three in particular are probably the most famous of all the fairytales you've heard. And they each have basically the same story structure - girl is mistreated by someone, girl meets prince, girl is tricked, prince rescues girl, then it's 'happily ever after' - I guess that's the formula for a classic love story. But what happens after the Prince and his bride-to-be ride off into the sunset? They've basically just met, fallen for each other based purely on looks, and said about two words to one another. So, is their story-book ending of getting married the equivalent to our real-life version - a first date?! And we all know those don't always have a fairytale ending.
I suppose the people who wrote these stories were simply very big on romance. It's interesting to note, though, that the most well-known versions of 'Cinderella', 'Snow White' and 'Sleeping Beauty', the triad of fairytales that offer its readers a representation of the perfect man, were written by the Grimm brothers. As men, they must have known that they were exaggerating when they sent Prince Charming to bring the princesses their happily ever afters. Then again, the portrayal of the women in these stories are fairly obscured as well. Even though they were written hundreds of years ago, when women had less independence, I'm sure that the image of helpless girls waiting to be rescued must have frustrated women just a little back then. Yet, despite all these weaknesses, it is difficult to just cast these fairytales aside. They give us a sense of hope that, just maybe, it is possible that somebody can come into our life and change it completely, that we can fall for someone at first meeting, and that somebody would fight for us if we were in danger. Prince Charming may be a fictional character, and a fairly unconvincing one at that, but he has had a major impact on the dating world of today and how we go about searching for the perfect partner. Some men try to impress girls by putting on a macho facade, while girls may try to act demure, waiting to be approached by the guys they secretly like. And we all have, if only subconsciously, lists of the perfect attributes we want in the opposite sex. Yet, I guess, when it comes to real love, these lists get tossed aside. So perhaps we should get rid of Prince Charming and the knights in shining armour of the fairytale world and trade them in for the real thing, the real guys.