Now. I know I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again, but I don't think Karen has the most... varied imagination ever. Most of her books have the same plot, and they usually center around stories of her family. Thinly veiled, of course, but since I read her dedications (all eight pages of them) I can follow her family enough to see through the veil. I'm on to you, Karen. Anyhow, I've solved that by not reading her books any more, so I'm over it.
But anyhow, I've read the book in question, and... I didn't think it was terrible. I thought the story wasn't that creative (a young girl stands aside as young men vie for her hand, and one shows that his love for the Princess would never endanger her, thereby gaining the approval of kingdom and king and winning her hand), but I had nothing against it. Does it lean towards arranged marriages? I suppose, though let's be honest, which country has the least divorces? India? I thought so.
As a side note: On my way home from California in January I sat by a couple in the plane who LifeStory'd (TM) me, and they asked a few times if I was married, and when I was getting married, and why wasn't I getting married? I tried to explain that marriage was going to involve some young man who hasn't shown up and, quite frankly, isn't showing up very swiftly, as far as I can see. We tried some other topics, but eventually they again shifted the subject back to marriage (we'd been talking about the Lord, actually. They were Hindu, and so we discussed the Bible and virgin Mary and various related topics) by asking, "Haven't your parents heard of arranged marriages?"
I said that they had, but such things aren't so much done these days. Then I heard further their LifeStory (TM) and their saga of their own arranged marriage, and how they ish-arranged marriages for their children, though with a way out if the kid thought the spouse was unsuitable. They told me I could pass that along to my parents. Which I did. We all got a good laugh over their dismay at me being more than two decades old minus a husband. Anyhow, they were a nice couple. I gave them a calendar with some Bible verses on it, but they explained that they appreciated the gesture but weren't interested in converting. We talked about it for a while, and Salvation, and what it means according to the Bible, but they seemed less than impressed. So. I hope they get saved. The end.
Anyhow, the Her.meneutics article has a problem with the Karen Kingsbury story. More than one, actually, but basically the author of the article is worried that girls will read the tale and become a wallflower who cannot think for herself. Or speak for herself. Perhaps a valid point (though really? a little girl will grow up unable to think for herself because she one time read a picture book wherein the princess did nothing other than gasp and be happy that a husband had been found?), but what I thought was funny were the comments on the article. Most people seemed to agree with the author, stating their reasons as to why such princess books were bad for children, and something about a funny scene in Shrek 3. Never seen it, but apparently all the regular princesses (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella) think that help will come if only they act accordingly (act sleepingly, and scrub floors, for instace). Anyhow, I have three things to say, both in response to the article, and also to the Shrek thing (which I haven't seen so I probably shouldn't be discussing, haha, but I'm only speaking for the scene in which the princesses do their sleeping/floor scrubbing).
1) Uh, the man's job is to protect. There are still some girls who assume that there is some guy who will act as her protector. Not naming any names, for fear of being branded as, you know, having a Princess Complex, but I'm just putting that out there.
2) While I agree that girls shouldn't sit about doing nothing, and dreamily saying that someday their prince will come, I have to say, is it so bad to be just doing your thing whilst you wait? I mean, maybe you excel at mopping floors (a la Cinderella) and help out a lot of people by doing such... did that make Cinderella hopelessly inept because all she knew was cooking and cleaning? Okay, so she'd never had to [fight/get out of tricky situations/whatever else may have happened in Shrek] but she was doing what she knew how to do. While I doubt she was doing it heartily as unto the Lord, I'd like to think it's kind of the same concept.
3) My final point is that many of the comments in response to the article centered around the fact that the readers were upset that the book seemed to make marriage be the happily ever after. "We are going to teach our daughter differently," the comments seem to say. Uh, so you're worried that your daughter will read this book and then get the terrible idea that marriage is a great career choice (to borrow from my sister's phraseology)? You and your husband are married, ma'am. Do you worry that your daughter will see that you and your husband are (hopefully) contentedly married and then get the frightful idea that *gasp* she might want that, too? I'd just like to point out that most people who are married with children will probably give their children the idea that marriage is often what you do with your life. So... there's that.
Anyhow, I didn't mean to wax so eloquent. I just read the article whilst I was reading up on things (that's another thing--I sort of didn't look at any blogs or anything while I was away, so now I'm looking back to see what I may have missed over the last three months) and thought I would share it. The actual point of this entire long-winded point was mostly to say that if you do want a good picture book about Princesses, I HIGHLY recommend the book The Princess and the Kiss. As far a picture books about princesses go, it's pretty much my favorite. So. You should all read it. And your children should read it. It focuses less on the happily ever after and more on purity. Which I guess leads to the happily ever after, in this case. But anyhow, as far as storybook lessons go, it's a good one.PS, if any of this has offended you, as not being empowering enough to women, I'm... sorry?
1 comment:
Agreed. About pretty much everything (including Karen Kingsbury). But yeah, doesn't the Bible kind of grossly hint that marriage is the natural course of things, and singleness is NOT? And yeah, dudes need to protect their women. A woman is the KEEPER OF THE HOME, man protects and provides. Kind of the way God made things...
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