Thoughts about being a Princess

You know how it is not uncommon for people to call using terms of endearment? I tend to call almost everyone babe or baby. My best female friend, Jordan, a junior at IU, refers to other females as princess. The first time I really noticed this was her freshman year when she had a terrible roommate that she called “princess bitch.” This roommate was what Laucius described as “insufferable adolescents and adults who demand constant adulation and access to a bottomless pit of spending money.” When Jordan refused to call her roommate by her name, but would only refer to her as “princess bitch,” I found it a little odd, but not too crazy since the roommate was definitely needy.

But I have more recently noticed how she will call everyone princess, as if it is a good thing. Now she will ask me “what do you want for dinner, princess?” Or when her current roommate, one she has a strong positive bond with, come back, she will tell me “let’s go check on the princess and see how her day was.”

Jordan just recently turned 21. As part of her celebration, she wore a tiara for three of the seven days of her birthday week. When I asked her why the tiara, she said because she was a princess and she wanted to wear it. She then warned me that I better be prepared for whenever she gets married because she will be wearing a tiara for all the festivities involved in getting married too.

My recent realization of how prominent the princess culture still is in Jordan’s life has me thinking. What is the cause of this need to feel like a princess? Is normal life so bad that so many people feel they have to be princesses to escape? How can we claim female empowerment when we are so wrapped up in princess culture, a culture that always has a strong handsome man come to save the day? What happens if a prince doesn’t save you?

I definitely don’t have answers to these question, but they are ones that have been on my mind a bit recently.