The prince, the princess, and the not so charming

A dreary day calls for popcorn and a marathon of your favorite romantic comedies. I was sitting through my second movie (P.S. I love you) tending to a snotty nose and swollen tear stained eyes when I began to think about how lucky Hilary Swank’s character was. I mean geez, why can’t we all have a guy like Gerard Butler writing us love letters from the grave? A love so strong even death couldn’t keep you apart is so epic and rare it only makes sense that you shed a zillion tears for its purity. But I got to thinking about these romance movies and its effect on young girls. Was it harmful to the young and impressionable minds or did it just teach little girls to dream big and never settle for the bum scrub that uses her pure and innocent feelings as a doormat for his egotistic house of games?

When I was younger, I watched tons of romance movies. I started with the Disney princess movies and the ball never stopped rolling from there. By the time I was in my pre-teens, I already had a growing collection of my favorite romantic comedies. When romance movies had sweet ending that inevitably came too quick, I added romantic novels into the mix to fill the void. I always fantasized about what my great love story would be like, where we’d meet, what kinds of trials and tribulations we’d go through, and the epic memories we’d make. I think it was safe to say back then, I was definitely in love with the idea of love.

When I was old enough to dabble in the world of relationships, I found them to be not as glamorous as the movies and novels and tv shows made them out to be. In all honest, they were either painful, an emotional roller coaster, unrequited, or vice versa, I just couldn’t return those feelings back.

I never got the whirlwind kind of love that knocks you off your feet, there was never a life as you know it kind of love, no guy ever chased after me on a motorcycle after I decided I’d leave town for a fresh start, and though totally creepy in a romantic sort of way, no guy ever stood outside my window with a boom box.

Novels, movies, and romantic tv shows whispers secrets of big dreams to little girls. It tells them to shoot for the unrealistic perfect fictitious male character. We expect an epic love story, some grand gesture, some type of sweeping off the feet, but it doesn’t work that way.

Relationships take work. A lot of work and people make mistakes, and your’re going to find personality flaws that you’re not going to like. You have to have a lot of patience and put up with a lot of bullshit and sometimes if you’re lucky, you get a hint of that romance we love so much in the movies.

Your Prince Charming is just a man and he is in no way perfect, but if you get past his character flaws, he might just be perfect for you.