When I grow up, I (don’t) want to be a princess
As I decided to try living as a free spirit right after graduation (organizing my very own festival) instead of sweating for someone else, I quickly had to find a source of funding that would bring my Bohemian aspirations and my consumer life-style together.
So I took this part-time job in a well-known department store in Paris for december, the Christmas shopping month during which (almost) everyone seems very annoyed about having to think and make presents for his/her entourage.
My very interesting job consisted in giving directions to lazy people who do not want to read the floor-map, but also the busy ones who do not want to waste time, and the determined ones with something specific in mind.
On the fourth floor of the store you can find suitcases, lingerie and women underwear, swimming suits, make up and … wedding dresses. There should be 20 or 30 of them in a corner, along with a special advisor. The wedding dresses are the first thing you see when the escalator reaches the 4th floor, they’re here to say welcome to you.
I spent one shift of 6 hours next to them, I can’t really say we became friends, but we conducted a social experience together, without them knowing. It took me half-an-hour to notice that 8 persons out 10 would stop in front of the wedding dresses for some reason and express their wonder in front of these white meringues in various ways.
I would not have imagined their attraction power. I saw Chinese tourists taking pictures between a couple of dresses there. I saw and heard women stopping, and mumbling at the dresses … probably tired of waiting for a proposal. I saw adult women and their mothers stopping because “Oh look a the nice dress”, but then finding them all ugly for some reason. I saw friends smiling at them from ear to ear, all excited by what must be a coming-soon excitement.
But what was the most striking, is that literally almost every single little girl stopped in front of the dresses and said “What a nice dress”, “It’s a princess dress” ! The few ones who naturally did not were taken by their parents, moms dads, grandma etc. : Look, it’s a nice dress ! It’s a wedding dress ! Your mommy had the same, remember the pictures ?
Why so ? I asked my self how I would have reacted as a little girl ? Probably the same way because I liked beautiful princess dresses. I’m not sure how confusing this outfit can be for a little girl, and I’m not sure I know the difference between a princess dress and a wedding dress. Maybe because it’s there are no differences.
I’m not sure I’ve known any magnificiant non-married princess, from Sleeping Beauty to Kate Middleton since both of their life’s’ highlights required to be wearing a wedding dress.
I recently watched an advertising video for construction toys for girls (GoldieBlox), presented as an alternative Christmas gift for little girls this years encouraging them to build simple machines with their friends.
I’m ending this post by a warm invitation to take a look at the lyrics of the song used in the commercial : sharp, inspiring, and very much up-to-date, thank you.
“Girls, you think you know what we want
Girls, pink and pretty’s it’s girls
Just like the fifties it’s girls
You like to buy us pink toys And everything else is for boys And you can always get us dolls And we’ll grow up like them, false
It’s time to change
We deserve to see a range
Cause all our toys look just the same
And we would like to use our brains
We are all more than princess maids
Girls, to build a spaceship
Girls, to code a new app
To grow up knowing That they can engineer that”