You know, it probably won't come as a major surprised to you that I occasionally check into the Instagram account of a certain former member of the Grand Ducal Family every once in a while. While we took decision as Team Luxarazzi to stay above the fray when it comes to the ongoing divorce proceedings of Prince Louis and his wife Tessy who announced their separation more than two years ago, there is just something I want to get off my chest... The other day I saw this post:
"Everybody can be a Princess. It is something you fell and express by your actions and words. Not by a name given to you", Tessy writes - and while I am sure it was well intentioned, it just somehow rubs me the wrong way. No, not everyone can be a princess. It is not a name (unless you live in a former monarchy where titles became part of a legal last name). Instead, it is a title - and it is not even a title that someone attains by their own accomplishments, but a title someone has by the virtue of their birth or by marrying someone. Considering we live in the 21st century, I would classify neither as an achievement.
Being a princess doesn't make you a better human being either. It is who you are as a person who makes you a better human being, but still not a princess. Let's face it, the whole point of it has always been privilege and elitism. If everyone could be a princess, what is the point of being one to begin with? Be defined by yourself and your own actions and not a title bestowed on certain people based on the luck of their birth or marriage. Apart from a possible superficial first attraction to your title, it doesn't make you an interesting person. It is what's beneath that counts.
I also keep wondering: What is the obsession with being a princess to begin with? If these ranks are achievable, I would want to be a Queen, thank you very much. Or better yet, an Empress. A Grand Duchess, a Landgravine, the Princess - someone who rules the world (or a tiny part of it) in her own right. Not a princess, which just means being the wife or daughter of someone without any actual power whatsoever. We live in the 21st century, it is time we stop defining women by being someone else's mother, wife or daughter. Young girls should dream of and aspire to be the woman who rules the world, not the wife or daughter of someone who does.
With fairytales and Disney omnipresent, it is not hard to imagine where society's obsession with being a princess comes from. It’s something easy to daydream about: The prince on a white horse who comes, sweeps you off your feet and takes you to his fairytale land and you live happily ever after. However, that isn't the reality of life - and frankly it would be a pretty boring one at that. Perhaps someone should write the story about Cinderella ten years on, with five kids, stretch marks, a whining staff, and she and Prince Charming having the same argument they've been having for a decade?!
So in the end, I can't help but I think if the desire to "be a princess" by grown women is also actually an unstated preference for having a life of ease and privilege with very little responsibility. And that's hardly something for young women to aspire to. It's like striving to be famous instead of striving to be talented. So to all the girls and women out there: Be the Queen, be the Empress, rule the world!
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