Once upon a time…
These words have defined most of my childhood. I know the stories by heart and could probably write a few of my own using just the basic plot line. After all I basically spent the first eight years of my life dreaming about dashing princes and glittering balls.
But what happens when the plot twists? What happens when you realise that maybe you won’t find a prince? Do we simply accept our fate and become poor, helpless maids? Or do we pick ourselves up and keep fighting?
Am I the only person who is noticing that women aren’t helpless maids anymore? The business world is slowly becoming a playground that women can enter. Varsity classes are overflowing with intelligent women seeking their own fortunes and achieving goals that no one else thought were possible. Women are dominating and changing the playing field.

But are men changing too? Or are they still the dashing princes waiting for a damsel in distress? And if so, does that mean that all of us who choose to be educated women will never find our prince? Maybe it’s a silly question, but what if women have changed the playing field so much we’ve forced men to change too?
Think of it this way, if Rapunzel can now escape from the tower without the help of a man she’d never meet the prince. She’d be gone long before he ever entered the forest. But who’s to say that she doesn’t meet another prince somewhere else? Or is there only one prince destined for each princess?
Do we only have one shot at our Prince Charming before we have to settle for a pauper? Have we as women twisted the plot so much that we are now the heroes of the story? Is it up to us to do the rescuing? Has feminism killed the chances of finding a prince? Has the fairy tale become a whisper of times long gone?
Is our story going to be one where the rich, powerful princess rescues a young slave boy from the greedy clutches of his master and sets him free by marrying him? And if so, is there anything wrong with that? Maybe it’s just me but the princess and the pauper still sounds romantic and beautiful. Maybe it’s time to embrace the change and accept a new age of fairy tales.