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Damsel in Distress Syndrome: Waiting for a White Knight
Stepping into a high school classroom, a teen girl huffs in bratty indignation. The chairs at her table have not been brought to the floor from their overnight resting place. "Put them down!" she whines to a male classmate. "I'm a girl.I shouldn't have to do it!"
Across the room,a slightly older girl hears the demand as she is aiding a few boys put the chair in their rightful position.She rolls her eyes in near disgust but refrains from speaking.
The exchange between the young girl and the boy continues for several minutes before she gets her way. He pulls the chairs down,receiving a smug look from her but not a 'thank you' is heard.The older girl is burning inside to say something. She despise the mentality of her generation.Entitlement,Greed,Instant gratification but none more so than the preposterous idea of feminine weakness that is egged on by such acts of frailty.
She had once told a teacher,when questioned about her thoughts on chivalry, that, while she appreciated the well-meaning gesture of having a door held for her, she had hands and was perfectly capable of doing such task on her own.This elicited looks of disbelief from her classmates,mainly,the males.
Women are becoming more and more the heroines of their own stories,however,girls of all ages are still out there stuck in the fantasy of white knights and damsels in distress. This has less to do with princess movies and greater to do with societal pressure and ideals that barricade women into the tiny box of our stereotype. The harder we push to break this barrier,the farther we will progress. We will no longer "need" to be saved by a prince on a white horse,for we could set our own selves free just by refusing to comply to the cliche image of what society says we should be.
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