last week i was at this nail place getting my nails done.. the manicurist was attending to another customer so i was just stoning.. and after a while, a couple of little girls probably in lower primary stood outside the sliding glass door and peeked in.. they looked around at the decor and the rows of nail polish and other such stuff on the shelves in amazment, but ran once the manicurist turned to smile at them.. the other lady getting her nails done mentioned that lil girls were always peeking through the door.. and matter-of-factly, the manicurist said "Of course. Girls are girls regardless of age and will thus be vain creatures." (she said it in Chinese)
I cant help but agree that this is true. I mean from a young age we are already exposed to stereotypical notions of beauty so vainty in girls become a given.
This made me think. Is it the same for virtually everything else in life then? Like romance. Girls have been fed with stories of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella etc etc and in everyone of them, a handsome prince comes into the picture, falls in love with the girl he sees and whisks hers off into forever and happily ever after. Would our expectations change had we not been exposed to such ideas of love and romance? Yes of course, but I guess, fairytales serve their purpose in that it shields young children from the harsh reality that in life it's not all smooth-sailing. I mean these princesses didnt face rejection, have irreconcilable differences with their spouses or face the truth that it may simply be one Prince Charming advocating polygamy or cheating on all of them (like in the book Kass recommended to me, cant rmb the title at the moment though). Therefore, fairytales as we lap them up as children prove to be a good preservation of childhood idealism. I guess we need them to reassure ourselves that the term innocence still holds water in the world today. And besides, despite knowing that the chance of a handsome stranger riding in on a white horse (k maybe now white sportscar) and falling in love with you at first sight is next to nothing, deep within the confines of all our hearts we secretly hope for it to happen, to be able to live out a childhood fantasy and live (almost) every 5yr old girl's dream of being a princess.
Entry @ 11:05 PM;
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
