The Call of a Prince

Today my son came home from school having had several conversations with the girls in his class. Being best friends with the girls and always having found female company easier than male - he is often invited into all sorts of conversations. He knows more about the perils of periods and how to get measured for a bra and where to buy the best nail varnish from.... 

 

Today the girls told him “all men are rapists and it’s not ok”. 

 

I felt an odd blend of feelings, pride in the next generation of women who can clearly verbalize their utter dislike of all that hasn’t been ok for years and years. 

And sadness....sadness that this is my son's legacy. He is to be a man that will have to fight to be seen as safe. 

 

I was thinking about the tale of sleeping beauty, cursed to sleep for a thousand years by the woman whom her family betrayed. The “evil fairy”; we learn, is actually the sister of the king - the “odd one out” never invited to the party – who takes her rage out on the sweet sleeping beauty. 

 

It has always angered me that she only wakes up when the “sweet prince” arrives at her side and kisses her. There is something sickening that we must learn about being asleep until we are kissed awake by the masculine..... 

 

Yet it is only today, that I witness the fight that the prince takes on to arrive at sleeping beauty’s side. The briar and bramble he must tackle, the wounds he must take on – his pursuit to do so .... because he is duty bound to be the saviour. 

 

Oh what a history and a herstory to lay at the feet of our young children. 

 

The girls asked my son “how do we know if a man is safe or not / how can we tell?”. 

 

In his innocence my son replied “because the safe ones will listen to you”.