rigid image

I watched "The Princess Diaries" with the family recently. On the whole, the film is very amusing, but
there is a scene that makes me think. At one of her "princess lessons", the lass is greeted by a beautician
who gives her a makeover. Forgive me for wanting to analyze a "light" picture in such depth, but the scene seems to send a questionable message, namely that you must achieve a rigid physical image, even if by artifice, to be aristocratic. She has hair that is apparently naturally frizzy, but it ends up straight. OK, she may have not minded, and apparently considered it an improvement afterward, but look at this part of the script: the beautician asks if she has ever tried contacts. She says that she did not like them. "Well, now you do." he says, and crushes her spectacles with his fist. What kind of authority does he think he has! She could press charges for that! I know it`s just a film, but think of the possible message: "you can`t be yourself if you want to be a princess". There is nothing vulgar about spectacles, yet they do not fit an image of physical perfection, so she is coerced into uncomfortable lenses? Please. When she becomes queen, it will not matter how beautiful she is but how good a diplomat and champion of the Genovians she can be.

Colonel John Doe

I saw the movie. Yes, it`s just a movie, I see the ugly duckling point. But that stylist is so unnerving.
He`s the guy who told everyone Mia was a princess lol. At least he`s European lol. The thing with the broken glasses can indeed be seen as either a symbol or just a joke, I suppose.

Ah the South, the South. Conformity. Rednecks. Racism. The list goes on. Of course not everyone
is like that there, but so many people are decades, nay, at least a century in the past. Sheeesh.....

Rachel,

I KNOW that YOU are not a redneck. Again, I don`t think everyone from the South is like that, but I am basing my opinion on hard facts:

-the Ku Klux Klan still thrives there. It exists in other places, but that`s its stronghold.

-authoritarian parenting is found there in many instances. This has been repeated over and over
by factual literature and articles I`ve read.

-political movements there want to throw the country back to the days of Gone With The Wind. They
want to stuff the USA into their mold.

Not everyone in the South is like that I`m sure. I believe you. But there is enough of this to make me
glad I live far North of there.

Ok, back on the colonel`s subject.........


(man, have some of the women been touchy around here lately or what? )

Yes, I am a woman. I`ve seen 4 dif. threads now today (one of my comments in a thread too) taken way too personally. Are we all on our time of the month or what? Geesh.

Anyhoo, I see your point "John". Think about the age of the majority of those who saw this movie. What is it saying to teenage girls?
Yeah, WE can see past it as "just a movie", but how much influence does it have on them?

(ok this was just my opinion --- so nobody pull out the bazookas)

This is long, but I had to throw my hat in the ring here . . .

Rachel A, you did a great job of defending the South. But as a former yankee turned southerner, I have to add to your response . . .

Duke - I`m sorry to tell you that you are way off base. I used to think just like you, so I am not beating you up. I was raised to think those things about the south. I still argue with my family about them.

I grew up in CT (until I was 21) and then lived for 7 years in San Diego, CA. I now live in Birmingham, AL and I love it here. The people I encounter are some of the most gracious, kind-hearted and "real" people I have ever met. Birmingham`s mayor is black and so is most of the city council. We have an incredible Civil Rights Museum honoring those of all races who fought for equality. There is even a "Birmingham Pledge" that has been signed by thousands of residents and schoolchildren promising to fight against racism on every scale, and especially within our own hearts (look it up on the web). Does racism exist here? Yes. But it exists everywhere. The difference here is that people are willing to acknowledge it and work to resolve it. In the north and in CA people were "closet racists" - it was there but never admitted to.

My sister on the other hand still lives in CT and has a next-door neighbor who frequently and loudly complains about the filthy n****** next door. When I was living in CA and told my massage therapist I was moving here, he tried to talk me out of it by saying "there are just too many blacks in Alabama." So much for those open-minded californians and northerners.

As far as culture, our art museum, symphony, opera and ballet and zoo are all top notch - many exceeding those in San Diego and other cities twice our size. We have a world-renown Alabama Shakespeare Festival too. We have yoga studios, sushi bars, tattoo parlors and gay/lesbian bookstores. Not everyone sits on haybales and plays the harmonica here. Our governer is even a Democrat. Our state is currently trying to find the best way to re-write our constitution, which is outdated, but what matters is that people acknowledge it and are trying to change it.

Don`t get me wrong, I get just as defensive when southerners proclaim all northerners are rude (and I`ve even heard ugly!) and all californians flakes. There are good people and bad people everywhere in the world, and the differences are simply a matter of geography.

So c`mon Duke, use that open, liberal northern mind you are so proud of and give the south a chance!

I`ll get off my soapbox everybody, thanks for indulging me!

P.s. Southern ladies definitely do pay attention to their hair!

It is definitely a well-kept secret - I had no idea it was this nice before I moved here. There is a song by the Indigo Girls called "South land in the Springtime" that is my anthem - the chorus says "when God made me born a Yankee he was teasing. There`s no place like home and none more pleasing than the South land in the springtime."

Oh boy. I have to throw in my 2 cents here. As a life long southerner with a long southern heritage and deep, deep southern roots I have to say that the phrase: "American by birth, southern by the Grace of God" definitely applies to me.

I have lived in other places including southern California and currently in southeast Florida (a yankee haven if ever there was one) and have traveled to almost all the 50 states. I know I am prejudiced but I have to say that southerners are by far the most friendly, polite, gracious people you will ever find. I think part of that is because being southern is such an identity. I have a friend from North Dakota who just couldn`t understand my passion about being southern (he lived in Atlanta for many years but just didn`t get it). I think you have to be born here and have parents and ancestors from here to really understand the identity. Many southerners are still living in the same towns and even the same houses as their parents, grandparents, and greatgrandparents. The land is important and so is keeping it in the family.

We are as educated as any other group of people and actually have some of the finest universities, medical schools, and hospitals in the country to our credit (can you say Emory?). We also have better dispositions and much better weather than the northern half of the entire country. I would much rather be from a place where prejudice and racism is acknowledged and is being worked on. I have friends in interracial marriages who actually move to the south from places like Boston because they are more easily accepted, and more importantly, so are their children. My best friend for the last 20 years is a black lady and she has opened my eyes to the pain that many of her race have suffered at the hands of white people all over this country. It isn`t easy to be a minority in any part of this country and I try very hard to do my part to make sure I don`t mistreat anyone.

Racism comes in many forms and is practiced against many groups of people, including whites. But to call an entire region prejudiced and backward seems to indicate something about the person making that judgement.

Have you ever seen Steel Magnolias? It does a very nice job of depicting small town southern life and I have to say, it didn`t look too bad did it?