Do you know what princesses stand for?
Oh, there are all the normal and easy answers; stuff of little girls
dreams: Castles floating in air, red roses, white swans, swift
horses, sunshine, butterflies and flowers.
These are good things, and having a princess to remind of them is indeed
grand.
If you think a bit more (or perhaps if you are simply older) they
also stand for:
Moats to keep us out and them in, a million kissed frogs
with no prince, wars fought for the sake of one beauty and dragons,
dragons of every size and type.
Perhaps it is just me, but when I see the princess my instinct is to
duck, cover and search the sky for that inevitable dragon.
That dragon is a crafty being! With all the dragon killing knights out there, he would be long extinct had
he not morphed his shape, taken on so many other names.
I see you doubt me. With good reason perhaps. So, here is an easy
test. Wherever you may be at the moment, shout "DRAGON!" and point on the street or in your office. If you are
lucky, a few strange looks, a snide snicker, some tentative shuffling away from the person gone round the
bend. Perhaps one in a hundred would respond by looking or asking
"Where? Which one?"
Ah, but now call him by his new names:
LIAR!
DISMAY!
THIEF!
FAILURE!
BROKEN HEARTS!
UNCERTAINTY!
FEAR!
HATE!
Now you see the same on every face.
A shock of recognition! By the gods! DRAGONS! HERE! AMONG US!
Run, hide, cower, shiver in fear, save yourselves!
Oh, wait....got a bit off track there, did I? This did start with
princesses, right? Those beautiful princesses...Tall and stately, impish
and cute, so many types of those as well!
Interesting that they all serve that same purpose, from the start of
time. Object of desire and lust, thing to be strove to obtain.
Even more; a thing to tempt that old lizard, turn his gleaming eye
towards the prize at the right moment. They allow the final daring blow
to end the battle.
Indeed - the true hero of every tale, for without her all is lost.
In simple terms, one could perhaps make the argument that a
princess's
highest moment is when she serves as....
Dragon Bait!