content warning: talks about fairy tales

fairy tale heroes fall to fairy tale morals:
the past seems to preach
of docile women and their rescuing men.
but cinderella wasn’t docile –
she chose kindness above cruelty,
and though she couldn’t drag herself
from the ashes of the fire
she was still able to wave that white flag.

and in the original story of rapunzel
after the prince falls from the tower
she escapes on her own,
and cries for him to give him salvation.
just because these stories
have standards of a different time
does not mean they were never heroes.

it was not damsels in distress,
with princes on white horses,
but strong, stubborn women
who kept to their morals.
snow white talked to the huntsman,
who was so moved by her story,
that he lied to the queen he feared and loved.

and sleeping beauty may have fallen to a curse,
one to only awaken with a kiss,
but she was the one who sought answers
for why she had always been different.
if one can take anything from fairy tales,
perhaps the better moral is not
“princesses require rescue by men” but
“we thrive when we work together”.