I’m afraid you’re right about the “princess” thing. I think it’s sweet to teach girls a little about being a woman and a princess. Nothing wrong in that. However, what happened to the prince? Why don’t they have shows and books and games for the little boys to learn about the princes? Sure some princes were skunks, but there were brave and noble princes as well! Many were hard-working, smart, courageous, and became kings who continued to be that way. Why aren’t little boys able to have figures to look up to as well as the girls?
Little girls have their role models, princesses and queens, noblewomen who were lady-like, courteous, beautiful inside and out. Also they were very hard-working and brave when they needed to be in their own way! However many looked up to the men in their lives to do their part as they were raised to do, while the ladies did their part as they were generally raised to do.
Good question!
I romanticize men, males ... I guess because in general, I love them. It dawned on me how great loved males intrinsically are when I saw a little boy in a laundromat wanting to "help" his mom by putting in the quarters. He truly, earnestly, wanted to be a hero for her. My heart melted! Above all other things in life, women need heroic gentlemen. Without them, it all goes to hell. Look at Islam and Sharia for examples of how women are treated when men abandon thoughts of dignity in women, where gentlemanliness is alien and rejected.
Men are princes, gentlemen, especially when they help us do or access things that are difficult or impossible for us to do alone. So women need to be princesses, gentlewomen, with their loving touches, which are beyond men's capacity. It's the one thing we can give back. Married and loved men live longer. And societies that utilize the productive capacity of 100 percent of their human resource, as opposed to 6th century approaches of utilizing only 50 percent, are proven successes when they follow the "Christian system," as it was called in the founding days of the United States.
As for prince role models, I like Sam Elliott in "Conagher" and "The Quick and the Dead." Those are both about princes. I like Tom Selleck, in "Crossfire Trail" and "Last Stand at Saber River," where he has to deal with a bitchy wife. He plays a prince in both of them.
Your mileage may vary!