In Search Of Prince Charming

I recently viewed a documentary on the last 100 days in princess Diana's life. Given the three men with whom she was significantly involved, it prompted me to ponder on the socio-cultural influences on the choice of man a woman falls for.

What's curious is that our generation (we were born in the same decade) so we grow up as teen girls on the same type of paperback romances in which the men are...tall, dark(-haired) and handsome. So no wonder when England's most eligible bachelor pursued her, she ended up married to him. For he was tall, dark-haired and attractive enough (I can't call him handsome). Just look at her blushing at his gallantry.

Our romantic notions were fed by these stories of women who are fair, falling for men who are tanned, have winged eyebrows, chiseled features and usually brooding. Some of these male protagonists were Arab, Mediterranean, rarely light-haired. So her next "love" was found to be Pakistani, Hasnat Khan. Again dark-haired, not pale skinned.

 
Then of course there was the ill-fated summer fling with Dodi al Fayed with its tragic end. What else could a young impressionable girl do then?

Although the new Bachelorette is African-American, most of her suitors are...tall, dark-haired and built like Adonis - like Bryan, the chiropractor  who's of Colombian heritage.
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Even Shondaland's new series, Still Star-Crossed (the story after the death of the Shakespearean play's young lovers), features a fair Juliet and a dark and handsome, Romeo. However, the leading lady and her beau flip the script. This shows times have changed some.

Which leads me to think on the men admired by young girls of today, who're not influenced by paperback novels, but social media and television. What I see here is the influence of the gangsta rapper such as the Hakeem Lyon character played so aptly by Bryshere Y. Gray.

As I look around I see young women stepping out with youngsters wearing their pants almost off their buttocks and the shirt hems don't quite cover the tops of the pants. So thankful I don't have children for the challenge for today's mother therefore is, how to raise girls who'll show wisdom in their choice of mate. Yes, we want our son-in-law to be good-looking, but also responsible and dependable and to dearly love our daughters. For mothers of sons, they want the same attributes in their daughter-in-law.

The fact is that Prince Charming only exists in fairy tales and marriage is very hard work to keep it together. Unfortunately, Princess Diana may not have lived long enough to have the lasting relationship to teach her that lesson. I hope Rachel Lindsay fares better.