and they lived happily ever after.

You know what's unrealistic? Fairy tales. I was coming back home from Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house, and I was thinking about how they're not realistic at all. Yeah, I know that there are the /real/ fairy tales, where the wicked stepmothers dance in burning shoes, the protagonist gets raped and has twins out of wedlock and then her husband eats them by mistake, and that sort of thing, but most people don't know those stories. They know the pretty-girl-meets-the-equally-or-more-pretty-guy-unless-he-is-the-Beast-so-he's-beautiful-on-the-inside-and-they-fall-in-love-and-live-happily-ever-after stories. Those stories drive me insane.

That must be why Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale as a child (and still is: I've seen it 35 times this year, 4 times on IMAX, and 8 times on HDTV). It was because it actually had some sort of a moral (beauty is in the eye of the beholder), unlike all the rest of the Disney things. Now, I'm not dissin' Disney. I know that others had morals somewhere in there, like... The Lion King's moral would be to... actually, I don't know, because I haven't seen it in about 5 years or so. Okay, another one - the moral of Sleeping Beauty is that patience is a virtue. And in Snow White, the moral is that if you eat a rotten apple and fall asleep, you'll fall in love with a random guy beside you.

I'd like to know why they never had a black princess, for starters. What was up with that? Was Walt Disney racist? Even if they did make a black princess, she would probably be from Africa and her husband would be some kind of lion-hunter or some nonsense like that. Even then, I bet she would have straight hair, which in itself is totally unrealistic, because black people do not have straight hair (generally speaking). Take it from me - I'd kill to have some of that white girl hair. Shoot, I'd go for some of that gorgeous Indian hair. Anyway, the point is, that even if there was a movie that featured a black princess of some sort, would it really be realistic? And even then! It's too late for me, and I was the one who truly believed from the bottom of my heart that I could not be a princess because I was not white, long brown or blond hair, thin, had blue eyes and perfect legs (yeah, they always show their legs in the movies - except for the Lion King, but there are no humans). Isn't that an awful thing for a five year old to say? It is awful, and it was because of society.

Back to my point. Fairy tales are completely unrealistic, and for what purpose? To get kids to forget that they live in a welfare home without a father and a Mom who thinks that dinner is a few McNuggets? If they want a real story that they can relate to, then maybe have the 'princess' have a weave and the 'prince' have a baby mama in another city or something. Maybe throw in a couple gangs and teenage angst. I think everyone can relate to that, and the kids would have early exposure to the fantastic world of 'young adulthood' and all that mess.

You know what? Life can be a fairytale, if you make it to be one. It really depends on your point of view, which is completely cliche, but still completely true. If you love yourself, then you'll be able to love others - no matter what they look like or if they smell bad or have rotten teeth because you can see past that. Isn't that hat love really is? Not seeing someone for the first time and suddenly falling in love with them. Yeah, so, it probably could happen, but not as dramatic as they make it in movies and books and all of that. My worry is that the younger the kids are that are watching these things, the deeper impression it will have on them, which will result in them looking for someone who looks like a complete god - i.e. (in my opinion) Hugh Laurie, Daniel Craig, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Lupe Fiasco, Viggo Mortensen, Denzel Washington, or Gaspard Ulliel. That's just teaching girls to be superficial and look for hot guys. Sure, there's nothing wrong with physical and sexual attraction, but when that's all you've got, you're not left with a lot, now, are you?

That's all that I've got to say, so, look sharp and stay classy.