Breaking Beauty & the Beast.

Life may not be a Fairytale; but I'll be honest - there are some fairytales I wouldn't want to be a part of anyway! Um, well, Hansel & Gretel for one - although I do have a penchant for what I call zippy German men... Or Dutch ones... (Okay, just give me an accent, & I'm happy.)

You know that feeling of,
"What the heck was I thinking?"
Yeah... Me too.

Another example -  Beauty & the Beast. I am quite certain that no Beast will ever just magically change into our Prince Charming justlikethat. More importantly, Beauty never deserved the treatment the Beast gave her in the first place & if she hadn' t been stuck in the East Wing (a captive, mind you!) she would have been smart enough to get the hell out of there as fast as should possibly could. I mean, really!? Essentially we grew up with this "romantic" story of well, imprisonment, abuse, and ...falling in love? Yeah, that's what we're teaching little girls - Put up with the Beast, girls! He'll change if its true love!  
Am I the only one who sees how absolutely fucking ridiculous this is?
Don't get me wrong, we all have our beasts - those aspects of our personality that are far from perfect - I have cheated before, I have raging "Love Me! Syndrome" sometimes. I hate checking the mail for fear of bad news. Or bills. As a kid, when I would stub my toe, I would immediately hit the closest sister. (Thankfully, I have since grown out of this habit.)

Sometimes you just have to
walk the fuck away.

But beasts & all, this does not mean we deserve a Beast.
I've dated men who were arrogant, men who were narcissists, boys who were mean. (I was once on a 2nd date with someone who actually said, outloud, "I have a face for TV, a voice for radio & the arrogance for both." Wow, dude. Really!?) I have been in relationships where I felt unimportant, stupid and voiceless.
My friends have dated, loved & even married men who were insensitive or cruel, or self-centered.
These are the Beasts.
And, as women do - sometimes we believe we don't deserve better; we play this balancing act of, "Well I am not perfect, so how can I expect - or even deserve - perfection?" I have done this many times in the past. And the reality is, no, no one person is perfect. But I refuse to believe that doesn't mean we can't have a Prince Charming without having to navigate through the torment of the Beast first. And if Prince Charming starts turning to a Beast, I refuse to believe Beauty wouldn't or shouldn't get the hell out of the East Wing, the West Wing or the whole damn relationship.We are not captives, although sometimes we may feel like we may be.
We are all Beauties. Deserving of love, deserving of kindness, deserving of being treated like a Princess.
If we know what we are looking for, if we are not afraid to ask (demand!) the universe for a man who loves our Beauty (beasts & all) - then I believe we will find it.
We may have to kiss a few frogs first,
but - as you know- that's a whole other story.

Beauty, I am proud of you.

Sidenote: My brain has turned off any signs of singledom for the time being; still think of little else other than the Dutchman. Haven't spoken to B---- since I met him. Or anyone else, for that matter other than girlfriends. This situation is ideal for Goldi.