For the women

[hyphenate]

Despite my feminism, there is a part of me that always wanted romance and that "special prince" to show up on my doorstep.

A major part of that began with a 1965 musical production, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, with Leslie Ann Warren and Stuart Damon. For many of us born in the mid-50s, seeing this production aired on TV was a way of letting our dreams take wing and our imaginations override any sense of reality for awhile.

At least for me, and other girls I knew. I was 9--the perfect age to allow those imaginary "perfect" men to take our fancy and keep it for years to come.

Any others out there who thought that Stuart Damon was "it?" Or who had their own "Mister Right" come onto the scene as a similar type hero character who swept you away in perfect fairy tale fashion?

And when did you realize--if ever!--that your "knight in shining armor" only existed in fairy tales, and that in reality, men weren't quite so beguiling?

[tjdee]

1. Every time I think there is no prince, I read how there is.

I've gotten very good at being disenchanted with men and pseudo-princes. but every now and then I'll read a story like the one about the guy who went down to NO in the aftermath of Katrina looking for his girlfriend. Or other guys who did something equally as wonderful.


I did have a special Mr. Right Fairy Tale Prince...but he was never interested in me romantically. But he was just Mr. Wonderful. Sigh.
Other than that, there are dozens of actors who I think are just Mr. Right and Mr. Perfect.

One of them's pictures is below. ;-) Bollywood heroes are chock full of princy-ness. It's nuts. Oh, to bring Shah Rukh and Salman and Saif to the Americans, LOL. Women would go nuts.

[Left Is Write]

2. I saw that show broadcast on New Year's Even when I was about 9 or 10

Mid 70s-ish.

I loved it, though I never developed a crush on Stuart Damon. Now I can only think of him as Dr. Alan Quartermaine from General Hospital.

I did have my Prince Charming fantasies, though, and I used to dream of wearing a beautiful gown and marrying my prince and dancing with him under the stars. I also used to fantasize that at some point I would be an exotic beauty with an intriguing accent, and that I would win the Miss Universe pageant. :rofl:

[tigereye]

3. I think a lot of us grew up with that fantasy

I managed to find Mr. Right, except he was a hippie-type with similar politics and musical taste to mine.

Moral of the story - sometimes the good guys don't wear white! ;)

[Punkingal]

4. I remember that !

I was in high school, and it is all we talked about the next day. Stuart Damon was gorgeous. The guys were talking about Leslie Anne Warren.

My knight came along 19 years ago, after a bad marriage and being divorced for 7 years. He is my soulmate. I think of the ending scene in an "Officer and a Gentleman." I wasn't working in a factory, but he came to work and got me, and I never went back. He allows me to be me....and he supports everything I want to do. He isn't perfect, naturally, but he's close.

[cfield]

5. I spend every day

with my prince. He is Mr Right, maybe not for anyone else, but for me. Our romance, though not as 'story book' as most would dream of, was great from the beginning; I think because we knew from the start that we had something real and lasting. We always knew, no matter what fights we had, that we'd be together. That was fairy tale enough; just the feeling of total happiness, being giddy all the time, being in love even when we didn't feel like loving each other; we knew all along so no matter what happened we were never worried about _not_ having each other.

It's been six years, and we're still as in love as ever! Our 4 year wedding anniversary is next July. He should be done with school in a year, then we'll work on having a minifield. And I wouldn't change a thing if I could!

(BTW, for people who say high school is too young to know anything about true love, he was 16 and I was 18 when we started dating. He just turned 21 and I'll be 24 in a month. It is possible. Not common, but possible. It really can work!)

[NV Whino]

6. True story...

I met a man named Richard Knight and he had a collection of armor. We fell in love. Lived together about a month and I discovered his armor was tarnished.

There are many more aspects to this story, but it amounts to: be careful what you ask for, you might get it.

[Fleshdancer]

7. to be honest, I never had those fantasies

My fantasies involved me having a large group of really good friends I could rely on. I was extremely shy as a child, painfully so and my circle of friends has always been small. I love the concept of Sex and the City because Carrie has 3 friends she can always rely on no matter what. No backstabbing, no huge bitchy fights or hurtful gossip...just good friends who make time for one another regularly. I want that.

Before I met my husband I was pretty adamant about not getting married. I didn't believe the whole "knight in shining armor" story and when I listened to my friends talk about wanting to find the "perfect" guy, I thought they were putting way too much pressure on themselves and on every guy they ever dated. The way I see it, the only way to get swept away is for both people to act like the "knight in shining armor". You have to sweep as much as you get swept so to speak.

[Heidi]

8. I was raised to be my own "prince."

My parents didn't believe in those "rescue me" myths for their children, I guess. I distinctly remember my mom telling me, "We'll help you create a lot of choices for yourself, then you can work for what you want and choose what you want instead of depending on a guy to give you want you want." I guess I was about 11 when she said that, and it still makes sense to me. :shrug:

[skygazer]

9. I never had those fantasies

Never. And I never really liked those stories. It always irritated me that in them, the woman is always so shallow and helpless that she needs to be rescued by the handsome prince or knight or whatever and that she falls in love with him simply because he IS a handsome prince.

That's why I always loved Beauty and the Beast. She was a true heroine. She was brave, she rescued her father and gave up her freedom for him and then fell in love with the Beast, not because he was handsome and a prince but because he was who he was. And then she saved him, too.

I always wanted to be a strong woman, on equal footing with a strong man. That was my fantasy.