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When I was in Fantasyland, shopping at the Princess store for my friend's little girl, all I could do was look at the images of Snow White, Ariel, and Cinderella with their princes, and think how these fairy tales set up little girls for unrealistic expectations when it comes to romantic relationships.

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What do you mean by this?

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Because these kinds of stories set women up as defenseless victims who must be saved by the "perfect man". It suggests that one can actually be rescued from their less-than-perfect lives by perfect men. In reality, I believe that you must make your own life worth living on your own, before you get into a relationship with another of the opposite sex (who, suprise! won't be perfect, just human). I spent a lot of my drinking waiting for a guy to "rescue" me-- like when that man came into my life I would stop destroying it with alcohol and all would be well. I obviously had to learn the hard way that such a thing would never happen: nobody can save you. Only you can save yourself, which thank God, I did.

But I still hold men up to unrealistic expectations, and when they make some kind of human error, or do anything that annoys me, then I use that as an excuse to discard them and move on. I tend to idolize, and then when they disappoint, rip them to shreds (in my head). I think a lot of that stems from the fact that I idolized my father growing up-- and when I was old enough to realize he wasn't perfect and I could clearly see his flaws, I was crushed.

Not that this is really any of Disney's fault, but I think if I had been taught from an earlier age to not have such high expectations of others, I might not have this issue.

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