One kind of Princess...

My husband and I recently saw the new Aladdin movie. The original was one of my favorite movies as a child, so I was very excited to see the live-action version. And the large-scale spectacle was as entertaining as it was nostalgic, with it's "forty fakirs, his cooks, his bakers and birds that warble on key". I loved the high quality dancing and singing. The actors were wonderful, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the song 'Prince Ali', with it's enormous cast and modern take on the beats.

Shortly afterward, we went to a family reunion where we all compared notes on the new Aladdin movie- and without exception we all loved it! I began to be concerned however about the messages that the new Jasmine sends, particularly with her new song titled, 'Speechless', in which Jasmine sings in her mind of what she would do if she had her way, and in the process literally INCINERATES people left and right. It's so intense, especially for young girls. "But...Female Empowerment!" people say. "What could be wrong with that?"

Firstly, I wonder what this movie is actually empowering us "poor females" to do? Jasmine was experiencing the control of an evil dictator who was imprisoning her and her father- this wasn't because she was a woman, so how does this relate to 'female' empowerment, and not just freedom for all mankind?  I'm happy for all tyranny to end, and for all factual and fictional men and women alike to be free of evil control. So how this relates exclusively to our young girls today, I can't say... I don't find myself, my daughter, or any woman I know in this country who is subject to any tyranny (I welcome real-life examples in argument to this). Instead it seems that any "strong female lead" role receives autonomic ovations- just for being female. Which is, of course, gynocentric and is just as bad as androcentrism.

"But she stood up to a dictator!" people say. Did she? Was she the only one? How? In her mind? Violently? Is this what I want my 3-year-old daughter to idolize? To think is what a real Princess is? What about the captain of the guard who upturned decades of tradition to follow the man who his heart followed, though he wasn't the Sultan anymore? Have we forgotten him? All his men were at risk, and he still did the right thing.

I would love instead to show my daughter what a godly woman does when she's in a position of royalty, one example being that of Esther.

Esther's people were condemned to death for being Jews by Prince Haman, a powerful advisor to her husband, King Ahasuerus, who didn't know she was a Jew because of the unusual way in which she became his wife. She was also forbidden from approaching him without being summoned, due to the common practice of assassinations in that day. 

Esther fasted and prayed for three days to ask God for protection, then, even risking her own life, admitted to her husband that she was a Jew and to beg the king to spare her life and those of her people.

Should we be teaching our daughters to FIGHT? To be violent if they need to be to get their way? To be angry and desire to incinerate their enemies? 

The scriptures remind us instead to say: 

"Oh Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:..." (Ps. 7:1)

"Preserve me, O God" for in thee do I put my trust." (Ps 16:1)

"...they cried to God in the battle, and he was entreated of them; because they put their trust in him."

(1 Chron. 5:20)

"Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." (Isa 50:10)

"For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe." (1 Tim. 4:10)

There are countless scriptures like these with the same message...with God on our side, (if we're on His side!) we need not fear. We need not be angry instead of meek, calculating instead of prayerful, fearful instead of faithful, and contrary instead of contrite.

God can seem so far away. It can seem He is deaf to our prayers. But as we pray more often, and as we follow each and every little prompting to do better that we receive, we will qualify for more and more light, to the point in which when we pray to Heavenly Father, He will hear us. THIS is what I want to teach my daughter. THIS is the most empowering lesson she could ever learn. THIS is the tool a true Princess, a true daughter of God has within her power...to call upon the Lord in her hour of need a receive of His divine help.