Quite a while ago, I found the website “Rejected Princesses” and fell in
love with it. The princesses, noblewomen, queens, and normal women listed there
are not the kind Disney would make a movie about, but each and everyone gets a
wonderful ‘poster’ drawn by the owner of the site and a very well-written
account of her background.
The list of ‘princesses’ includes
historical characters like the Mirabal
sisters or Elisabeth
Bathory (who gets a fair treatment here, which is rare), mythical people
like Iara (the
Brazilian equivalent of the western mermaid or nymph) or Thákane (who
proved a woman can slay a dragon even better than a man), and literary
characters like Lolita
or Beloved.
The history of the person (or a good,
albeit short retelling of her tale) accompanies every poster, giving
information on just why the woman in question deserves being called a rejected
princess. Strong women from throughout history, often labelled mad or cruel by
their male peers to put them back in their place, get a voice.
Their stories get told, be it that of the
Russian woman who had killed 309 enemies (among them 33 enemy snipers) at the
age of 25 or that of the researcher who found all the basics of DNA, but was
never mentioned by her male co-researchers. Be it the female mathematician in
Greece killed by Christians merely for being a woman of knowledge or the widow
of a British tribe leader who raised an army and destroyed several Roman
settlement after having been attacked and raped together with her two daughters
by Roman soldiers. Be it the granddaughter of Genghis Khan who beat all her
suitors and won herself over a thousand horses or the French opera singer and
fencer who ignored the rules of society and even rightfully married another
woman. Many of the stories show one thing: even an average, mild-mannered woman
can become a dangerous adversary and display greatness when the time and the
place demand it.
And even the legends, novels, and fairy
tales show strong women who forge their own path instead of just waiting in
their tower for their prince to come. Quite often, it seems, they even forge
their part through the prince in question who, for reasons of his own, wants to
keep the put. Other women show courage and wisdom beside their husband or
lover, are excellent co-regents or cross the most deadly areas to be reunited
with the person they love.
The princesses are very diverse in race, in age, in
background. They come from all over the world, as this map
shows. All of them have a very interesting story to tell and can and should
inspire women today to realize there’s more to being a princess than sitting in
a tower and waiting for your prince to arrive.
