Personal

Of the Value of Boyfriends

Ladies, stop idolizing your boyfriends because he has done nothing for you until he has made you a wife. Because that’s your role in life. Forget about everything a guy can do for you. Because it’s nothing compared to a ring on your finger and wedding vows.

WifeLook, I get it. Girls are conditioned into believing that becoming a wife is the greatest thing in the whole wide world. Disney has marketed damsels in distress, tricking young girls that there’s a Prince Charming out there for every single one of them, just as much as porn has tricked young men that every woman is an insatiable slut who likes spunk on her face. We’re raised in fiction and we long for it, and we poison the minds of children with the same fiction. At least, in recent times, Disney has tried to stray away from women needing men to save them—though, they fail on all scales about the whole beauty image.

Isn’t it a little, I don’t know, backwards to believe that becoming a wife completes the woman’s cycle? What about children? Stop idolizing boyfriends! The image demands, but what of the boyfriends who lost their lives in war? Or the boyfriends who died protecting their girlfriends during the 2012 Aurora shootings? Surely, they should get some honorary mentions for actually doing something of greater importance than putting a ring on it.

What of the women who don’t want get married? Considering a man will never truly make them a wife—unless, you count common law marriages, which I’m assuming the person behind this image doesn’t—are those boyfriends not worthy of idolatry? I’m going to make the assumption that lesbians aren’t included in this (sorry!).

Stupidity like this burns me because it spreads like wildfire, infecting blank-slate minds like young women and children, carving into them that marriage is less than an option and more of an obligation. Maybe we should stop idolizing idiots who think that this is deep. Your life might be a lot better in the end.

Books

Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff

We’ve all heard the story. The Miller’s daughter taken by a king after her father’s lie gets thrown into a heap of trouble. The lie that she holds within her the power to spin straw into gold. She makes a deal with a devil-of-sorts, bargaining her necklace, her mother’s ring, and her first born to a tiny man named Rumpelstiltskin. But so little is known about the character immortalized by the Brothers Grimm that Liesl Shurtliff took it upon herself to give him a history, to give him a destiny.

In her retelling of the classic, we learn that the little man is nothing but a 12-year-old boy who stopped growing at 8, whose mother died before anyone learned his whole name. A boy with just half a name—Rump—is a boy with no destiny, because in The Kingdom, names hold your destiny. It isn’t until he learns that he’s inherited a special talent from his mother that his adventure begins. The boy with half a name finds himself in more trouble than his stature can hold. He must right the wrongs caused by his magic before it consumes him. With the help of trolls, his friend Red, pixies, and an array of witches, Rump must create his own destiny.

Rump by Liesl Shurtliff

Shurtliff spun gold from the words in this book, as no detail mentioned goes without purpose. Taking up the helm of writing new stories with established characters and mixing in her own wit and humor with a dash of adventure reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit. It is, by far, my favorite children’s book of the year and I hope to read more by her in the future. If you have children, work with children, or are a child by heart, this book needs a space on your shelf or e-reader (preferably shelf!).

About the book (from inside flap):

In a magical kingdom where your name is your destiny, twelve-year-old Rump is the butt of everyone’s joke. But when he finds an old spinning wheel, his luck seems to change. Rump discovers he has a gift for spinning straw into gold—as much gold as he wants! His best friend, Red, warns him that magic is dangerous, and she’s right. With each thread he spins, he weaves himself deeper into a curse.

To break the spell, Rump must go on a perilous quest, fighting off pixies, trolls, poison apples, and a wickedly foolish queen. The odds are against him, but with courage and friendship—and a cheeky sense of humor—he just might triumph in the end.

Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin
by Liesl Shurtliff
Knopf Books for Young Readers, First Edition (9 April 2013)
ISBN: 978-0307977939

Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and for Kindle and Nook.

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