I just watched a remarkable documentary, the first of three one-hour shows being produced by Frame of Mind Films.

http://www.womenoftibet.org/pages/index.php

This first part juxtaposes the archetype of the Great Mother with the details of the Dalai Lama's mother's life. It includes interviews with the DL's family--brothers and sisters, sister in law, nieces, nephews, great nephew, and friends of the family, as well as segments with Jungian psychologists, anthropologists, and author Alice Walker and lots of family photos. The DL has always struck me as very human and down to earth; listening to him and other people speak of his mother, it's easy to see where that came from. And he looks just like her, too!

If you can lay your hands on a copy, I highly recommend it. It's interesting and detailed, but also very heart warming.

I've just been reading an interesting article on the gawker.com site.Real Adult Women Still Want To Be Disney Princess Brides It draws from a similar article in Newsweek.

To state the obvious, Disney has long marketed the "princess" ideal to little girls. Heck, I was one of them. Beauty, romance, beauty, the quest for a mate, beauty, a 15 inch waist and a nice rack, and above all, beauty and pretty dresses—and did I mention you have to be beautiful? Otherwise you get to be an evil step sister or comic relief.

But I outgrew it. Well, most of it. I'm still a romantic, but I'm a realist, too.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have enjoyed many Disney movies, but the whole theme park/merchandise end of it---not so much. Our local airport is a hub for Disney pilgrims in their way to the Original Sacred Site in nearby Anaheim. Any hour of the day or night you can see living billboards of merchandising success running around, in all ages, colors, but mostly female. So few grown men want to dress like Aladdin, or put him on a tee-shirt. How odd.

So we now have Disney putting out a line of wedding dresses based on their icons of womanhood, complete with tiaras.

It had to happen. For years now I've been shaking my head over the mega weddings some people seem to feel are necessary. What's spent on clothing, receptions, limos, and all sorts of before and after-parties would make a good down payment on a first home. I'm most disturbed by how the wedding day is held up as the best and most special day of a woman's life. For some it is, sadly. But it shouldn't be. Its a special day, but if that's the ultimate experience, then it's a long downhill slide from there, honey.

I think you can be girly and feminist. Feminine and feminist? Whatever. But I also think that the nuts and bolts of feminist self empowerment (Self reliance, self respect, etc.) have lost some traction in the past few decades. Or maybe we haven't advanced as far as I thought.

PS: when I hold my cursor on the the Location:Reality line above, it brings up a map of Amsterdam. So that's where Reality as been all this time!