From Dina Goldstein's "Fallen Princesses" series - they certainly make you think about the truth behind the image. (via io9). Unless of course you don't want to look beyond the image which is what I've been thinking about the last couple of days.

Honestly, I have no problem with enjoying a fairy tale and adored Belle in Disney's version of Beauty and the Beast. I have also quite happily read a few Nora Roberts titles in my day and Katie Fforde. Hell - if Clive Cussler isn't the male version of Roberts then I don't know what is, and I've enjoyed some Dirk Pitt novels (the older ones) as well. Just like pretty much everybody else in the world sometimes I'm happy to fall for the gender stereotypes. As long as I know that sometimes it is not like this - that happily ever after isn't the automatic end game - then I think I'm doing okay.

So, love Cinderella with her Fairy Godmother but also enjoy seeing her sitting in a bar the morning after as well.

The question is do people read what they like and/or know as much as what they don't like or don't know? I don't mean you have to read horror if you hate it, but do you accept that Cindy might not have had it made - that the dance was only the beginning and getting the shoe to fit would really be the easiest part of her relationship with our dear Prince? You can't bury your head in the sand in other words; you can love that image of the two of them together but you need to acknowledge that life will get in the way and the going will get rough - it always does.

Oddly enough I've been thinking about this not because of fiction but nonfiction. Part of the Cheap discussion has included the not unusual suggestion that the only folks likely to read a book about American's cheap consumer habits are folks who are already hip to those habits and avoiding them. Basically, the author is preaching to the converted and the folks who need to learn about the subject will never read the book - because they don't now there's a cheap culture and are too busy shopping at Walmart, IKEA and Old Navy to care. Is that really true? I don't think so - I can't think so. If no one ever reads anything to gain a different perspective then I'm wondering why we bother writing much of anything. Why write about mountain top removal if only some activists will care? Why did I bother reading and reviewing (this month at Bookslut) Deeply Rooted if the country still cares more about agribusiness and can't afford to support indy farmers? (And why would an author research and write such books?)

It's just so bloody hopeless. And it suggests that we don't learn anything from books or that certain people don't learn anything. I grew up poor, I came from parents who were poor and I've learned all kinds of stuff. My grandparents rarely ever read any books - it was not an important thing to any of them. (They did all read the newspaper religiously however.) My parents came from nonbookish households and were both voracious readers. Both read tons of magazines. My mother will still read anything I recommend on any subject and even though she might not like it as much as I did, she certainly reads it. My father was the fastest reader I've ever known. He loved books - all books - and also read multiple newspapers everyday. What would either of them think of Cheap? I still have to send it to my mom but I think my father would have been fascinated. He cut coupons like nobody's business but he wanted to take advantage of the stores - not the other way around. He compared prices all the time. I think he would have been interested by all the psychology behind pricing and I'm sure it would have made him think twice on certain things. At the very least, I would have loved the conversation with him.

This notion that you have to already be in on the joke in order to care about reading it - as in already hate the princesses to care and look at their realities - just deflates me. I don't understand it. Anyone who buys anything would want to know more about what their buying, right? It might not change all of your habits but it could change a couple and that's something worthwhile. Are we all really this jaded and if so, how in the hell do we think the world will ever change?

Geez - who wants to live in a world where nobody cares enough to learn something new?

And yet, I also feel like I'm clinging to my street cred when I write about growing up without much money. It's the anti elite argument all over again (and lord aren't we sick of that?). Somehow money and intelligence have gotten conflated because of last year's election mess. So if you read books about the economy then you aren't living paycheck to paycheck - it just doesn't work that way. Lower middle class and poor don't want to know the true price of the cheap culture because they can never afford other than the cheap culture. And if I do seek to live differently then obviously I'm thinking I'm better - no matter how blue collar my childhood.

If I don't like the princesses in all their finery, then I'm declaring folks who do (including my dearly beloved three year niece) are easily fooled and thus ignorant. I guess I should be demanding my brother frame Ms. magazine for my niece's wall to save her from a sad princess future. I will have to fit this in between conversations dissing Walmart and shopping at organic markets. Clearly, you can be only one type of person and once tarred as an elitest (and frowning on IKEA) then you can't go back.

You betcha.

Ah come on - you knew this was how Snow White ended up!