Damsels in Distress

By Maura

I stood at the Metro Card machine feeding my dollars into the slot. I only wanted a single ride but the machine was broken and only accepting exact change. An older man asked me if I needed help using the machine, but I assured him that I was fine. I am fully capable of operation the machine. It wasn’t like I had never used a vending machine before. While I dug around in my wallet looking for twenty-five cents in nickels and dimes, the man stepped up to the machine and put another dollar in the machine for me. I grabbed the card out of the slot, thanked him, and promptly went though the turnstiles. I had not been swept up in this moment of chivalry. More than anything, I was annoyed. I was perfectly capable of sticking a dollar into the machine myself. I hadn’t needed his assistance. I know he had good intentions, that he was only trying to be helpful, but I just couldn’t help feeling frustrated. I wondered if he would have given me the dollar if I were a sixteen-year-old boy. I couldn’t help but doubt it, I think he would have let me fend for myself, be a man. I didn’t want to be the damsel in distress; I’d rather save myself.

The idea of a damsel in distress goes back hundreds of years, but still persists in popular culture today. We have all seen the countless chick flicks where the young woman finds herself in a sticky situation and is swept off her feet by the handsome chivalrous young man. The fairy tales many of us were raised on rely on this archetype for their structure. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Rapunzel all rely on their prince to save them from the tortures of their lives. Disney brings these stories to life in movies and creates the brand of Disney Princess. Almost every one of these princesses has needed a knight at some time or another. You could argue that Mulan really didn’t need one, but she’s really not the stereotypical princess. As we grow up, the damsel follows us. The phenomenon Twilight feeds directly off of this idea. Over and over again Bella finds herself in life threatening situations and needs either Jacob or Edward to come save her. Still, teenagers all over the world worship this story and all of its romance. I don’t think that Twilight would hold nearly any of its appeal if Bella could save herself. Edward would fall to the side and become much less interesting to the reader. But if Bella could save her self, then the story would basically lose purpose. No Twilight fan would want that.

There is a conflict between young women looking for independence and the old back up of the damsel in distress. We like to think of ourselves as strong, independent women, as portrayed by Destiny's Child. On the other hand though, teenage girls, me being one of them, love Taylor Swift. Everyone knows all the words to her songs and imagines that they would be good friends with her. She isn’t necessarily a damsel in distress, but Taylor pushes home that vulnerable fairytale vibe as you can see in her Love Story music video. Still, most people would agree that her persona is much classier than other Hollywood starlets. So is vulnerability even a bad thing? Does it even have to come in conflict with independence? It’s hard to find a middle place on the spectrum. It often feels like you can only be one extreme or the other. Personally, I would rather be independent, but there is definitely a market out there damsels in distress. There are even articles on how to master the art of the damsel. I’m not sure whom it even serves. I would like to think that women would rather support themselves than rely on someone else, but the damsel carries throughout time. It seems as if as long as there are “knights”, damsels will be waiting.