Christian Femininity and Womanhood: What is a Princess?

Hello! Welcome to my blog, Live Like a Princess, where I love to muse and discuss things related to Christian femininity and womanhood. Speaking of femininity, what is the most feminine stereotype you can imagine? If you got a clue from my blog’s name, then you would guess that my answer would be a princess. But what is a true princess? Is it a fainting, swooning, long haired woman in a tower? Is it a warrior who somehow saves the world every time? Are any ‘princesses’ we imagine true princesses? And how can you live like a princess if you don’t truly know what one is?

Child ‘Princesses’

Do you all remember playing princess when we were younger? We would dress up in costumes or sometimes mom’s or grandma’s old dresses. Floppy hats were donned and too big dresses made to fit. Of course, there was always the ottoman cushion carriage, and the blanket fort castle. Younger siblings would often act the part of maids or princes or sometimes even equal princesses. Many times, the nursery walls or bedroom ceiling would see a reenactment of a lost glass slipper, a poisoned apple, or some original tale.

But then, as we grew older, we dropped our childish ways and started playing the part of a teenage princess. Petty, prideful, and impolite, demanding our own way, and claiming that our mother’s just ‘didn’t understand!’. Now, a trend that grown women have taken to all over the world is the ‘princess treatment’, in which they not only treat themselves like princesses, with excessive self care regimes and luxurious spa days, but they expect their partners, friends, and family to treat them like princesses as well.

Disney ‘Princesses’

Disney princesses very heavily influence the term ‘princess’ in this day and age. And, while these princesses aren’t evil (though I still believe they have original sin) they still have original sin, thinking that they are the heroines we should model our lives after is bad. Not only do a lot of them defy and disobey their parents, generally as a huge part of the plot (think the Little Mermaid, Mulan, Pocahontas, and Moana), but they also take on the role of saving the prince/kingdom/world, and promoting the super-feminist ideal of women being the better and more capable sex. Now, that is just blatantly false. 

And the most dangerous part of most Disney movies is this: the theme of following your heart. But if you have read the Bible then you will learn rather quickly that following your heart will get you into deep trouble. As it says in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick…”. Well, to me, that doesn’t sound like a very good guide. That’s basically following a terminally diseased, utterly false, double crossing leader, who eventually makes you fall to ruin. Not good.

Media and ‘Princesses’

And the worse part of this is that parents let their daughters watch this, letting that false propaganda fill the little girl’s minds. Now, you can still totally watch these movies, but taken with a bit of salt. Perhaps talk about the themes of the movie with your kids afterwards. You can ask them if they found anything a bit fishy in the morals or underlying subjects. This will not only expose your children to the lies found in movies, but if done long enough, they will start to ask the questions on their own, and you will have properly developed a critical thinking mind in your child.

Or, if you are a teen or an adult, you can kind of do this yourself, asking questions such as What is the premise of this movie? Is this something worth pursuing? Is this morally correct?, etc. And, when done for long enough, you will also have developed the extremely useful trait of critical thinking. And a mind that thinks critically is much less easily lead astray.

Teenage ‘Princesses’

Now, another ‘princess’ that we find in modern day media are reality show/rom-com/drama MCs. She is either the rich and influential, yet she just can’t have the one thing she want, or the underdog, with her misunderstood and underpaid life. For each of these girls, the movie or book is almost always about getting what they want. Through the course of the story, they are petty, prideful beasts, always of course, following their hearts.

One more thing may be warned about these movies. In most of them, working and serving is shown as being bad. Looked down upon. A thing to escape from. But, as Christians, we are called to serve. Yet another falsehood they weave into the storylines. And this one even is in Cinderella!

Fairytale ‘Princesses’

But those are modern ‘princesses’. What if we looked at the older fairytale versions of princesses, such as the Grimm’s Fairytales girls?

Well, these princesses are weak and the wrong kind of ‘feminine’. They simply just wait by as their knight in shining armor comes to save them from all sorts of evils. Generally they swoon, get kidnapped and cursed a hundredfold. But now imagine that type of princess in the modern world. Actually, you don’t even have to, because someone already did. In the movie Enchanted, Princess Giselle gets sent to modern day New York. She is naive, confused, weak and swoony. Also not someone I want to be.

It seems, when you compare the multiple versions, you have a few extremes of one spectrum. On the Disney princess side, you get a girl who is can do anything, though we can ignore her morally grey choices. On the TV princess side you have a petty, always-gets-what-she-wants, appearance obsessed girl. And on the fairytale side, you get a weak and effeminate ‘princess’. So, to ask the question again, what truly is a princess? For personally, I would rather not be a princess if I had to be one of these versions.

Christian Princesses

Well, in a short answer, I believe a princess to be the Proverbs 31 woman. She is strong, yet submits willingly and joyfully to her husband (or whoever is in Godly authority over her) . She knows how to make and keep a home, and she is not focused on her appearance, yet a more beautiful woman I could not describe. But, she is not the physical daughter of a king (that we know of); and I’m sure that most of you who want to be princesses are not physical daughters of kings either. Or are you?

You see, if you believe in the Lord and have accepted Jesus as your Lord and savior, then that means that God, in his mercy and love, has adopted you. And when you are adopted you become the child of your adopter. So we are the children of God, and in 1 Timothy 6:15 He is described as the King of King’s and Lord of Lord’s. And if your father is the king, you become a princess. So think how much more we are princesses if our father is the King of Kings!

Becoming a Princess

But, as we have already seen, a princess is more than your birthright. A princess is also your character and actions. And if you act in a way that is undignified, cruel, or immodest, then your princess-ness is diminished, and you bring your kingdom shame. But our kingdom is far greater than any earthly kingdom, and our calling higher and harder.

And this also goes along with my first thoughts of little girls playing princesses, for inside we all know that we are created by God, and called to his kingdom; we have that internal compass, pointing us towards God. So we long to be princesses, not really knowing why, and in our broken and dark world, we twist what a true princess is, to fit the ideals of our earthly kingdoms. 

We Christian girlies are princesses, but not of this world’s kingdoms. We have been sent on a mission by our Father and Lord. And this mission is not easy. We must fight and love. We may have war, and we may have peace. But we can be strong, knowing that our Father is with us always.

More Precious than Jewels

So then a Christian princess, who understands and lives now for her Lord’s kingdom, shall try and train to become a strong, dignified, wise, and modest woman. A woman who is more precious than jewels and worthy of praise and honor. But she shall not train alone, for her Father is with her, helping her every step of the way. And when you adopt this otherworldly standard you will stand out like a candle in the darkness, and when people ask you why you are so different, you have the opportunity to tell them about God’s grace and goodness, and follow every Christian’s calling to shine as lights of the world in the midst of this crooked and twisted generation. 

Living Like a Princess

Now, go then, and be a princess, as you know now what one is. Clothe yourself with dignity. Have kindness of immeasurable amounts, because you, love, are loved, chosen, and forgiven. You are a warrior, a servant, a light. All the movies did get it a little right, you see, for they weave in bits of the truth, along with the lies. Fighting as a warrior isn’t all bad, for if you weren’t a warrior the Devil would tear you down. Being proud isn’t all a bad thing, as long as you are proud in Christ. Living feminine is by no means weak or wrong, for strong, feminine women are to be admired and praised.

So, live a life worth living in heaven, for you are a princess of the courts of the kingdom of God. And when you are called back to your kingdom, you may know that you have already tasted the life that awaits you in heaven.

By Annabelle Nickol

Hi! Thank you for reading my Christian women’s lifestyle blog! I hope you enjoyed my little muse on princesses. Soon I am going to release a series on the Proverbs 31 woman, exploring her major characteristics and attributes, and I will be tying it all together with this article about living like a princess. Stay tuned for more…