Love in the Matinee

Last week another blogger was commenting on how watching rom-coms makes her fantasize about Prince Charming riding up on a white horse, sweeping her off her feet, and riding off together into the sunset. Having grown up in a very small Southern town, most of the folks who graduated high school with me stayed in that small town, got married, and had babies. All before I had even graduated from college. Which I did in three years.

I would wonder if I’d ever get married. Ever find my Prince Charming. I felt like an old maid at the ripe old age of 21. And I had two scapegoats for my singlehood. My father and Walt Disney.

My father had high standards for who he thought was appropriate for me to date. He had to considerate of me; he had to be intellectually inquisitive; and he had to be of the same political party as my father.

Walt Disney taught me that all I had to do was wait long enough and some handsome, chiseled hunk of a man would come rescue me from wherever I happened to be. I didn’t have to do anything except look pretty, sing well, and talk to forest animals or mice. “Beauty and the Beast” and “Mulan” came out well after my dating years. But even then the heroine talks to the furniture and china or a lizard with a dragon complex.

Yesterday I stumbled across “Eight Myths Romances Perpetuate.” They are, and I quote:

1. Love Changes Him

2. Sex Solves Problems

3. You Don’t Need His Number (because he’ll always call)

4. You Just Know He’s The One

5. Change Yourself and He’ll Fall Head Over Heels

6. Playing Hard To Get Works

7. If You Run, He’ll Follow

8. Love Knows No Socioeconomic Bounds

Sure, I like to watch rom-coms just like the next girl. But for true escapism, for me, give me something like the newest Star Trek. Nothing like blowing up a few multi-billion dollar starships to set my heart aflutter.