Cinderella Complex

I had an exceptionally long a dull day today. I had to wake up early to go to class, a subject I am not particularly interested in, and had to go straight to work afterwards. I worked 10 hours. I then came home to a dirty kitchen, one that has been this way for the past three days since I had cleaned it before. I simply could not find the time to clean it with putting in 14 hour days. Doing the dishes was the last thing that I wanted to do after I had to clean mildew off gymnastics mats and moved offices all day but it needed to be done and it was apparent that there was nobody around that was going to make my life any easier.

As I proceeded to do the dishes, while my boyfriend sat on the couch and ate Doritos and watched television, my thoughts could not help but be turned to a paper I had written over five years ago about the idea of the Cinderella Complex.

The Cinderella Complex was first described by a therapist. She believed that this was a women's unconscious fear of Independence, or more specifically a way to describe why women stay in dysfunctional relationships. I argued this theory in my paper. I believe that women want and do deserve to be taken care of. This is not shown as weakness, nor comes across as being dependent. I am a very independent person, I do a lot of things on my own, I am in school to have a career and I take pride in being financially dependent from a man. However, is it so much to ask to have a man in your life that understands when you have a hard day and will put down the Doritos and help at least dry the dishes?

If anything, the Cinderella fairytale has placed an ideal in our heads that one day prince charming will come and sweep us off our feet, carry us away to his castle on the back of his white horse, and we shall live "happily every after." It is the idea that there is a true match for everyone, that a soul mate exists and that one day we will find that one true mate and it will be a magical experience where butterflies will stretch their wings to the sky and birds will chirp sweet hymnals.

Now I do not believe that it will happen quite in this way, but why is having hope that there is one true love out there for everyone all of a sudden a complex? And why, as an independent women, wanting the most for her life and her relationships all of a sudden a psychological condition. What kind of medication will they start prescribing for someone like myself who wants to find my modern version of prince charming: anxiety medication due to hopelessness, antidepressants due to false perceptions, or possibly Ritalin for day dreaming?