To Be or Not To Be

....A princess, a diva, a prima donna, a drama queen.
I was talking to another mommy today about how girls and boys differ in the area of drama. She noted that her daughter tends to be a drama queen while her son is the sensitive one.
This conversation came to mind as I was putting Matt to bed.
It tangentially moved to why do we tell little girls that they're princesses. Are we setting up a false sense of importance or entitlement or self beauty? Anthropologically speaking, is this something that we do as a culture or a class system? Or just for some other reason?
Let's look at the first question. By telling little girls that they are princesses, are we creating a false sense of importance? We all want our children to grow up knowing that they are wanted, loved, special, unique and above all important. But do we create a false sense of over-importance by equating them to royalty? If a royal family comes about because of the Divine Right of Kings (as in God decided they specifically should be royal) are we inadvertently telling little girls who believe they are princesses that they are more favored by God than other little kids? Or if a royal family becomes that by conquering, does that mean that a little princess should impose her will on her little friends? Are we giving them a misplaced sense of entitlement? If princesses can have whatever their hearts desire because they're royal and rich, are we telling little girls that they should get whatever they want. Doesn't this send a mixed message as parents also try to teach boundaries and restraint? And since all fairy tale princesses are beautiful, does this put unreal pressure on little girls to be beautiful. What happens to these little girls as they grow up if they don't think they're as pretty as the fair tale characters or heaven forbid another little kid calls them ugly. Are we laying the foundation for some self- image distortion?
We, as a culture, generally do not tell little boys to prance around on an imaginary steed as if they're fairy tale princes. We also don't tell them to speed around the living room in the Batmobile. I try to keep my son from bounding off the couch, so I won't be supporting his attempts to be Super Man. With the exception of the recent surge in comic book movies, there are not corresponding characters for boys to aspire to. We just tell little boys to grow up to be men.
As a culture (and when I use this term, it could be as an American culture, a Western culture, a Judeo-Christian culture, a modernized first world culture--I'm not really sure which it should be, so I leave it undefined. I'm taking an anthropological look but don't have the background to do a full study), we generally try to masculate our little boys and feminize little girls. As a result, we tell little boys to suck it up and walk it off. Yet we often fuss over little girls. This leads me back to my original query about the drama. On occasion I will call my son a Drama King but he really doesn't have much drama--or at least not more than any other non speaking two year old. I think his drama is not gender related; I think I should really call him Attention Seeking Prince. However, I have heard other mommies of little girls say that they have a lot of drama to contend with. I wonder why that is. Is it inherently gender specific or is it our culture?
We now call any woman who is assertive or insistent in her wants and attention seeking a DIVA. That word replaced the term PRIMA DONNA (ironically, neither are American-English terms and we don't have our own equivalent). It used to be deemed a bad thing to be a prima donna but now plenty of celebutantes and entertainers strive to embody the modern definition of a diva rather than the traditional---a uber talented woman who is at the pinnacle of her stage career.
So have we come to expect girls to be filled with drama? Do we anticipate and even foster it? Where does this leave little boys who filled with drama (do we raise them to be little Princes) or what about those without drama?
I pose these questions to you because I'm just not sure. Perhaps none of it matters and I shouldn't be waxing philosophical but this is (as I warned in my first post) what is going through my head tonight. I thought I would share and see if any of you have some thoughts on the matter.
Oh and I'm not passing judgment on any of you mommies who call your little girls "Princess". I call my boys Bear Cub or Baby Bear or Little Bear, but I don't expect them to go charging after other kids and chase them into trees or scavenge through camp sites. I realize these are often just terms of endearment. I just thought I would take a deeper look at a cultural phenomena.