While The Plot Of Barbie Princess Charm School (2011) Is Often Criticized On The Seemingly Ridiculous

While the plot of Barbie Princess Charm School (2011) is often criticized on the seemingly ridiculous method of assigning the scholarship via lottery, this in actuality works as a larger allegory for the world of higher academia: Madame Privet states that only 27% of the “lottery girls” graduate, and Blair, who comes from a lower class background, suffers, in addition to social ostracization on account of her socio-economic background, a learning curve, as she struggles with concepts that the other girls, who were all raised to be princesses, take for granted. We can presume, then, that the other girls who graduated were very likely from socio-economic backgrounds that encouraged them to receive training ahead of time in, for example, etiquette, history, geography, etc., giving them a distinct advantage in the system while disadvantaging girls from lower class backgrounds. The only means for students such as Blair to gain social mobility is via a mentor based system, in which a teacher, such as Madame Privet, personally oversees their education. While the scholarship maintains the illusion of equality, therefore, there is no equity in the system. We might compare this to the modern American academic system, which overwhelmingly claims to be merit-based while also overwhelmingly privileging students who can, for example, pay for extensive testing or an expensive undergraduate or MA degree. Furthermore, the emphasis on letters of recommendation puts an overwhelming pressure on students to maintain a good relationship with their supervisors which can in fact hide abusive power dynamics. In this essay I will….

Music is powerful because it hurts. It actually, very physically hurts. It feels like a thick balloon is inflating behind your chest and it's spreading to your stomach and arms and fingers and you want to curl into yourself as if that will stop it from growing but it continues on. The nostalgia will only ever be nostalgia. The weekly visits with a friend are now barely even a text every few months. The fandom you dedicated your life to is barely even a passing thought anymore. The ideas that ran through your head now gather dust as a forgotten word document. Life is better, sure, but life used to have them. Why couldn't life be better and still keep them?

This would have never happened if you hadn’t listened to that music. But oh how beautiful those memories are, and there's a smile on your face despite the balloon threatening to pop if you listen a moment longer.

@duskianfae YOU GET IT. No because listen, that was almost exactly my thought process.

I see your "Kaveh gets hurt and Alhaitham is forced to face his feelings and confesses before it's too late", but I raise you: "Alhaitham gets hurt and confesses because he's too out of it to have the filter that's usually keeping him from complimenting Kaveh at every turn"

I have been given many things to cry over this weekend, and none of them were fictional, and also I wasn't able to let myself cry over them

I haven’t had a good long cry in a while and it’s annoying me. I need a fictional thing to lose my heart to.