Kill the Princess: Why Women Still Aren't Free From the Quest for a Fairytale Life [Paperback]

Stephanie Vermeulen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2007

What does it truly mean to be a modern woman? Do women still hunger for that fairytale life?

In Kill the Princess author Stephanie Vermeulen tackles a wide range of issues facing women today, from body image to popular notions of femininity, from women’s business personas to the politics of family. In an attempt to keep everything together and strive for unattainably perfect lives, women increasingly fall prey to exhaustion and fatigue. A huge reason for this, Vermeulen agues, is that women are still programmed to be self-sacrificing and as a result don’t take care of themselves. Vermeulen uncovers that although women hold their own—they are earning more, maintaining jobs and family, and indeed have more freedoms than they did even 30 years ago—their personal, artistic, and professional needs continue to go unnoticed and unmet.

Hard-hitting, provocative, and empowering, Kill the Princess is a wake-up call for women everywhere, shedding light on the ways that society naturally expects more from women but fails to fully recognize and respect their efforts and results. Verlmeulen’s serious but ultimately hopeful message is that women deserve better, and it is time that they demand it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Emotional intelligence expert and motivational speaker Vermeulen (EQ: Emotional Intelligence for Everyone) won't help revitalize feminism with this stereotyping polemic against what she sees as women's terminal self-sacrifice. Touching on issues like body image, mother-daughter relationships and societal constraints, Vermeulen offers not a self-help seminar for unhappy women, but a one-sided lecture telling them why they're depressed (men have suppressed them) and how to gain power over their lives (find their life work and their inner bitch). Vermeulen uses feminist fairy tales to make her point. In Jane and the Brainstalk, for instance, Jack pumps iron while sister Jane draws water, harvests the fields and caters to her lazy, conniving brother. The message? Men are exploitative, violent pigs, and women should rightfully take power. Vermeulen seems to be living in her own fairy tale world ruled by good (women) and evil (men). While tearing apart female stereotypes, she typecasts men. Although the author touches on important truths about persisting gender inequality, she doesn't add to our understanding of them. If Vermeulen is going to connect with a postfeminist generation, she's going to have to find a more balanced approach. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 325 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press (October 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580052231
• ISBN-13: 978-1580052238
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,570,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No blame game - Women need to OWN up..., October 3, 2007

By 

FAIRY GODMOTHER (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kill the Princess: Why Women Still Aren't Free From the Quest for a Fairytale Life (Paperback)

Vermeulen's book tosses the question of responsibility and accountability back at women and asks that they not only understand the societal norms that have 'conditioned' the thinking that women are the weaker gender and precipitated their submissive roles and functions in today's society, but that in so doing, women realize that they have the power and ability to change those classic roles, responsibilities and functions.
It's a call to women to see that the onus for a societal shift in attitude towards women is ON THEM, and therefore, far from suggesting, as the previous review states, that Vermeulen sees all men as pigs, she challenges women who see or feel themselves victim to these classic roles to take a look at how they got there, why they have accepted being there and make changes to empower themselves and improve the quality of their lives.

Vermeulen's style is easy to read, witty and hard hitting- a very enjoyable and thought provoking read about universal issues concerning women.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Freedom rings true, July 4, 2008

By 

Jean Bloomfield Mcandrew (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kill the Princess: Why Women Still Aren't Free From the Quest for a Fairytale Life (Paperback)

Freedom rings true
By Jeannie Bloomfield, July 4, 2008

As Americans celebrate their freedom on this Forth of July, I rejoice in finding my own personal freedom from self, after reading Vermeulen's work. Her message helped me to find the missing piece that I was searching for, and I woke up!

I am very grateful for the new awareness that Vermeulen has brought to my life. I am thrilled to pass this awareness on to my twenty- four- year old daughter so that her world can expand in new ways. I am honored to include Vermeulen's work as a resource to share with my clients, women in transition, in my Feng Shui consulting business, so that their lives may open in new ways too. The world continues to widen for women, as we share and discover the missing pieces that Vermeulen helps us to uncover with her unique message and writing style. Freedom rings true for the awakened princess, like a phoenix rising, to become Queen of her own destiny. The story of freedom continues to unfold for today's women, as we are inspired to find the missing peace and heal it with love.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unleashing your potential, July 3, 2008

By 

Enlightened (Johannesburg, South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kill the Princess: Why Women Still Aren't Free From the Quest for a Fairytale Life (Paperback)

Assertiveness! It's a quality that many women sorely lack, to their detriment. Vermeulen urges women to break their old habits of self-scarifice and subservience. "It is not a woman's responsibility to feed energy to men." Women have the power to change and in so doing, they will change the way that society interacts with them.
Through self-acceptance, women are able to unleash their gifts and talents. Women are exhorted to embrace the totality of who they are and rely less on social approval. Through respecting themselves, women can create the environment for others to respect them too.
This is not a male-bashing book, but rather one which helps women to break the cycle of disempowerment.

This is essential reading for any woman wanting to develop herself and for men who wish to understand the processes through which women have been suppressed and who wish to be part of breaking the cycle.