There is a female condition prevalent in the United States , which I call the Princess Syndrome.

Symptoms of this malaise begin in early childhood, and can include foot stamping, pouting and dressing up in frilly pink costumes.

Over time this can develop into unrealistic expectations, desiring the ‘perfect fairy tale wedding’ and the belief in Prince Charming. And our society is hell bent on keeping the pipe dream alive and spreading this epidemic further.

This little girl grows up into a woman who wants everything ‘just so’, who needs ‘carpet under her feet’ when she wakes up each morning. She demands all kinds of luxuries and males must bow to her every need (including being the boyfriend/husband that she wants them to be, even if said male has to lie in order to achieve this goal). Inevitably the princess is destined for bitter disappointment, if, that is, she allows herself to see reality.

But let’s begin with how these little darlings are created. Parents can induce this condition in their daughters through encouraging extreme girly-ness. The father is over protective, spoils the child, and actually calls her 'my little princess'. She does not have to ‘tough it out’ like, say, a tomboy would have to. Some extreme examples are the beauty pageant parents, but that’s a whole other article.

The media does the rest of the work through conditioning girls with fairy tales, Barbie dolls, happy endings and the ultimate goal in each story: finding the perfect male who will take care of her. And it’s always a bonus if he’s handsome, but he doesn't have to be of course. He comes with or without a white horse and shining armor. Princesses don’t usually like large pets so to all budding Prince Charmings out there – just drive up in an SUV instead – she’ll love that. Oh, and bring expensive flowers and a diamond pendant.

For the adults there are countless television ads that keep women in their place – usually in the kitchen - with Moms washing their little boys’ dirty soccer kits with a smile! They dote on their muddy little sons and their equally muddy friends who leave behind a trail of dirt; they sit around discussing antibacterial wipes, ‘swiffer’ cleaners and so on. I think most accomplished, intelligent women would contemplate suicide if their life was reduced to such banalities.

The princess loves to shop, wears make-up every day (wouldn’t be seen without it), does not camp (filthy!), and usually refuses to partake in any sports that would mess up her hair-do. Most often she does not discuss politics, watch Frontline, Jeopardy or the Independent Film Channel. She may read novels, but these are usually love stories.

Chick flicks are made especially for these women and they abhor films that tackle real issues, like, for instance Hotel Rwanda, or Blood Diamond. Good god, no, they’re too depressing and would spoil the little lady’s mood. Plus she does love those pretty diamonds and who cares where they’re from, right? If she does resort to discussing an issue or politics it’s usually parroting the opinions of her husband, or maybe repeating something she heard on the Today Show.

She is content to stay at home and let the man go out into the world and make a living, after all it takes hours to cook that souffle and she just doesn't have the time for a job! She will probably have her first child very soon into a marriage. The baby showers will be legendary, and the unborn fetus will procure more material possessions than a small African nation may see in a whole century.

But I digress. My point is that so many seem to hunger after this lifestyle and there is a distinct lack of serious female role models for young women to emulate in our society. We are bombarded by images of actresses, pop stars and rich socialites, who, in any normal circumstances, would be classified as dysfunctional. Instead these somewhat vacuous and spoiled individuals are celebrated and scrutinized as if they have accomplished great miracles for civilization. Countless articles are dedicated to what an actress is wearing, who she’s dating, how much she weighs. But do we know what she thinks? Who she votes for? What she believes? Oh yes we get to know these things about Oprah sometimes, but only for headline value. And the Princesses love this stuff! They eat it up!

Paris Hilton has probably had more attention than Einstein - but for what? Posing naked, being stupid and vapid and spending thousands of dollars on canine jewelry.

Television shows such as Desperate Housewives portray women as materialistic, vain, jealous and petty, with nothing better to do than gossip about each other. Mind you, I could only bring myself to watch it once so I may be wrong. But I don’t think so.

It seems to me that the goal of some young women these days is to get on TV and show various parts of their bodies on some reality show, so they can ‘make it’ in the biz. They think it’s the only way. I cringe when I see them devalue themselves and the whole of our gender. If I had a daughter today I would be very concerned. We females are bombarded with images that can leave us somewhat diminished if we let them.

Finally we had a serious female contender for the Whitehouse. And whatever you may think of Hillary and the Clintons in general you have to admit that she’s well qualified and has worked diligently to tear down what she called “the highest and hardest glass ceiling in America ”.

Some would argue the press coverage throughout the primary elections was just a little slanted. Even Saturday Night Live did a skit suggesting Hillary was getting a harder time than her rival. Former vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro made a great point. She referenced a sign held by a man at a Hillary rally that read “Iron my Shirts” and noticed the lack of media reaction to this blatantly sexist remark. It went largely unnoticed. But what, said Ferraro would have happened if at an Obama rally a person held up a sign that said “Shine my Shoes”? There would have been a firestorm and all kinds of accusations of racism and it would have led to many discussions - and rightly so. But I suppose sexism does not qualify for the same measure of disgust and subsequent debate. Maybe in four years’ time it will, or in eight, or twelve years? We’ll see.

So Hillary’s out and what’s the story in the news? Oh yes the wife of a male presidential candidate, posing for Vogue, reclining on a deck chair, barefoot and in jeans. Here’s what the press is comfortable with, talking about the woman who’s not running, just the wife of someone who is. They even inform us apparently what size her jeans are.

But let’s reverse roles for a minute here. Imagine Hillary won the nomination and they did a feature on the first husband in GQ. They have Bill reclining in jeans on a deck chair, in a sexual pose, with open shirt and they tell us his pants are a 34 inch waist. It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? It would also never happen. Why then is it not equally ridiculous to do the same for a possible first lady?

So my cure for the Princess Syndrome is to send each one on a camping trip with very few supplies. Or how about working two jobs and living in a trailer for a month, to give them a reality check. Or they could read all of Maya Angelou’s books and maybe dig up some history volumes about the Suffrage movement. We’ve come a long way, let us not regress. We owe it to future generations of girls and women. They need female role models, who are strong, intelligent women, not silly, empty shells. You can be a stay at home mom and still be an individual. You can clean and do the cooking – but you can do it with flair and imagination not as a mechanical function that females are supposed to fulfill. And divvy up the chores!

Last but not least, princesses why don’t you give yourself a promotion? Become the Queen and take over the castle.

Alison Hill is a featured writer for Xomba.com. Read the rest of her work here .