Once upon a time, there was a handsome young knight in a faraway kingdom who got himself into a mess of trouble, and the king was about to chop off his head.
But the king said he would spare the knight's life, for the answer to just one question: ``What do women want?''
So the knight asked his fellow knights, but they all gave him different answers. One said women want power, another said women want money and property, another said women want to be told they are beautiful, another said women want handsome young lovers.
None of the answers seemed satisfactory.
So the knight galloped off into the countryside to search for the answer, and finally, one day, in the middle of the woods, he came upon a hag. She was the ugliest of hags by anybody's standards. She had a big bloodshot eye in the middle of her face, was crooked and bent, wrinkled and hunchbacked, and had warts all over her body.
She told the knight she had the answer, and could give it to him, but in return, he would have to marry her.
The knight gulped, horrified at the thought. But with his neck on the line, he agreed: ``Give me the answer, and if it's right and the king spares my life, I will marry you.''
The hag whispered the answer in the knight's ear, and the knight relayed that answer to the king. Indeed, it was the right answer, so the king spared the knight's life.
But now, the knight (since knights always keep their promises) had to do the thing he most dreaded. He had to marry the hag.
On the night of the wedding feast, the poor knight's fate seemed to take a turn for the worse. Not only did the hag show up at her wedding as ugly as he remembered, but she came dressed in rags and with mud on her feet. She ate with her fingers, burped and farted, smelled like a sewer and screamed foul curses at all the guests.
It was a terrible wedding. The knight was dying of embarrassment and dread. The guests felt sorry for him. Finally, the hag was led off into the bridal chamber.
The knight stayed at the feast for as long as he could, drinking, trying to put off the inevitable. But when he couldn't stall any longer, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and went into the chamber to consummate the marriage.
But when he opened his eyes at doorway, lo and behold, there stood the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen.
At first he thought this was a trick, or perhaps the result of too much alcohol. But no, this indeed was the hag he had made the deal with.
She explained she was under a spell and could give him a choice: She could be beautiful in the daytime, for all his friends to see, and be the ugly hag in his bed at night. Or she could be beautiful with him in his bed at night, but ugly while in public with him in the daytime.
"Which would you prefer?'' she asked.
The knight thought, remembered the question, and said: ``I can't make that decision for you — it's your choice."
And she laughed, and said, ``My dear knight, you truly understood the answer — what women want is to have the right to choose to be whatever they want to be.''
The spell was broken and the knight found himself with a smart, loving and equal partner for the rest of his days.
Women today want what they've always wanted — to get rid of all the barriers that prevent them from being whatever they choose to be.
Copyright © Rose Simone, 1999
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To read another of my articles, please click on one of the links below:
Losing Faith | Island of I | Millennial Dreams | Global Shoes | What Do Women Want? |
