THEThe phenomenon on social media is growing. Especially on Tiktok, The Princess Treatment It has become the romantic dream of many girls from Gen Z. If their sisters, (mothers or grandmothers), angry feministsthey consider or consider some obviously sexist gestures, a legacy of a patriarchal world And symbol of subordination, something, evidently, has changed. The model is the romantic relationship tout court, the courtship of the past. In short, Bridgengeron & Co.
The desire of the girls of the gen Z of being “treated as princesses”
“In an era when appointments may seem transactional and often confused, Old style love stories seem special», He told the BBC Myka Meierone of the most expert in Galateo on Instagram. And it seems that, really, Vintage dramas on TV have really influenced the young audience, At least according to the expert Daniel Post Senning, author of Manners in A Digital World and great -grandson of the decana of the Emily Post good manners.
The gestures that a girl wants from the partner in 2025? Great classics, more or less. Caffèlatte in bed and a booking at the favorite restaurant. A jacket promptly on the shoulders if it’s cold but the manicure paid.
In social media poststhe “princess treatment” is generally opposed to the “indispensable minimum” (“Bare Minimum”). And the Reels flock to how to distinguish them, these special treatments to aspire to from minimum union that must be demanded.
How to get the Princess Treatment: Word of trad wife
At the opposite end of the husband who barely remembers the wife’s birthday, there is the husband boasted by the influencer Courtney Palmer, self -proclaimed “Princess Casalinga”, of Utah. In a Tiktok video – viewed 8.3 million times – says: “At the restaurant with my husband I don’t talk to the waitress, I don’t open the doors and do not order food.”
And he also explains how to get the princess treatment: accept compliments with grace, dress appropriately and above all take care of your partner. It also suggests not to “laugh at cracks, speak loudly or attract attention”. In essence, The secret is “let your husband take command and behave as a male”. The reward is presented in the form of earrings of diamonds, Chanel dancers, flowers and cavalry of the past.
That of tradwivestraditional housewives of our times, Nostalgical representations, all impeccable and bucolic, of the angel of the hearth, is a world in itself, but which also influences the rest. They called it feastin contrast (solidarity) with the manosphere. THEn both invoke the Return to a simpler past, to clear gender stereotypes And reassuring: to the pre -established roles, to the male and female God created them.
The obsession with Gen Z for the “Princess Treatment”: gallantry or passive imagination?
Emma Beddington on Guardian insinuates the doubt that the cult of Princess Treatment It is above all a professional influencer gimmick (which Courtney Palmer is). But The imagination of a return to gallantry is real and widespread. “It would be nice if it was like my birthday every day,” writes Beddington, “but not beautiful enough to spend your life cooking and cleaning wearing an English lace to get it”.
The author ironizes: «Perhaps some women like to imagine a life of calm and caring passiveness, but could their content at least be more creative? How about a “goddess treatment”? Pretend offers and sacrifices, keep people on the thorns with the prospect of being transformed into something horrible. Or a “pet treatment”? If a tiktoker could tell me how to receive the “cat treatment”, surely I would put it “like” and I would follow it “.
Joints aside, it is no coincidence that you aspire to be “princess” (at court, the young and beautiful one, silent and tend to save) and not the “queen”, the one with the scepter. Passivity is the central alance ingredient.
Cr. Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2020
End of gallantry?
Beyond the extreme position of Courtney Palmer & Co., we said, the imagination widespread remains. In the air, rather than gallantry (understood as chivalric courtesy, from him to her), is there a desire for kindness? In the event, if we are returning to the bed of gender equality, he could help resolve the doubt about who pays dinner The dear old etiquette: who invites pays.
Since, if once women paid nor bills or bills, it was because they really didn’t. While today it would be a comparison to tell us that being able to choose to be princesses (and “make us serve”) or not is a form of Empowerment. RIn autonomy – physical, financial, intellectual – makes women, however, and always vulnerable.
From benevolent sexism to kindness
On other forms of Women’s men’s kindnessthe debate is open. Interesting, some time ago the results of Un Survey of the French weekly Elle: It appeared that the three quarters of the interviewees were inclined to associate galande gestures, such as “serve a woman first”, with a form of courtesy or kindness (77%) rather than gallantry. (Our director, Danda Santini had spoken here).
The awareness of the potentially problematic nature of “benevolent sexism”but also the desire to free the positive aspects of gallantry from gender connotations. The passage would allow us to approach the point of view of the feminist economist and activist Rebecca Amselm: “If we lived in an egalitarian society, gallantry would simply be courtesy. They are our roots in a unequal society that make gallantry problematic “.
Of the theme also speaks Can you still be galanti? (Marietti1820) by Jennifer Tamas, Released in March 2025. According to the French literature professor of Ancien Régime in the United States, at Rutgers University (New Jersey), the problem is that Gallantry as we mean it is a virilized version of the authentic one. Which instead was born as a pleasant game of confusion between female and male, a social practice in which women finally become “interlocutors” on par with men. In short, gallantry in itself has no sex.