What are you waiting for, woman?

In Fairy Tales, women are always waiting.  They are waiting for their Prince to come and rescue them.

I've tried to think of a Fairy Tale where the woman isn't waiting.  Cinderella; waiting to be rescued by a Prince from a life of servitude.  Rapunzel:  waiting to be rescued from a tower and a lifetime of having her hair used as a ladder.  Sleeping Beauty:  waiting to be rescued from sleep.  Snow White:  waiting to be rescued from seven small men by one tall man.  When my daughter was little she loved this narrative.  We would play games where I had to pretend to be asleep so that she could pretend to gallop over on her horse and rescue me.  I quite liked games where I had to pretend to be sleeping.  It was interesting that she always made me do the waiting, while she took the part of the Prince, even if she was dressed up in her highly flammable nylon Disney Princess costume with clicky plastic heels, waiting was not an option for her.

I wonder why we so love the story that women wait. Maybe these tales are designed to get us used to waiting; it's good to be patient if it's going to take 9 months to gestate a baby or you will have to wait for the LSH to spend ten minutes in the toilet whenever you are just ready to go out.  The problem is that it's just not true. 

The women I know aren't waiting for a man to rescue them; they are human rights activists with bolt cutters hidden in their knickers. They put their own bins out, mow their own grass and write their own songs. So when I saw this article   http://metro.co.uk/2015/10/26/woman-never-has-to-worry-about-money-again-after-ed-sheeran-pays-off-her-mortgage-5461924/?ito=facebook      I was confused.

Amy Wadge has been a well respected singer songwriter for some time. She wasn't sitting around waiting for Ed Sheeran to come along on his white horse to rescue her and pay her mortgage. I'm certain that she is glad she met him and co-wrote with him and I'm sure it has meant that unlike most women she has maintained a healthy income despite the crime of having two children but the narrative isn't true.

 It fits the Fairy Tale but life isn't Fairy Tales. If it were then I should have been rescued by now because I am very good at waiting. My tax return: I'll do that tomorrow. Learn the words for all the songs for the Barnardo's concert? Plenty of time. There's still 12 whole days. Finish dealing with the quince? Oh, I don't feel like doing that today. Clean the house? It will only need doing again tomorrow. Read another book? Oh, go on, you've convinced me.