I just read an article about a book called Cinderella Ate my Daughter by Peggy Orenstein and saw a blog from a mom who claimed that the Disney princesses had "hijacked" her daughter's imagination. Oh my. I don't even want to get into the latter, but I will because I simply must. I cannot ignore this.
Let's pretend for a second that Walt Disney had never created the first full-length animated feature film about a displaced princess with a fondness for "funny little men." Heck, let's go so far as to say that movies weren't even invented (because there are more princesses out there than just the ones licensed by Disney). However, stories and storybooks WERE still around in this hypothetical world I'm trying to convey. Would these women still be complaining that the imaginations of their daughters were "hijacked" by Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm? How about those thousands of "Cinderella" tales that have been told as entertainment and life lessons for thousands of years all across the globe? Would Critheanach or Aschenputtel (Gaelic and German versions of the little cinder girl) have been attributed to swallowing toddlers? Maybe, but most likely not.
I completely get it if these women were just ranting about the over-availability of the Disney princess stuff in its candy pink glory. Kids really do need variety to help better sort out their own preferences and I'm completely on board for that one, but they're also attacking the messages, stories, plots, EVERYTHING Disney princess-related. What's the point? (If it's really just to draw attention to themselves, then, darn it, it's working and I'M biting!)
Today, I came across an article/review on a book and blog that I found here. In it, I read this: “When my pregnant friend went in to get an ultrasound, the nurse told her, ‘You’re having a little princess!’ We don’t even have girls anymore.” - Peggy Orenstein in the book, Cinderella Ate my Daughter
Ok, Peggy. One overly-enthusiastic ultrasound nurse and you think the whole world is out to change the gender title to "princess?" Now that's just silly.
On a side note, I worked at a Disney Store for three years. Long time, but it was next door to my college and it didn't involve working with hot food...AND I do happen to love Disney. (I have only been beaten once in Disney Scene It, just so ya know...) I was not instructed to call the little girls "princesses," but I did. What else do you call them when you're asking them to stop climbing the "mountain" of plush while their parents are ranting on a cell phone over by the mugs with nary a glance in the direction of their excitable offspring? "Hey, little girl, get down from there!" No. "Princess, would you mind getting down? You might get hurt!" MANY adults in retail will call a little girl, "honey." I NEVER liked that. How is that not bad?
As for the lady blogger claiming the princesses have kidnapped her daughter's imagination and are holding it ransom until she surrenders the little girl entirely, well, she seems like she's against absolutely everything pink, girly, semi-girly, Disney princess-y, etc. She's out to save her daughter from being a stereotypical little girl and I applaud that, but when I browsed her blog, she's perpetuating two stereotypes of her own on the first page; her "mecca" is a supermarket and she's got enough dark chocolate to last her until her little girl has "recovered" from her lost imagination. Aren't those "typical women" things? Why shouldn't her girl like some "typical girly girl" things?
Oh, and since I mentioned that she thinks her daughter is losing her imagination to Disney, when was it bad for kids to like stories? That's where these princesses come from: stories. I can see it being a problem if this lady never let her daughter watch one of the Disney "princess" movies to see that the girls A) are all different or B) change over time, but dang. How can it hurt? In my own experience (which is by no means universal), Disney movies have helped me in developing a strong imagination. Old stories did that, pictures of great landscapes do that, Disney stories do that...anything, really.
Argh. I'm so all over the place and still frustrated that maybe it would be best if I stopped while I'm ahead (or behind, or sideways...). Hmm. I'm all over the place BECAUSE I'm frustrated.
All right. I GET how over marketing is annoying and bad and everything else. I GET how other things that little girls might like are kind of glossed over or pushed aside, but if the little girl likes it, how bad is it for her to like it in moderation? You're the moderator as a parent/guardian. You set the limits. No, you can't have a princess bed. No, you can't have princess dishes because you're too typical and you're buying into an awful marketing strategy, honey. Don't cry. We'll get this nice beige set instead and, if your imagination has recovered enough from princess mania, you can pretend there's a puppy on it...or something.
What bothered me the most is that someone could think that her daughter wasn't being imaginative for wanting to dress up, pretend and just be a fanciful child. Forget messages, marketing, the whole monster. Stories, any kind, PROMOTE imagination instead of "hijacking" it. That's what I think.
Signorina Sirena, a.k.a. Miss Mermaid, out.
(Take that!)
:-)
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