So, here's a quick overview.
I was tagged by a friend on Facebook today.
She'd read this article and was on the fence about it. So, (and this was her first mistake - but she's sleep deprived) she asked me what I thought.
And I'm never short of opinions...
As you know.
Anyway - here's what I said:
I think she kind of misses the point (why people object to princess culture).
The influence of princesses and princess culture on our daughters today is much more ubiquitous than it was "in our day". There aren't many choices out there, apart from princesses.
And princesses are, in many ways, a 'gateway drug'.
OK - in a home with strictly controlled media access, really level headed parents and lots of fun options for play, princess play could be one part of a child's life. But, in reality, that first film, dress, toothbrush, whatever, seems to lead to a life of all princess, all the time.
That's where we start getting to salon parties and pedicures for three year olds.
That's where we start getting to games like "Waiting for the Prince" (seriously - the girls at Big Girl's preschool play it).
Princess stuff has taken over as the 'go-to' toy for girls and princess stuff is big at an age when children are starting to feel the need to identify with their gender roles in society -
a) IF girls do this.
b) AND I am a girl.
c) THEN I must do this.
Having so much princess stuff, and so little else, and having it marketed to girls so pervasively, limits their choices.
This week, at Toys R Us, I saw two microscopes for sale. One was normal - you know, microscope colored. One was pink.
Does a girl have to get a pink one? No, but try having that conversation with your four-year-old daughter, who sees all around her that "girls like pink" (even if her favorite color is blue). And that lessens her experience somehow... she wants the pink one. She doesn't want the normal one.
Now, expand that to every choice. Princess culture limits girls.
It's one choice, but it's so pervasive that it is choking out all the other choices.
Girls are drowning in pink.
They are being marketed to - brainwashed - to see that they don't have a choice. If they are girls - they like this.
I'm the parent, but I'm up against a billion dollar industry that wants my daughter to want the stuff it is peddling.
It's not about the beauty and magic of fairy tales.
It's not about the wonder of dreaming of one's future life (after one has finished university!!)
It's about making children older, younger.
It's about presenting sexualised images and characters to children at an age when they are too young to separate reality from fantasy ... which happens around 8. See this article - footnote 20
It's about marketing companies that have people who specialize in grabbing kids - through one screen or another - as young as possible. It's about more than a pretty dress.
It's about movies and books scripting our children's play - and limiting it.
So, no. I guess I'm not on the fence.
In fact, I think I'm in the next field!
