You don't have to be Gloria Steinem to realize that these are not, for the most part, useful professional skills in today's world. So I was not thrilled when my 3-year-old informed me, over lunch, that she wants to be "a pwincess" when she grows up, and I was unhappier still when her 6-year-old sister expressed a similar ambition.
The whole article is actually rather amusing. Still, why is she that unhappy with Disney's princesses?
Start with some light feminist analysis. It will not have escaped you, Mothers of America, that Disney princesses -- Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and the rest -- rarely slay dragons, play sports, pilot jets or do open-heart surgery. Instead, they fiddle with their coiffures, linger over invitations to the ball, flee ineffectually from evil crones and swoon.
Come to think of it, Disney's princes don't pilot jets or do open-heart surgeries either.
She also forgets that Belle in "Beauty and the Beast" is a rather strong-willed young woman who refused to be wed to someone she doesn't care for, and so was Ariel in "The Little Mermaid", who was dead set with her own view on how she wanted to live. These are not helpless femme fetales. And let's not forget, since we're talking about dragon slaying, of what Giselle did at the end of "Enchanted", rescuing Robert from that nasty creature.
Besides, this wanting to be a princess is only a phase. They'll grow older and then get over it when they realize that they want to be Hannah Montana!
:) :) :)
Zz.
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