I always called my daughter, (my only offspring) princess. Her mother died when she was 8 years old. She was (is) very special in my life. This year her income will be 6 figures.
The only downside is her husband once said “you have made it very difficult for me”. I guess it is difficult to marry a princess. But, kidding aside, they are very happy together.
Right–Princesses from the original Walt Disney time did, well, pretty much nothing other than hope that their Prince would come. The ones in the 90s (Ariel, Jasmine, etc) started being more active, and then most recently, Rapunzel was beating up bad guys with her frying pan and was probably more competent than her romantic interest.
So I think Disney is more following trends than they are creating them. They are keeping the older princesses as-is, but quite frankly, I’m not sure I want to see a “modernized” ass-kicking Snow White running around Fantasyland.
Way too late.*
- Pretend I linked each word to something about Snow White and the Huntsman, Mirror Mirror, and Once Upon A Time.
It’s a pretty bad concept. When I was a kid, (in Soviet Russia, har-har), I dreamed of being a veterinarian. At the age of 6, wouldn’t realistic dreams of the future be more practical?
David Trumble interprets actual heroic women as princesses. As a protest.
When I was little, my overall impression of princesses wasn’t that they get to wear a tiara and be special. Princesses were beautiful but also kind and generous. And they weren’t happy living in a palace - they wanted to go and have adventures and shit. Maybe because my first exposure to princesses was The Little Mermaid and Aladdin.
On the other hand, the little girl I tutor thinks she’s a princess - the kind who’s entitled to everything without question. She hates sharing so much that one time I caught her hiding behind her bookcase munching on candy because she was afraid I’d ask her to share (which baffles me because I’ve never asked her to share any of her food, ever).
I guess my point is that girls can fantasize about being princesses without it turning them into SPOILED princesses who passively wait for a Prince Charming to come and rescue them.
Oh yeah, there’s a real danger they might give up on the idea of a voting democracy and favor a hereditary monarchy.
Just like loving the Flintstones as a kid has led me to countless misadventures trying to put animals to practical household use.
But seeing their parents and other real life influences get their undies in a bundle over something that in theory could be harmful, although only to the most profoundly obnoxious and is just a bit of goofy fun for everyone else, sets a wonderful example.
My four year old Grandkid is way into princesses. She lives in socal and has just about all of the outfits. She also wears a superman outfit including a cape routinely. She wears boy “cars” and “super hero” underpants under her gowns. She and her Dad do science experiments all the time together with gloves and goggles. She pretends to be cinderella when she does her daily chores. I think she’s just fine.
Princesses are fine, but I hope that when my daughter goes through that phase, we can mix it up a little. I’m hoping princesses don’t completely eclipse everything else.
But it’s frustrating sometimes how overwhelming it gets. I bought my newborn daughter no pink clothes under the principe of mixing it up, and yet somehow her wardrobe is 90% pink. I appreciate gifts, but it’d be nice not to be hit over the head with the gender coding at just one month old.
Disney rebranded some of its female characters as “princesses of the heart” in the video game Kingdom Hearts. Alice in Wonderland and Belle both became honorary princesses, because apparently you just can’t be a great female character without being a princess, too.
I’ve recently read and greatly enjoyed Jim C. Hines’ Princess books, four of them so far. It’s refreshing to have the princess save the prince. However, these books are for adults. The books look at, among other things, how princesses and queens don’t just wear pretty dresses and tiaras all day, they have duties to their family, their people, and their kingdom.
For goodness sakes, it’s not all about Disney, nor is it about gender stereotyping. I remember going through my own ‘princess’ phase (very briefly) at about 5 yrs of age, in between climbing trees and catching tadpoles.
I’m 53. :rolleyes:
“I feel like Princess Di and Princess Grace all smashed together”
– Marge Simpson
Never going to call my (someday) daughter a princess and will openly reject such things.
I think young boys wanting to become cowboys are potentially more dangerous.
…and a science lab with a robot…
I don’t have issues with the Lego girl’s line in terms of the content, other than it being marketed as a girl’s line, and you can be damn sure if I had boys, I’d have bought it for them - I did buy it for my daughter, and her male friends play with it just fine, just like she plays with my Castle, City and Star Wars Lego (but not my Millennium Falcon, that’s mine alone!)
Dad of a three year old, and I’ve never called her princess.
To me, it’s fine like any other phase… kids are fascinated by royalty, there are about a million princess stories, etc. But here’s my issue with princesses:
[ul]No one studies or works hard to become a princess. You’re born or married into it. When I was a kid and the Queen’s silver jubilee was in full swing (1977), I used to wonder what it would be like to be a royal. It’s a pointless ambition. People in this day and age are born royal or you get married to a royal. Not something young people should aspire to, IMO.[/ul]
[ul]Princesses are always described as “pretty AND…” Sure, now they’re smart, witty, etc. but they are always judged on looks. Bad princesses, of course, are ugly.[/ul]
[ul]There’s usually a prince or king that validates the princess by marrying her, or marrying her off. :([/ul]
[ul]There’s an amazing confluence of Whiteness, blondness, and pink with princesses. This does not describe my daughter at all. My daughter, thus far, would rather play with cars and take apart old telephones. (Yes I know there are variants of princesses you can seek out, but that’s not the dominant representation.)[/ul]
[ul]There’s a passivity, IMO, about princess culture in general. The entitlement, the endorsement of brattiness and diva behavior, etc.[/ul]
I’m cool with other people being into princesses for their kids, but I’ve never said it, and won’t, to my little girl. Like anything, I’m sure 90 percent of what you influence kids to do goes in one ear and out the other, but there’s a concern that that 10 percent might be stuff you don’t want them to soak in. Of course she might end up being the prissiest young lady ever, but what are you gonna do? Right now she likes playing with other boys and pretending to read to her toys.
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the atrocious gap in girls’ participation in STEM. Many of these young women get explicit and implicit messages that science and math are not for girls. I think princess stuff can be one of those messages (cue someone linking to a STEM-focused princess).
I tried to fight “pink creep,” but 90 percent of her wardrobe is pink or purple. 
I like what this mom is doing to refute the princess culture here in Austin. And this engineer.
Thing about princesses is, my eldest daughter has grown up in the SCA - she sees a princess as someone who works damn hard to help run the Kindgdom, who’s going to be Queen in a little while, and who will then step down six months later. Oh, and occasionally as someone who earned that right by knocking the armour polish off all-comers. A rarity but not unheard-of.
So if she want to look up to princesses I’m not going to stop her. And if that means a lot of pink, well, it’s a great colour and she can pull it off. Good for her. She still loves holding bugs and baby crocodiles in her bare hands, and wants to skateboard much more than she wants ballet lessons. And she can scale climbing walls that make me blanch.
The onus is on us, as parents, to make sure she doesn’t get spoiled - which could happen just as easily for some other reason besides princess culture. Blaming Disney is just lazy parenting.
She might never go through that phase. My daughter (now 11) never had a single princess thing and it’s not that we discouraged it. She had baby dolls and played mama. But when she was old enough to understand the princess thing, she had already formed her preferences and princesses didn’t make the cut. Nor did pink clothes or dresses. She last owned a dress when she was 7 and even that was a hand-me-down that I threw on her for a family event. She kept it on for exactly 2 hours and almost every picture I have from those 2 hours shows a non-princessy scowl. Now “dressy” events call for nice pants and a button-down shirt with a tie. The kid loves a nice, snazzy tie. Underwear is always boxers. Believe me, there have been times when I wish she would be more accepting of girl’s clothes, but…pink and princesses are not inevitable.
And she will put toy cars in her hair for tiaras.
And so your sons will be shooting at each other with dolls.