Is too much exposure to Disney princesses bad for a lttle girl?

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Trivial compared to some of the other threads in this topic, I know, but need to know if I should just indulge 4 yo DD1's princess phase or if I'm setting her up for a lifetime of waiting for her 'true love' to arrive on a white charger and whisk her off to 'happily ever after' (yeah, right).
Going to bed now but am genuinely interested in your replies!

Cant stand Dora - all that pausing and repetitive singing crap!!

But worrying about a little girl interested in Princesses...

...only on Mumsnet!!

Actually, I'm extremely ferocious about tasteless crap and toys/books that I think are harmful - I just bin them.

We do not have to go along with the marketing ploys of Disney et al.

Bozza , I know you can get Disney Princess pull-ups - I was just thinking specific "Princess and the Pea" ones would be quite funny.

I quite like Dora but my dds aren't so bothered. They prefer Horrid Henry and Grizzly tales and the Worst Witch, Wizard of Oz, and Swallows and Amazons.

dd3 (3) does like to be Tinkerbell (she wants to be a Tinkerbell Builder when she grows up) and is very fond of her red glittery pumps - "Dorothy shoes".

As a child I never wanted to be a princess or a bride (ugh). I was keener on the Amazon girls or Petrova in Ballet shoes. Not all little girls have the same fantasies.

Happy ever after...oh god, pants.

(Except that - the horror - DD2 has some Disney Princess pants. Purchased, needless to say, by her other parent.)

(She loves them, even though they're two sizes too large.)

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Fennel - don't the Amazon girls come a bit later than princesses?

I used to sling an old sheet up between two apple trees in our orchard and roast potatoes in my father's bonfire.

Sigh.

Aw, you lot need some twinkle in your lives!!

If you can't have the odd accident on cinderella then how else do you tell her what you think

I HATE Disney Princess gear because:
-its so pervasive - is there any itme of clothing or accesssory which isn't available?
-its tacky and ugly, and the productas are generally poor quality (my main objection, if I'm honest! )
-its always pink - that sickly pink too
-there are so many nicer things available
-the princesses are generally pathetic charactors and bad role models.
-having lots of TV spin off gear encourages deeper obsession with TV (imho)

Fortunately we don't have a telly, and DD rarely comes shopping with me, so she doesn't really know to ask. She has seen friends Disney princess stuff, and said "thats a pretty bag", but is quite happy with her bright orange and hot pink fairtrade back pack

Having said all of that, I suspect exposure to DP gear, or similar things, is not going to do lasting damage, but I think its one small aspect of our media culture which is not healthy for our children.

Can't bear Dora. Largely because she wears those socks with frills on them.

Yes, I'm shallow...

How about Widget from Wow Wow Wubbzy? She's a hands-on, doing it for herself kinda gal! My dd wants to be her (when she doesn't want to be Lola or Robbie Rotten, that is... strange child....)

I think we as parents tend to over think things though. Little girls aren't analysing in this way - they are just playing.

I agree - not all little girls want to be princesses, not all have the smae make believe fantasy play. But why should one little girl's idea of make believe play be seen as worse than onther? Because, after all, that is all it is to a 4 year old - play time for now, not their future plans.

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How funny, Fennel - I revered "Amazon" Nancy and Petrova Fossil as well. Actually the Noel Streatfield books were better as the children tended to be Resourceful (because they were always In Straitened Circumstances) and so their tennis or singing or ice-skating abilities would Pull Them Through.

I can honestly say that I never for a moment wanted to be a princess. (To the extent I can remember playing made up games, from when I was about 6 we were fixated with playing "French Resistance", which would largely involve hiding and jumping out suddenly).

I think mine may have been hothoused onto Swallows and Amazons rather young by their sailing enthusiast father. We have a Swallows and Amazon style sailing dinghy too.

Robbie Rotten is a good role model, that guy works very hard for what he wants in life (a nap) I know how he feels.

I think it's also worth pointing out that most of us have absolutely no problem with fantasy (and indeed fairies, although there are some particularly tacky limits)per se. It's the idea that some twerp will sweep you handsomely up in his handsome manly arms and pat your brow with his strong manly hands and make everything all right which is, well...pants, really.

Ballet shoes is coming to TV next week. I am rather excited.

it's a key question really for this thread, Which Fossil sister did you want to be?

'Play time' and the roles we play are IMO pretty damn important.

Disney Princess is definitely not always pink. There is actually quite a range of colours. And, as I have a girl who does love pink, I have noticed clearly how much of it is not always pink.

It is Sleeping Beauty who has a pink dress, although her second dress is blue.
Belle - generally yellow for her gown, winter one has red on it too, every day dress is blue.
Cinderella - blue dress, white for the wedding
Jasmine - purple/blue/pink outfit I thing
Snow White - blue skirt, gold and blue at top, red cape.

thinking about this more - by biggest objection is really the marketing side of it - the fact that disney (and others) have taken fairy tales and made them tacky and plastic and pink.

I wanted to be Pauline

(I don't like cars. Which is a slight problem as Mr Inferior loves them.)

Anchovy - LOL at the Noel Streatfeild characters in Straightened Circumstances. These things are relative.

The Gemma series (1960s?) was the first time Noel S allowed her mother-carer figure not to have Paid Help.

Nut MI - how many of thse 4 year olds will really grow up thinking life is life a fairy story and that is the role a girl should play in life. I have yet to see this happen in any child I have know, or in my own family/friends from when I grew up. I think there are far more important things at play regarding furture life plans than if a little girl wants to dress up as a princess or a fairy.

well my two love dressing up as princesses

then they say let's play the sister game and hug each other

brings a tear to my eye