Barbie, Princesses etc - harmless or perpetuating female stereotypes?

[WhenSantaWentQuietlyMad]

Luckily I have not got to this stage yet with dd1.

However, round someone else's house the other day, the children were watching a Barbie film (12 Dancing Princesses as I remember). It was just so ludicrously sexist - at one stage the "mother" said to the girls "You are no better than a common maid".

Am I over-reacting or should I try to resist the onslaught of negative role models for my dds?

HoHoHorsewoman - surely you had Sindy's horse? I had an 'Action Girl' to ride mine - she had proper jointed limbs so she could sit properly on the horse - unlike sill Sindy whose knees didn't bend! And Action Girl had prper riding kit with jods, boots, jacket and a flocked black cap - nearly just like real velvet!

actually, fortyplus, I think you'll find that "Action sindy" had bendy limbs, and "Ballet sindy" had joints.

[slinks back to lofty feminist anti-barbie stance]

but actiongirl sounds good, I wonder if she still exists.