blooming disney princesses

[flabbyapronbelly]

Grrrr
Have until now managed to avoid them but my dd has just had her 4th bday. She had quite a large party and so she has been given loads of tat, including lots of Disney Princess bits.
Have just sat down to read a little library of the princess books. Am quite shocked and can't help but think that they are part the route down which an unhealthy body image lies. They all have ridiculously proportioned bodies and not to mention their obsessions with beautiful dresses, sparkly things, being beautiful, having a handsome boyfriend. All so inane. I know quite a lot of dds friends are obsessed by them, but I worry about the influence it is having on them long term.
I know that this kind of thing has been written about loads before on mn but just wanted to vent as think most people I know in rl would think I'm a loon if I tried to talk to them about it!

DD is obsessed with my neighbor totoro. It's also very appropriate for young children /toddlers. The mother is ill so the father is in charge of the children and a competent parent which I find a refreshing change from the bumbling dad. But the little girls are just brilliant especially satsuki the older daughter. oh and it's full of cute animals that kids love but you haven't got to worry about running in to any of the merchandise -unless you live in Japan, I suppose.

I think you'd all enjoy a website called A Mighty Girl - they have a very active FB page too. It's American ,a huge big site of girl-empowering books ,toys ,clothes etc. They started the Keep Merida Brave campaign which has 50000 signatures now ,and also a campaign to get female superheroes onto girls' underwear! they have thoughtful intelligent discussion and alternatives to offer, in terms of what other books / films to go to. Really

..good !

This mentions Disney princesses and then presents an alternative (since the mother is a professional photographer).

www.jaimemoorephotography.com/2013/05/09/not-just-a-girl/

I sort of have the opposite problem! I did as much as I could to make my son a bit more gender neutral always dressed in yellows, greens, red etc he's now 3.6 and is what everybody always calls "a proper little boy" it makes me so angry! I know that he is just becoming his natural,self but there are so many other influences, I actually made a complaint to his nursery recently when he came home and tried to bin all of his pink stuff (and I'm talking bowls, cups, plates, t shirts, toys etc) because "boys can't play with pink!" Apparently his key worker had told him that little gem!

Winds me up no end because he has now taken this as gospel so he will quite often say "I'm not playing with this anymore, it's for girls only! I will have x y or z because that is for boys" and "Mummy look. That little girl has a blue Tshirt on, that is for boys!" And even through me explaining that actually it's nothing to Dow itch colour you wear, play with, eat off whatever you want he just doesn't seem to hear me!

Tei those photos are just adorable

chunky have you told your little boy that you were a little girl once? (assuming that you were) Maybe he will see that being a girl is great too that way?

I feel your pain. It is really annoying - I generally love Disney and so do my DCs but the princesses 'sub brand' is just yuck. I was so sad to see the merida picture on facebook. And apart from the sexism, I find that most of the 'sub brand' products (often found in £shops etc) tend to be far lower quality than proper Disney store stuff.

I agree that it's good not to make a big deal about it. My DD likes the princesses, it started in preschool when she loved putting the snow white dress on. She's had presents of princessy stuff - really had to swallow my feelings when teen DSD gave her a disney 'stories for girls' book (despite the fact that DSD is quite often raging at sexism in adverts etc, so I was quite surprised at the choice) but we never banned anything and it never became an obsession. It's her 6th birthday soon and she will be getting Spongebob Lego among other things :o

Ah just realised this is a zombie thread but still relevant so I'm hitting Post anyway! :)

Chunky I would be FUMING at the 'boys can't play with pink'. Inexcusable from a nursery worker, IMO.

DD actually got a bit upset and very confused after she'd been in reception a while. Started getting tearful and saying she wasn't allowed to play with trains anymore, and that DS couldn't play with dolls. Turned out some of her classmates had been saying it. Had a quiet word with her teacher and she sat the whole class down that day to discuss it and tell them that children can wear and play with whatever they wanted. :)