someday my prince will come

Disney princesses: Possibly the most hated female figures of feminists everywhere. I know this picture isn’t new, it’s been floating around the interwebs for a while, but it’s always worth a repost.

Honestly though, my issue with Disney princesses goes deeper than their worship of beauty and heterosexism. I feel like there is an argument to be made for the fact that in most of these Disney stories (note: I have not seen “The Little Mermaid” or “Sleeping Beauty”) the princesses are strong-willed women who are interesting characters for actually challenging the status quo (“Beauty and the Beast”, “Aladdin”, “Cinderella”…). My issue stems with society’s need to develop female role models for girls and male role models for boys. Hey, here’s an idea: let’s develop good role models for children. Do we really need to reinforce the notion that girls must act like princesses and boys act like princes?

I actually feel like I had a pretty gender-neutral upbringing despite being born in the 80’s and raised in the 90’s, in a time where the children’s gender binary was exploding. Yes, I had Barbies and I was nuts about them, but I also had plenty of “boy toys”, loved being outdoors, hated baby dolls, and due to my parents’ insistence on my creative development spent much of my time with crayons and drawing paper. I never liked pink, but I started wearing make-up at 10. Basically, I was a kid, and not reduced to the confines of being “just a girl”. Most parents like to argue that they haven’t confined their kids to any gender roles and that whatever their kid is active in is of their own free will, and I agree with them. But what is everyone else teaching your kids? Hello, you are not the sole influence over your children. What are you doing additional to combat other influences of gender stereotyping in your child’s life? When your daughter insists on wearing a Disney princess outfit, do you take that opportunity to discuss these issues in a way she can understand? Does your daughter recognize equally the values of both male and female role models?

I don’t mean to give parenting advice. I only have a cat. My cat doesn’t even have balls and can’t tell a Disney princess from a rolled up sock.  And I know I can’t reverse hundreds of years of learned gender roles in child-rearing. But when is there going to be some sort of national re-evaluation of what we’re teaching our children in terms of gendered behavior and attitudes?