Do the Disney Princesses set little girls up for disappointment?

Here is Snow White as she may well have turned out after we closed the book on her particular fairytale.

I
went on Today last week to talk about the Disney Princesses and how
they can set little girls up for profound disappointment when they grow
up and….

…eventually discover that there IS no Prince Charming who is going
to come to their rescue on a white horse. Girls? You have to be
prepared to save yourselves.

[thanks for this pic GlitterMixedWithRockAndRoll]

I've
written about this before and to those of you with daughters older than
about 3, my revelation that the Disney stories are in fact a sad tale
of what it means to be female will be nothing new. You've no doubt been
watching the DVDs and reading the books for long enough that the
messages may barely register anymore.
But my daughter is 3 and for
the past few months, with NO encouragement from me, in some form of
weird genetic or social conditioning phenomenon, she has become
obsessed with Cinderella and Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and Beauty
and the Beast and all the other stories like that which make me want to
claw my own face off. The messages – both visual and metaphorical – are
SOOOOO BAD that I genuinely despair.

Pixar is just about to
release their 12 film. It's called 'Up" and it's about an
Asian-American boy. ALL the Pixar films have been about little boys and
they've just announced the 13th will be about a girl. Guess what she
is? A BLOODY PRINCESS.

Karl played devil's advocate in our
interview and said that every girl is 'daddy's little princess' which
is fine but I sometimes fear we're raising a generation of entitled
little girls who grow up to be Paris Hilton – the grown up human
princess. Or have I just had too much Panadol today?

I used
to think people who complained about how they thought Barbie and the
Disney Princesses were bad for girls were over-reacting.  That's
because I had A SON. What did I know? There aren't a whole lot of bad
psychological messages in Thomas The Tank (are there?).

But now?
Now I know plenty. Now I know how much I detest these stories about
hungry, skinny victim girls who are in sad and dangerous situations and
can only be saved by handsome princes. The only way to live happily
ever after is to be kissed by a prince and have a big fat bloody
wedding. Feminism, hello?

Harmless fun and escapism do you say?
I would agree with that except that I know far too many women in their
20s and 30s and 40s who are still waiting for that Prince, still
baffled he hasn't yet shown up to rescue them from their lives, still
obsessing that he WILL show up eventually and make everything Happily
Ever After. And by the way, the whole rescue thing? Far too much
pressure to put on the blokes if you ask me.expecting them to turn up
and save us?

Well guess what girls? You have to be prepared
to save yourself. And 'complete' yourself. It will make you far more
appealing to a future partner, trust me on that. And maybe? Maybe
your handsome prince will be an IT geek. Or have a facial piercing. Or
a mental illness. Or be a woman. Or a job. Or a child. Or a dog you
rescued from the pound. Or just inner peace.

Happily Ever After comes in all shapes, sizes and skin colours, all genders and all forms.
So
is it too much to ask that we have some alternate narratives to share
with our daughters? Not just victimy princesses with hand-span waists
and an inability to be self-sufficient?

Now, I'm off to sit Coco
down and read her Germaine Greer's Female Eunich while making her watch
Julia Gillard in Question Time……IT'S ALL FUN IN MY HOUSE.

Are you still waiting for Prince Charming to rock up on a horse and save you? Are you worried that our daughters might get this message? Where are the alternatives?

READ MORE:

• I was meant to be raising a feminist daughter – ooops

• PLEASE no make-over for Dora
• If you're too old to have a baby, is it feminism's fault?
  

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