Princess Culture: How It's Harming Our Little Girls

The Good Men Project:

By Hugo Schwyzer
The Good Men Project

Encour­ag­ing princess culture -- however innocently -- contributes to the sex­u­al­iza­tion of girls. Men can be part of the solu­tion to the 'princess prob­lem.'

Read the whole story: The Good Men Project

Comments

[onwisconsin]

08:01 PM on 02/09/2011

I always told my daughter and now tell my nieces that they are beautiful both inside and out. They are all developing into kind people. I also have told them how smart they are and what hard workers I think they are. I think that probably the latter is more important to success in the world. However, most important to a successful life is that all of our children, boys and girls, are given the resources in which to develop and nurture both empathy and compassion.

[Tulka2]

02:57 PM on 02/10/2011

Want to share this with you.....One of my childhood friends had a grandmother who, back in that long-ago day, would hold our hands and peer into the palm in a mock-fortune-teller way as she would ponder aloud, "What things will these hands do?  Long after I am gone, what work and art and music will these hands be making? Oh think of me sometimes in the middle of your adventures."  She would do this for both little boys and little girls. 

I can see her wrinkled, kind and toothless face before me.  She was the neighborhood "Grandma" and would tell us stories of coming west in a wagon train when the day was fine on her porch.

[onwisconsin]

03:38 PM on 02/10/2011

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Faved and Fanned.

[Tulka2]

06:10 PM on 02/09/2011

To my great sorrow, i am not the mother of daughters.   If i were, i would have insisted on two activities that will see girls through any storm:  Swimming and yoga and dancing.  Lead the body and the brain will follow.  Stand up straight, my darling little sisters.  Be unbowed.

[Tulka2]

02:50 PM on 02/10/2011

Ha! (I do know how to count to three.)

[KDMac]

03:21 PM on 02/09/2011

I think it's flawed logic. Younger girls will always seek the attention the older girls/women get, whether or not they dressed as princesses when they were younger. The key is to make sure you do give attention to them as they get older so they don't look for creative ways to seek it. Also, don't just give the "you're so cute" compliments, make sure you compliment on things of substance, especially intellect.

[jen q]

02:16 PM on 02/09/2011

Is it really so harmful to tell a child that she is cute? I tell my niece that all the time. I also tell her that she's smart, though, so does that balance it out?

[Tulka2]

06:08 PM on 02/09/2011

Do you tell your nephews cute is a value?

[Shaun Hensley]

10:55 AM on 02/10/2011

No, moms and aunts and grandmothers do that.

[jen q]

02:48 PM on 02/10/2011

As I haven't any nephews, no, I don't.

[KayAch7]

10:05 PM on 02/09/2011

did you read the article?

[jen q]

02:49 PM on 02/10/2011

Yes. I found that a lot of the points made could have used clarification. Did you read it?

[JScott]

01:38 PM on 02/09/2011

The fact that it's called Princess and not Queen kinda implies a lot right there. Queens rule, princesses don't.

[Tulka2]

06:08 PM on 02/09/2011

Oh, i am going to steal that.  ;)

[Tulka2]

03:45 PM on 02/10/2011

To back up your keen observation:

"Goodnight, you princes of Maine, you kings of New England". -Dr. Wibur Larch in Cider House Rules.