Bonfire of the Princesses

Contrary to the rumors I have been trying to spread for some time, Disney Princess products are not contaminated with lead. More careful analysis shows that the entire product line -- books, DVD's, ball gowns, necklaces, toy cell phones, toothbrush holders, t-shirts, lunch boxes, backpacks, wallpaper, sheets, stickers, etc. -- is saturated with a particularly potent time-release form of the date rape drug.

We cannot blame China this time, because the drug is in the concept, which was spawned in the Disney studios. Before 2000, the Princesses were just the separate, disunited, heroines of Disney animated films -- Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Aurora, Pocahontas, Jasmine, Belle, and Mulan. Then Disney's Andy Mooney got the idea of bringing the gals together in a team. With a wave of the wand ($10.99 at Target, tiara included) they were all elevated to royal status and set loose on the world as an imperial cabal, and have since have busied themselves achieving global domination. Today, there is no little girl in the wired, industrial world who does not seek to display her allegiance to the pink- and-purple clad Disney dynasty.

Disney likes to think of the Princesses as role models, but what a sorry bunch of wusses they are. Typically, they spend much of their time in captivity or a coma, waking up only when a Prince comes along and kisses them. The most striking exception is Mulan, who dresses as a boy to fight in the army, but -- like the other Princess of color, Pocahontas -- she lacks full Princess status and does not warrant a line of tiaras and gowns. Otherwise the Princesses have no ambitions and no marketable skills, although both Snow White and Cinderella are good at housecleaning.

And what could they aspire to, beyond landing a Prince? In Princessland, the only career ladder leads from baby-faced adolescence to a position as an evil enchantress, stepmother or witch. Snow White's wicked stepmother is consumed with envy for her stepdaughter's beauty; the sea witch, Ursula, covets Ariel's lovely voice; Cinderella's stepmother exploits the girl's cheap, uncomplaining, labor. No need for complicated witch-hunting techniques -- pin-prickings and dunkings -- in Princessland. All you have to look for is wrinkles.

Feminist parents gnash their teeth. For this their little girls gave up Dora, who bounds through the jungle saving baby jaguars, whose mother is an archeologist and whose adventures don't involve smoochy rescues by Diego? There was drama in Dora's life too, and the occasional bad actor like Swiper the fox. Even Barbie looks like a suffragette compared to Disney's Belle. So what's the appeal of the pink tulle Princess cult?

Seen from the witchy end of the female life cycle, the Princesses exert their pull through a dark and undeniable eroticism. They're sexy little wenches, for one thing. Snow White has gotten slimmer and bustier over the years; Ariel wears nothing but a bikini top (though, admittedly, she is half fish.) In faithful imitation, the three-year old in my life flounces around with her tiara askew and her Princess gown sliding off her shoulder, looking for all the world like a London socialite after a hard night of cocaine and booze. Then she demands a poison apple and falls to the floor in a beautiful swoon. Pass the Rohypnol-laced margarita, please.

It may be old-fashioned to say so, but sex -- and especially some middle-aged man's twisted version thereof -- doesn't belong in the pre-K playroom. Children are going to discover it soon enough, but they're got to do so on their own.

There's a reason, after all, why we're generally more disgusted by sexual abusers than adults who inflict mere violence on children: We sense that sexual abuse more deeply messes with a child's mind. One's sexual inclinations -- straightforward or kinky, active or passive, heterosexual or homosexual -- should be free to develop without adult intervention or manipulation. Hence our harshness toward the kind of sexual predators who leer at kids and offer candy. But Disney, which also owns ABC, Lifetime, ESPN, A&E and Miramax, is rewarded with $4 billion a year for marketing the masochistic Princess cult and its endlessly proliferating paraphernalia.

Let's face it, no parent can stand up against this alone. Try to ban the Princesses from your home, and you might as well turn yourself in to Child Protective Services before the little girls get on their Princess cell phones. No, the only way to topple royalty is through a mass uprising of the long-suffering serfs. Assemble with your neighbors and make a holiday bonfire out of all that plastic and tulle! March on Disney World with pitchforks held high!

Comments

[Fleurdamour]

I am a proponent of archetypal psychology, and the princess is a powerful unconscious symbol of feminine potential. Little girls are drawn to the princess archetype as it represents them, the young female part of the human collective. The prince who wakes Sleeping Beauty with a kiss represents the girl's own animus energy as wakened at puberty, activated by her contact with men in her life, not an outward prince who must rescue her. These symbols are universal and eternal, and can't be done away with to please modern feminism. Adults have a responsibility to know this, and to make sure that the princess expression in the culture is not corrupted to damage little girl's self-esteem - it does provide a role model for little girls, and I agree that a lot of the past expressions of it have fostered dependency or lack of self-actualization. But the archetypes are indestructible; they must be brought into consciousness in a healthy manner, not suppressed or banished. Great positive power is released when they are integrated.

[christonabike]

Barbara,
The description of your tipsy toddler was outrageously funny and dead on. Do you remember stumping around in those little plastic mules with feathers??
I have all boys and I diligently refused to by them guns or war toys. Now as young adults they play war video games that if you hooked up just right could probably pilot drone aircraft in a war zone.
All we can do is speak our minds, especially to our kids, and raise those pitchforks high. Those media corporations guard the platforms of free speech so they not only are pushing a very skewed sexual agenda (don't forget where Britney came from) they are vetting who gets to speak to our kids.

[Rabbin]

yep all the stars of heaven are falling!

[Rabbin]

It is written, that in the latter days the stars will fall from heaven! (As you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are!)

There was a time when the world was filled with villains and our hero's and heroins came to take out all the evil. Now they the villains come one wave after another and all the hero's and heroins have joined them to take what ever they can by any means! Yep sex sells and if you coat it with lead it only makes a margin of profit greater! After all conservatism means make things smaller and cheaper at any cost.

As it is written, "you may gain the world but at what price?"

[margesimpson]

Great post Barb! It really has become much more difficult to raise children in this day and age where marketing is king and values are something the right wing claims to have cornered the market on. When you have to fight popular culture to provide a wholesome environment in which you can raise a human being you are that much more exhausted at days end. A bonfire would be comforting and exhilarating if toxic.

[camb94]

Barbara,
The nefariousness you portray is not sexual, it is corporate greed -- that is all. As far as princesses go, my experience has been that one of my daughters tolerated princesses while the other idolized them. The one that idolized them has outgrown them already (she isn't even 7 yet), and not only can't stand them, but is the tougher of my two girls.
I think Disney marketed the princesses together, because the "old princesses" (Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty) don't hold up on their own: the movies are dated and, you are right, they are only there for cleaning and being put out. The new princesses, beginning with Ariel (which is probably the most disturbing as she thinks she is ready to get married at 15), are all outspoken and brave and do as much to save the Prince as they do to save themselves.

[jdm58]

Thanks for another great post Barbara.

[RN4MERCY]

Barbara, I'm impressed! Rohypnol, Disney Princesses, Politics and the revolutionary call for a "mass uprising of the long-suffering serfs." Burn your bras, burn your Barbies...we're back; many of us with our grown daughters in tow. You've got a lot of company at the "witchy end of the female life cycle."

Now here's the really scary part for the public at large; "If Disney Ran Your Hospital." A book that's all the rage among hospital executives and they're paying big bucks on consultants and marketing to create an illusion (of health care) that will have serious consequences for patients. They even have scripts and role-playing classes for nurses. Bah humbug! Being a patient in a hospital is not an "E-ticket" ride, and being a Registered Nurse is not a job for a princess.

Instead of providing more nurses to save patients from the consequences of their illness and injury, or the complications of the treatment, the money is being wasted on social marketing of the hospital as fantasyland hotel. It rivals the effects of Rohypnol: sedative, amnesic, lowered inhibition-the feeling like you can't do something, like, say, remember why you're there and RESIST?

Politically we need to cast off the illusions of market-based "care" and deal with reality. One reviewer of the Disney management concept states that the true focus was to bring out the best BEHAVIORS in workers and provide the best EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE for patients. It's a big morality play. Patients need access to safe, therapeutic, and effective health care...not princesses and emotional fantasies.

You can count me in for the revolution. I'll be there with my pitchfork and I know how to use it, having spent many of the summers of my youth on a cattle ranch. Mucking out stalls or pricking the consciousness of our political princes and princesses so we can achieve a single-payer national health plan...the time is now!

[LadyR]

Great post, Barbara. Yep, lots going on here--my mother read fairy tales to me and I loved them all. Have to admit the princess and queen archetypes really impressed me. And I loved playing dressup. But I also liked just as much the evil characters in the tales.
The world hasn't really changed much over the thousands of years--women are still brainwashed to be sex objects and men are brainwashed to dominate the world. So what to do?
I never had children because I simply couldn't afford them, wasn't mature enough to accept the sacrifice and commitment, and the right husband never showed up. And I certainly wasn't going to do it alone--I believe that a child should have both parents in its upbringing.
However, the upside is that I am a multidisciplinary artist--a classical composer and arranger, multi-instrumentalist, singer, dancer, actor, painter, food artist, writer, historian and humanities scholar, and poet. I dare say I would not be so today had I gone the traditional route. Perhaps I would have been able to have been both artist and mother. But I doubt it. Women are still expected to take care of the house, and I wouldn't have gone for that. Nothing kills the creative juices quicker than having to do domestic drudgery. And if your husband won't do it, you're stuck with it. No thanks.
Re the brainwashing of children, children tend to believe what their parents say and do. So parents, you decide who and what is going to influence your children. Read to them, turn them on to the wonderful world of books, discover their talents and help and encourage them to develop into who they're meant to be, and what they're meant to do in this world.
It's a hard row to hoe financially being an artist in our culture--society doesn't support the artists, but artists can't let that stop them. Even if you have to have a day job...all that matters is doing your art. If you can be true to yourself and your talents, that is success.

[Big René]

People should be aware of the sexual sin-val that slider's over the earth and destroys Al our norm's and value's. It blocks the way for God's Kingdom, and there is NO Truth in it, they are ever learning but they will never have the truth or peace. There is a lot of blackmail, and people are misled within. It looks like they Al act crazy, yet for the outside-world everything looks normal. Lots of people are threatened and even kidnapped because of it. And there is even a lot of child sex and incest because of it, the most of this part is according to wrong leaders to protect their children or others. For these children is no her or him, it is They. It is a dead end street that the world is going in. IT is a world where they do not tolerate GOD, and stand-up against him. Where Faith fades away, and where protection doesn't exist, what is a rape for them? they call it first a rape and Later they fuck with it. Justice falls ap-part because of it, there are even city's where there is no justice. People better start to learn "Stop committing sin, Stop committing sexual sin, in every kind of thinkable an do-able way. And try to get back on the save "Old way of life" road again, because in the "New creation" there is NO Future. Marriage's don't mean anything anymore, and justice will later not exist because there is no truth anymore. Our planet starts to look more and more like one large Brothel, in stead of a planet from God. All that GOD wanted was that people obeyed His Law's and Commandments. Who wants to have children in the future? How will they grow up? Do we chose for GOD or the opponents. That means do you want to be a part of the problem, or of the solution.

[Artos]

As a male I have never felt locked into most of our societal norms, because speaking for myself, I feel that most societal norms are the product of aberrant minds.
Humans feel that they are the acme of all intelligent life on this planet. I have always wondered how the "most intelligent" species on this planet could so consistently screw things up.
When the sixties happened I was in my teens and hadn't really shaped any opinion of womens place in life or my own for that matter. I could appreciate a womans desire to have a career and do something deemed society shaping. Although that is not to say raising children and being a homemaker is not society shaping. Watching women make progress in the last few years has been interesting. I have actually felt very positive about it all.
What I see as disappointing is that the last ten years has been sort of a reversal of the previous 30. Todays young women seem hell bent on going backwards. You have examples like Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, and several others, These young women are showing that Sex sells and that sexuality in women is more important than skill, knowledge and creating good works. They seem bent on undoing any progress ever made by women before them. Sometimes I think womens worst enemies are other women. Whenever a female like the aforementioned put forward the idea to men that this is how women are and want to be then the lame minded men (and there are multitudes) in our society tell themselves,"See, I knew it all along, this is what women are good for, this is what they all want.". It sets a bad precedent. They help reinforce all of the crap that is in our everyday life such as movies and media,
Humans are their own worst enemies.

[Weewinkie]

Great post, Barbara, but you're wrong about Belle, whose appearance coincided with my daughter's childhood. Belle reads voraciously and values the life of the mind, spurns the affections of the town hunk (a lout), honors her father, acts courageously and humanely, and enters into a transspecies love affair! All that, and a great singing voice, too. It's true that she's more acted on than actor, but in the pantheon of Disney heroines (and especially in comparison with Barbie!) she deserves some respect.

[wrabbitt]

To us adults they are just dolls, but, to our young,trend setting children. they are a way of having a piece of reality in a fantasy childrens world. a must have,regardless of cost,But, now we have to explain to a young child that her idol, is tainted with a substance that will make her sick, or worse. The industry hypes these toys and the price goes up and,now they are deadly,and expensive. When will good old American values resurface? Try to get a ticket to a kids show! and, the system don't change!no one wants to make waves, Well, parents get off you asses and do something about these tainted toys before our children fall thru the cracks of our wonderful health care system,after being poisoned by a tainted toy. Not like the government wants to do anything,after all they supported the move of most of these companys to help global economy, and sink our economy.

[gangwayjan]

When my now 25 year old daughter Anna was 4, I decreed --out of her earshot, I thought -- at Christmas (especially to my mother who was ready to bury the girl in such idolatry): "No Barbies and no Princesses, not for my daughter and not in my house." I grew up a tomboy; hated Barbies; for Christmas I longed for an automatic pitching machine and a chemistry set, although I admit a fondness for stuffed animals.

My daughter pulled me over a few days later and earnestly pleaded: "Mommy you're right, Barbies and Princesses are silly. I don't like them either. But what if I got just one Barbie for Christmas and what if I only played with it for 15 minutes a day in the closet with the door closed."

Sometimes you can't fight the Zeitgeist, you just have to work with it. Of course, I relented. Anna got the Barbie; Mother, naturally, went over board -- threw in a "Barbie Shopping Mall". But Anna never really used the Barbie for anything except a backdrop (it never had a stitch of clothing on it from the day it came into the house and lost its head within a month). She constructed elaborate housing complexes for it with blocks and rocks and anything else she could secret into her room. The only Disney gal she fell for was Belle, and it really wasn't a big crush.

I, too, would like braver and better role models for our girls. Although pricey, the American Girl Series aint' so bad. As a Mom, if you make sense over the nonsense of Barbie and Disney, your daughter will hear. You don't have to banish popular culture.

[pmprescott]

Does anyone talk about the tyranny of little girls in this country?
Cabage Patch Dolls, Tickle Me Elmo, Barbie, etc. Parents will pay a fortune and nearly kill each other to make their "little princess" happy for at least one day -- Christmas. Then it's on to the next must have item.
Why is making little girls happy create such fools out of adults?