My four year old is really into princesses and romance- already. I know, it’s terrible. I blame her grandparents completely. (haha!) They bought her the first Disney movie and she’s been hooked ever since. We have Mulan, Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Enchanted, Shrek…you get the picture.
Most of the princesses really offend my feminist sensibilities as 1. They allow themselves to be abused by the antagonists in the story. 2. They have no other goal in life than to find a man to marry 3. They make really stupid decisions (i.e. eating an apple that a creepy old lady offers) that would kill them in real life. Thank God for good little fairies…
Unfortunately, my daughter does not share my convictions. I try to encourage her to think through the kind of man she should marry (even though she has no idea what I’m talking about). She speaks frequently of princesses and princes and loves to act out the stories. She recently sighed. “And I will find my prince and I will kiss his lips and we’ll get marraaaaid” (her pronunciation)
I said, Your prince should be more than handsome, sweetie. He should be smart, good, gentle and kind and love you so, so much!”
Her answer? A dramatic sigh with her hand to her head and…
“I’ll never find my prince, Mommy.”
Hahaha! I share her last sentiment!
oh my goodness!! The joys of little girls. lol
I know I wonder sometimes if watching the princess movies are affecting their views on male/female relationships but my girls love them too. I love that Sesame Street episode with Paul Rudd. He comes in as the prince and the princess is like "whaa? I don't need you to save me!" It was funny.
Melissa – love Paul Rudd and that epi cracks me up!! I believe it does affect their view of relationships but I also know that it might just be impossible to completely shield them from those movies. Instead, I hope I can counter their effects by constantly haggling them… hahaha! 🙂