Cinderella ate my daughter-the princess complex

While preparing my application assignment I was talking to Professor Ide and recommended a book to me called “Cinderella ate my daughter”.  I didn’t have time to read it, but I looked through a couple different book reviews about it, and thought it raised some very interesting themes.  Most importantly was the author, Peggy Orenstein’s views on the princess complex that controls almost every American girl from ages 2 to 6.

Orenstein believes that Disney and princess themed merchandise and apparel set young girls up for failure because of unrealistic expectations.  For example the idea of waiting for your “knight in shining armor” or “prince charming” to come take you away to live happily ever after is damaging because it instills the idea the women are judge on their beauty. 

The next phase for little girls is the “tween” at which time to break away from the princess she moves on to the less girlie and sexier Bratz dolls, and so begins beauty and sexy being the most important attributes.  In general the author blames Disney for all the stereotypes and stages little girls go through.  Specifically Orenstein blames the Disney starlets who play the innocent virgin angle on Disney for a couple years and then end up drunk and disorderly or slutty and sending nude pictures (ex: Lindsay Lohan and Selena Gomez)

Orenstein sees little girls as being set down the path of princess turned whore regardless of how well they excel at other important aspects of their lives.  She feels like the culture encourages this behavior from girls that it’s almost a rite of passage for girl to constantly be proving physically they are feminine.

The advice she offers to parents is to say ‘no’ more.

Eliminating stereotypical literature = Eliminating Stereotypes?

In class we discussed and seemed to agree that often, books (and other media, for that matter) often perpetuate stereotypes and have the potential to send messages that may easily be interpreted in certain ways that may cause children to make generalizations or develop stereotypical understandings about the world.

However, as Sarah noted in her post, parents, teachers, siblings, and other role models can have a large impact and can ultimately affect how children view the world and develop their understandings of how society works.

As future teachers or parents, I feel that it is not our responsibility or even in our best interest to completely eliminate books such as Cinderella or the other stereotypical books we have discussed in class. These books seem to perpetuate the stereotypical roles of girls and boys, typically projecting females as nice, pretty, polite, well-mannered, etc.; while males were viewed as rough, masculine, heroes, etc. To me, rather than stripping children of these ideas and secluding these types of books from their literature, it would be more beneficial to introduce these books and integrate them with other books that confront and challenge these stereotypes. This would provide a true view of the world as the way it is and help the children understand that there are various types of roles for each gender.

For example, one could read the original Cinderella, then read the alternative book that we talked about in class where the opposite sort of event happens (the princess saves the prince and then rejects his offer for a date, etc). I think it's important to select literature that shows representations of both genders performing all types of roles and jobs. If children are introduced to a male playing a role such as a teacher, dancer, or nurse, or a female as a professional athlete, doctor, or CEO, and these are portrayed as normal, they will likely accept this with no problem.

I think that children growing up today actually will be better suited to reject stereotypes and accept individuals who may play different or rare roles because of the way society as a whole is becoming more accepting. For example, while it is still not the most common situation, it is becoming much more acceptable and "normal" for a dad to be a stay-at-home dad and a woman to be a CEO or manager of a business. If we can point these instances out to children, through books and in the real world, I think we can help dispel gender stereotypes and let children develop broad and accepting understandings of gender. As we have said, literature can have a huge impact on the way children understand themselves and their world. If we were to completely eliminate certain types of literature due to the fact that we believe they are perpetrating stereotypes, we would strip children of this important piece of knowledge. As long as parents, teachers, or other individuals can facilitate a discussion to help children understand that gender stereotypes are limiting and meaningless, I see no harm in exposing children to all types of literature (within good reason and judgment).