[LMB] OT: Disney princesses

[Azalais Aranxta]

On Tue, 20 Nov 2007, Anita wrote:

> Unfortunately the age groups that Disney princesses appeal to
> is too young to see through the marketing and certainly too
> young to understand the idea of the messages about values that
> underlie the stories. Parents can choose to ban Disney and
> similar merchandise - mine did - but then their children don't
> get to really make their own decisions.

I feel this way about banning Barbie, which is another popular
thing to do.  I am biased because I have over 200 Barbie, Jenny
and GI Joe dolls, but the history of the doll is that she has had
many, many careers and her creator absolutely went livid and
refused to let her be a housewife. She may take care of her
younger sisters, but she has been a fashion designer, astronaut,
President, supermodel, veterinarian, doctor, teacher, reporter,
and many other things.  She also has a racially diverse set of
friends and has since the 1960s (there were awful fights in my
household because my parents wouldn't let me have black dolls;
when I first started buying my own, I always got those first).

The doll does have kind of a ridiculous body shape but this is
because her clothing has to be made out of human scale fabric;
yes, the prints are smaller, but they are still about as thick as
lightweight human fabrics and so gathered waists of the sort that
were popular when the doll was invented looked quite odd until
they took a chunk out of the doll's waist.  And all the dolls
have the same shape not to enforce any idea that women should be
the same shape, but because parents don't like buying different
wardrobes for each doll and children like switching the clothing
on dolls around.

My Barbies occasionally went to the prom; they also fought
Klingons, had adventures with GI Joe (another favourite, though
my parents wouldn't buy them I did manage to acquire a few
somehow), and unbeknownst to my parents dated each other as well
as Ken and GI Joe.  Not that I really knew what that was about.
They were princesses but they also did everything else in the
book.

And frankly?  You can still have fun playing with dolls like
this.  Anyone familiar with my fic World Well Lost is probably
not surprised to know that I have two Dracaena dolls--one from
after her transition and one from when she was still a
biological male :)

> There are ways to ensure children get exposed to viewpoints
> beyond what Disney markets. I have a feminist Auntie. She chose
> for my 7th birthday present a collection of 'feminist'
> folktales.

As a child I was not particularly fond of the Disney versions of
stories--the cutesy talking animals bothered my internal logic
sensor quite often, and the princes were kind of boring.  I'd
have liked a book like this, or a book of the original versions
of the stories. Some kids kind of love gory folk tales;  it's the
adults they come with who are frequently the ones more bothered.

I think it has to do with the fact that children have a concept
of pure justice, whereas adults realise how much we all do that
we regret and prefer to see it tempered with mercy.  (And now
stop me, because otherwise I'll end up going into PROFIT meta,
and this is not the place for that...I <333 Jim Profit but I
don't think he doesn't have morals, I think he has the morals of
a five-year-old.)

~malfoy :)

****************************************************************
Azalais Aranxta (~malfoy)
ataniell93 on LiveJournal and Vox
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/malfoymadness

"I know the true world, and you know I do. But we needn't let it
think we all bow down." --Christopher Fry