Antithesis: The Product makes the Princess. Disney’s flooding of the market with Princess products leaves practically no choice for young girls. From this article (Orenstein, NY Times): “The issue is 25,000 Princess products,” says Brown, a professor of education and human development at Colby College. “When one thing is so dominant, then it’s no longer a choice: it’s a mandate, cannibalizing all other forms of play. There’s the illusion of more choices out there for girls, but if you look around, you’ll see their choices are steadily narrowing.” Disney Consumer Products is forcing little girls to choose between Princesses and not playing at all, which is really not a choice given children’s natural tendencies toward imaginary play. Fantasy games and role playing are an integral part of a child’s cognitive development and are even used as mechanisms for children to cope with difficult or taxing situations. (Have you ever played “graveyard” with preschoolers? It’s a great way to employ fantasy to get children to be quiet for a long period of time.)
Although imaginary play may be an integral part of young girls’ development, specific “Princess” play is not. In Paley’s Boys & Girls: Superheroes in the Doll Corner, girls mainly chose to play house and imitate mothers, sisters, and babies, but they also chose to b
e the Wicked Witch of the West so they could boss around their flying monkeys (the boys in the class). This not only shows variety in the options for girls’ fantasy play, but it also demonstrates how culture can influence little girls; the popularity of the Wicked Witch option started after the girls watched The Wizard of Oz for the first time.
By pushing the Princesses, Disney is manufacturing a culture to influence these little girls. Disney wants this culture in place to perpetuate their sales, but at what cost to the girls? The Orenstein article mentions that no studies have been done to show that Princess play damages girls in some way, but also points out that “there is evidence that young women who hold the most conventionally feminine beliefs — who avoid conflict and think they should be perpetually nice and pretty — are more likely to be depressed than others and less likely to use contraception.” If Disney Princesses aren’t the epitome of feminine, I don’t know who is. Sure, some of them have spunk and rebellious streaks, but all of them are “nice and pretty” and most end up married, with the exception of Pocahontas. Even Mulan, the gender-bending Chinese warrior settles down with a man at the end. (It should be noted, however, that Mulan and Pocahontas are the first two “Princesses” whose pictures are left off the banner when space is tight.) Whether these types of role-models actually lead girls to hold more “feminine beliefs” remains to be shown scientifically, but common sense and knowledge of children’s imitation tendencies suggests yes. Disney’s Princess empire, though brilliant business-wise, is detrimental to young girls.
Which Came First: The Princess or the Product? (a 3 part post: part II)
