Reply to Any way to delay or avoid the Disney princess obsession?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Screen time for potty training is a bad idea anyways- princess or not.

If you really want a well-rounded child, expose them to all things including princesses. If they like Princess movies, use that as an opportunity to talk about characteristics other than their dresses, etc and/or limit to some of the newer ones. But Disney is pretty well-loved for a reason. Beauty and the Beast is a favorite in our household with an almost 3 year old boy. He loves the songs and we sing together. We talk about how brave Belle is to change places with her father and how she stands up to the Beast when he gets angry while she is cleaning her wound. How she looks beyond the scary Beast to see the person inside. Weve also watched Brave and he likes to pretend to shoot arrows while he rides a horse. Talk about how strong Merida is. How she isnt afraid to be the best. How much she loves her family and how smart she is to know how to fish, and what berries are harmful.

Go with the energy and interests your child naturally has to teach them/talk to them/etc. Its much easier to gently change a rivers course then to stop a river. [/quote]

Right. I think there are great lessons for kids in virtually all the Disney princesses after about Sleeping Beauty.

Ariel — she didn’t give up her voice for Prince Eric. He was incidental to the story. She wanted a different life from her family. There’s a lot to talk about there in terms of what it means to want a different life and how to handle that. It’s something a lot of kids can probably relate to (aka not feeling like you fit in somewhere).

Belle — She’s awesome. She loves to read, rejects the hunky jock, and loves the Beast for him, despite his appearance. All of that is rewarded when she gets a wonderful life with the man she grew to love for what was inside him all along.

Jasmine — Another one who didn’t want the life she was given. She fell in love with a poor kid and actively did NOT want a prince.

Pocahontas — Great story, but obviously Disney made some really unwise and problematic choices when it came to adapting a real story. I’d put this in the “miss” column.

Mulan — Clearly amazing. Dresses up as a man because that’s the only way to serve in the army and saves her people.

I haven’t seen the other princesses canon films (Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Brave, or Moana), but I hear they show strong women. Weirdly, Elsa isn’t considered in the “official canon” of Disney princesses, but I do love what Frozen teaches about being yourself and sisterhood.

So really, in my mind, the problematic aspects of the Disney princess thing comes down to the three first Disney princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty), and the way the princesses physically look, which can create insecurities among girls. Disney has gotten better about it, but they still almost always are thin. But that’s just Hollywood for you. [/quote]

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