Anonymous wrote:What's wrong with the princess stories? there's no actual harm in them. Little girls don't really grow up expecting men to rescue them and shit. Chillax a little. It's fantasy. Indulge it, don't fight it. Don't be such a meanie.

i have to kind of agree with this -- it's like Barbies. I was OBSESSED with Barbies as a kid, but it never crossed my mind that I was supposed to "look like" a Barbie, meaning tiny waste, huge boobs, perfect hair.

the princess and the pizza

The Princess knight by Cornelia Funke

Check out http://www.amightygirl.com - lots of good ideas there!

Anonymous wrote:We have had great success doing what you are trying to do....I didn't want her to drink the kool-aid, but I didn't want to ban princesses (and as such make them cooler)...my beef with princesses are when they are passive and just hanging around to be saved...drives me nuts...so I always say "save yourself....princesses can always save themselves...

and here are our best ones:

book

DO PRINCESSES WEAR HIKING BOOTS? cute, great message, wonderful illustrations for age 3...a few more now in the series

Movie
Barbie and the THREE MUSKETEERS: those girls are beautiful, girly and save the day...it indulges the barbie/princess need with a message that i support...these are the princess dresses we bought during that phase, and you could watch her clever play, action-packed, but dresses still sparkle and glow

Princess and the Pony - age 5 or so an up

She is now 6, and just asked me this questioon about Snow White "Um, Mom...why didn't she just wake herself up and get moving? I don't get it"

Well, I''m calling success on this one!!!

Not the OP, but thanks for that post.

This is a great website with book, toy, movie etc...recommendations for parents who want to raise strong, resiliant, brave, compassionate girls (and boys).
http://www.amightygirl.com/ Their FB page is has nice daily articles too.

We have had great success doing what you are trying to do....I didn't want her to drink the kool-aid, but I didn't want to ban princesses (and as such make them cooler)...my beef with princesses are when they are passive and just hanging around to be saved...drives me nuts...so I always say "save yourself....princesses can always save themselves...

and here are our best ones:

book

DO PRINCESSES WEAR HIKING BOOTS? cute, great message, wonderful illustrations for age 3...a few more now in the series

Movie
Barbie and the THREE MUSKETEERS: those girls are beautiful, girly and save the day...it indulges the barbie/princess need with a message that i support...these are the princess dresses we bought during that phase, and you could watch her clever play, action-packed, but dresses still sparkle and glow

Princess and the Pony - age 5 or so an up

She is now 6, and just asked me this questioon about Snow White "Um, Mom...why didn't she just wake herself up and get moving? I don't get it"

Well, I''m calling success on this one!!!

I LOVE the book Princess Grace so much!!!

Actually, Amazing Grace, Boundless Grace, and Grace at Christmas are really amazing, too!

There is something seriously wrong with you people. I'll admit. I read DCUM mostly because I never cease to be amazed at the stupidity of parents. No wonder kids today are so increadibly screwed up. "Anti-princess"? Really?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Any really, The Paper Bag Princess" is the best book ever if you want to blow the who princess thing out of the water.

Speak for yourself. I think that the book raises as many issues as it "solves".

I've never read it - can you expand on this at all?

PP here. Here's the Wikipedia summary of the plot:

"Princess Elizabeth plans on marrying Prince Ronald, who is practically perfect. However, a dragon arrives who destroys her kingdom, kidnaps Ronald, and burns all her clothes so that she has no choice but to wear a paper bag. Elizabeth follows the dragon and Ronald, and seeking to rescue her fiancé, challenges the dragon to burn forests with fire and to fly around the world. The dragon completes the tasks but after flying around the world a second time becomes tired and falls asleep. Elizabeth rescues Ronald, who is ungrateful and tells her to return when she looks more like a princess. Elizabeth realizes that she is better off without Ronald and sets off into the sunset to live her own life."

I just think that to get beyond some of the gender problems our country has, it doesn't help to have ungrateful/jerky Ronald in the story. Why even introduce this (new) stereotype to kids? I don't want my sons to get any ideas from the Ronald character (what does "a real princess" look like?), and I wouldn't want a daughter to think that this is the way any men need to be. Maybe I'd feel differently if I had daughters.

A Gold Star for Zog, by Julia Donaldson. There's a princess, but she's awesome, and she is actually a doctor who then trains the knight when he says that he'd also rather heal people than fight =)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Any really, The Paper Bag Princess" is the best book ever if you want to blow the who princess thing out of the water.

Speak for yourself. I think that the book raises as many issues as it "solves".

I've never read it - can you expand on this at all?

Princesses are not quitters

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's wrong with the princess stories? there's no actual harm in them. Little girls don't really grow up expecting men to rescue them and shit. Chillax a little. It's fantasy. Indulge it, don't fight it. Don't be such a meanie.

A lot of them do, actually.

Actually, no they don't. But to the extent a few do, that attitude doesn't come from reading or hearing some stories when they were preschoolers. Rather, it's reinforced later in the home.

The princess Knight

The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye