Princess Protection Program

This morning while listening/being enraged with CBC Radio [this is tradition - my mornings are consumed with this as my background noise and my afternoons with CNN] they were discussing the notion of princesses as heroes in children's films. I tend to only half-listen to the beginnings of things on CBC Radio so I'm not sure if this was directly related to any one film or entirely focused on Disney stuff - the discussion was heavily Disney. Anyway, it was meant to be a debate re: whether or not these types of characters are good role models for young girls - but as it happens, both sides pretty much agreed that while relatively harmless, these are probably not the best type of images to aspire to in life. Aside from a positively LOL-tastic shared appreciation that all involved seemed to have for Japan's superior representation of girls/young women in their animation [hahaha...no] - I was happy that I didn't have to bust out too much rage on this whole discussion.

To be honest, I am old enough to have missed out on all of this official Disney princess business [although I'm aware that Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and other classics are now found under the "princess umbrella"]. I feel like it really got started with The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast business and then with everything else that followed. My personal favourite is Ariel who GIVES UP HER VOICE to be with a dude [a toolish dude, too]...wow...metaphor much? And I'm well aware that all things princess are very popular with girls these days [our neighbours have a young child who routinely wears princess costumes - like on a day-to-day basis]. This comes as a shock to me as it's aught-nine and I thought things were a bit more evolved...though I dunno what I would do if I had a child who wanted/liked these types of hyper-girlie things. Not that I was some huge raging feminist as a toddler or tween, but perhaps I was given a helping hands by my parents who didn't like Disney.

I'm not going to get too melodramatic here - but it should be known that I am no fan of Disney. The main thing I find troubling in these stories [and of course Disney is not the lone offender here - most things that target young girls are of this ilk - so really, it's how society views girls I guess] is that they are very focused on love relationships. Of course, as an adult a love relationship can be your greatest source of happiness - and many other extreme emotions...but this is a deeply adult type of thing. I think it's pretty frakking creepy to teach little girls that while they may have a great many wonderful qualities - it is most important of all to seek out a dude to marry/love/rescue you. Boys are definitely not taught this sort of thing in the media that is aimed @ them - there is no romantic subplot in Transformers [the cartoon, not the live-action film] or He-Man or GI Joe [yes, I'm dating myself]. Providing wee girls with romantic fantasy is, at its most harmless, kinda strange [and setting you up for a lifetime of disappointment - but then, as you grow crappy rom-com films will fill that void for you] and at its worst - pretty fucking creepy.

[sorry - I had to go blue to prove that I'm not a secret princess.]