Only since I started reading feminist blogs have I been privy to the whole "princess paradox." I mean, I knew there was an entire industry built around it, but I didn't imagine that it was crucial step toward girlhood.
If it sounds like I'm being flippant, well, I guess I am, but I come across posts like this one almost weekly, and I wonder, where are all the girls who rejected the princess myth? Or who wasn't aware that the myth existed?
I should probably say right now that I am old. At least, old enough that I remember a time before Disney's princess assembly line. (I think I was already in high school when The Little Mermaid was released.) Aside from Cinderella, there really weren't any.
The piece of analysis I really think is missing from most discussions about princess play is how class can limit options -- even in fantasy. I'm sure there are poor or working-class women who grew up with the myth that a prince was going to sweep them off their feet, but even as a five-year-old, I suspected this wasn't a reality for me. (Plus I didn't know of any fat, frizzy-haired, glasses-wearing princesses.)
Here from Feministe
ReplyDeleteI was never the princess. My friends and I dumped being the Princess off on little sisters. We did flip coins to see who got to be Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, though. (the loser ended up being one of the droids)
Later, when we got into gaming, no one was the princess. We were all fighters and thieves and wizards out having adventures. Princes? Useless bunglers who didn't know one end of a sword from the other. We weren't waiting on them.
My youngest fell for the Princess thing, even had a stick unicorn to ride. But she outgrew it.
I think part of the princess thing is a desire to feel special and taken care of. And that's a very human thing, not limited by class or gender. When you're a princess, you're not expected to fight or rule or do anything but let people care for you.
It is not a bad fantasy, or desire, but it should be like any other fantasy: a sometimes thing, not a whole life goal.