One of my parents wrote our Spring play, which is basically two narrators telling the basic plot lines of several different fairy tales (very basically - there is much more depth than that).
She asked what my favorite fairy tale was and I told her (thinking purely Disney) I didn't have one. Which is true, unless of course, you include the Lion King. I've never liked that for the most part, they all involve princesses relying on Prince Charming to save them and generally can't do much for themselves. Cinderella had to have a prince save her from her Step mom instead of just moving out of a bad situation - Aurora AND Snow White had to have a total stranger kiss them, which is actually a bit creepy.
Ariel (my least favorite) disobeyed her dad to be turned into a human so she could be with a guy she'd only seen once and then of course it all worked out - telling little girls everywhere it is okay to disobey your parents because your love at first sight will just run a boat through the evil witch and your daddy will forgive you and turn you back into a human and there will be rainbows and the wedding boat will ride off into the sunset. No consequences.
Tonight, I read a blog titled "A fathers battle with the Disney princess army", and I have to say - I completely related. Last year, for Merrie's birthday she wanted puppy stuff - so we did a puppy themed party. This year, our Disney princess battle started with Sofia the First (who by all accounts is a pretty good kid - much better attitude than her stepsister). NOW we have our own stock of princess dresses that include: Merida, Anna, Elsa and Sofia - and I'm sure it will grow. Merrie also pretends to be other princesses in her normal clothes, but these are her 4 go-tos. With each outfit comes a completely different "Merrie". She takes on the persona, complete with voice change and walking on tip toes, of the princess in which she is portraying. Today, she had her Elsa dress on and told "Anna" to go away before she shut her bedroom door. What made me smile even more was the day she wore all red and pretended to be Mrs. Incredible (who by the way has the best hips of any princess, but still has that darn waist).
There is an amazing amount of perceptiveness in what she comprehends! With this attention to detail, I'm sure will come the time when she herself has comments about why all the princesses have thin waists and huge eyes and I hope sincerely she will grow out of this phase enough to know that Disney's portrayal of what a "beautiful woman" is, is not ideal or even possible.
Someone once told me that Prince Charming could, in a very loose sense, relate to Christ saving us from things we can't get out of ourselves. Maybe, maybe I don't give my 3 year old enough credit, and she might actually think that deeply...but I know that for me, these stories left me waiting for that "Love at First Sight" experience, which I actually dreamed up once and that crush took up much of my middle/high school career.
All this being said, Merrie still loves her G.I. Joes, Transformers and "Turtles" (the originals, brought to us by the Hub), so I know she hasn't been completely brainwashed into princessness. She continually tells me that I am beautiful, so I know her perception of beauty is definitely not based on the appearance of the princesses. For now, like the dad in the blog, I will let her pretend to be someone else because we've all done that and come out at the other end fine - but the minute she starts telling me she wants to look like Belle or Jasmine is the minute we turn NickJr back on instead of Disney!
Read the Blog here:
http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/110515-a-fathers-battle-with-the-disney-princess-army/?utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_facebook
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