Cinderella And Princess Culture Summary

In her article What's Wrong With Cinderella, Peggy Orenstein looks at the present "princess" fever that has spread among young women, and how this example could impact their personality later on. Orenstein states that there has been a goliath spike in the commercialization of princesses by Disney and diverse associations, which has incited most toys that are sold to young women being princess themed. The issue with this is being a princess influences young women to endeavor and be "perfect" when they grow up, and Orenstein says that various young women feel monster strain to win concerning all that they do and furthermore be stunning like the princesses they grew up with. In any case, Orenstein is exploding by trying to shield her young lady

Little girls have become infatuated with looking, acting and dressing like princesses. In “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” Peggy Orenstein writes “There are now more than 25,000 Disney Princess items. ''Princess,'' as some Disney execs call it, is not only the fastest-growing brand the company has ever created; they say it is on its way to becoming the largest girls' franchise on the planet” (Orenstein). The author explains how enormous of a franchise Disney princess items have become. The author physically cannot hide from their products; they are virtually everywhere.” As my daughter pointed out Disney Princess Band-Aids, Disney Princess paper cups, Disney Princess lip balm, Disney Princess pens, Disney Princess crayons and Disney Princess notebooks -- all cleverly displayed at the eye level of a 3-year-old trapped in a shopping cart -- as well as a bouquet of Disney Princess balloons bobbing over the checkout line. The repetition was excessive, even for a preschooler” (Ornstein). The over saturation of Disney does not leave girls with many other choices, they are being forced fed a brand and ideology from a very young age. This could have the potential of taking a toll on how young girls grow into mature emotionally developed women. Not only is Disney ingeniously marketing these characters to young girls, but it has become prevalent in everyone’s mainstream lives. Peggy insists “I'd smiled politely every

Orenstein begins by using her daughter as an example of a typical girl who is fond of princesses, categorizing her with the many girls influenced by the “princess craze”. Then she continues to analyze how industries use the fixation and further promote it to secure large amounts of money for their company. Subsequently, she returns the argument to her real life experiences, describing a time when her daughter goes to dress up like a princess, saying, “I’m convinced she does largely to torture me — I worry about what playing Little Mermaid is teaching her.” Not only does this statement show how her opinions as a feminist are displayed in her opinion of her daughter, but also introduces her argument of the negative impacts this craze promotes from a parental point of view. The author’s ability to balance her opinions with valid evidence and her relatable worry as a parent, allows her to state her strong opinions openly.

In Peggy Orenstein’s article, “What's wrong with Cinderella?” she discusses the problems with princesses. The first problem being that princess merchandise is everywhere. Orenstein writes about when she took her daughter to the dentist and once the check-up was over, her daughter got a princess sticker. Princesses are embedded into a child’s everyday life, making a “princess” more of a way of living than a fantasy. To further this point, Orenstein mentions how even now, in a show that is supposed to be about teaching other languages, Dora the Explorer, has turned into Dora finding a fairy tale land where she becomes a princess at the end of her two part movie. This is only the beginning of the issues that are brought to attention in this article.

In her novel, Cinderella Ate My Daughter (2011), Peggy Orenstein describes that in today's society, young children are exposed to feeling obligated to be the best girl (or boy) they can be in society. They are not free to be themselves. She discusses this topic by first address the issue of “Disney Princesses” and how they can play a major role in what a girl chooses to do in their life. Next, she talks about how it’s not the children who choose the specific lifestyle, the parents play a major role as well. Finally, Orenstein expresses the idea of children and the internet. Her purpose is to explain that there is a major separation between the two genders and how it plays a major role in how people act during their day to day life. The audience consists of mothers who want to learn how to let their children be themselves and feminists.

“Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” is an article by Stephanie Hanes which touches on the princess phenomenon many young girls are obsessed with. Stephanie Hanes concludes that the Disney Princess craze is linked to self-objectification and the growing sexualization of young girls. Although she provided numerous facts the argument was unsuccessful because it was weak and confusing. Her own personal opinion on why she blamed the Disney Empire for sexualization amongst young girls was rarely voiced. Lastly the main idea of the article gets masked by controversial expert claims that are not linked to the topic.

Disney makes over $3 billion on their Disney Princess products every year and now have over 25,000 items in their princess collection (Orenstein 2). Disney has played a big role in shaping not only societal viewpoints on what young girls should like, but also what little girls believe they should enjoy as well. Gender stereotypes have been around for a long time, but now with technology advancements, such as media in western society is able to play a bigger than ever role in influencing people’s perspectives. Not only do we see gender roles and stereotypes in television shows, but also in advertisements and in children’s toys. Although many readers of Peggy Orenstein’s “What’s wrong with Cinderella” have argued that the princess culture is corrupting today’s young girls and making them more dependent on men, a closer examination shows that many girls grow out of the princess phase with no negative repercussions and choose whatever passions they want.

In the article “In Defense of Princes Culture,” Crystal Liechty presents an argument detailing her opinion on why women should not be disappointed about children who like and idolize the princess culture. She expresses her dismay at a woman who changed the Princess story when reading it to the kindergarten to suit her values. Liechty believes that although she did not grow up believing in the Princess culture, she does not mind bringing up a daughter who believes in the culture. She also reckons that she would have enjoyed wearing the princesses’ dresses even though she had come to believe that it was a bad thing. Liechty believes that it is the best option that a parent can use to instill values to her daughter compared to other available options. Liechty points out that the princess culture presents a highly effective tool for instilling values to a girl child. Despite the essay being valid, there are some arguments presented in the essay that I do not agree with.

Little girls? Or little women? The “Disney Princess Effect”, an article written by Stephanie Hanes was published September 4, 2011 the CS Monitor. Girls growing up in today’s society are being stripped of their childhoods. With fictional figures to dream of being, young girls aren’t falling in love with the beauty of the stories but more so they assume that they don’t look good enough to be like the world adored princesses. The author wrote this article in response to the epidemic of young girls growing up too fast and the concern it leaves. Between the Finucane Theory, the “Hottie Mystique” and the media onslaught will all reveal the beginning to a much bigger problem that these Disney princesses are creating. The author contends that young girls are losing sight of their childhoods and are becoming sexually advanced too soon.

1.Throughout our readings we have seen gender performed in many ways from Toddlers in Tiaras to the discussion of Feminist Masculinity and the questions of motherhood and its prices. In Cinderella Ate my Daughter, Peggy Orenstein lays out the many way we have taught our girl to be princesses and argues whether or not the princess culture is good for young girls. Orenstein talks about how toy companies are gendering not only their toys, but also their advertisements making everything glitter pink or baby blue. She even talks about how babies weren’t colored coded until the early twentieth century. Orenstein lays it all starting from the beginning with girls and the color pink and taking it to the end with female bodies and objectification.

In our modern society parents want to know who the best role models are for their children; especially parents of young girls. Most girls are introduced to Disney Princesses at a young age, but what most parents don’t know is that not all Disney Princesses are positive role models of modern society. The princesses were amazing role models for their time but since then many opinions have changed on what is expected of women and what is not some; people in society today can argue weather certain qualities that the princesses posses are acceptable for today’s youth. The most famous princesses are the “Original Disney Princesses” :(in chronological order) Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Mulan.

Disney has a tremendous influence on children lives and there perception of the world. Its been number one parents approved entertainment and educational method. While kids grow up learning about the world by observing their surroundings, Disney have created a new world that allowed kids to explore and learn about the world through their movies. Such movies thought the children morals and good principles.

Cinderella stories have been changed throughout time to fit the different diversities of cultures around the world. The diversities in culture’s have been affected by their economy.

As we have seen, all the Disney princesses display the common feature of being endowed with natural beauty that defines them as princesses. This simplistic equation of natural beauty to notions of goodness means that the princesses’ identities and value are often determined by their beauty and sexual appeal. Femaleness and femininity are equated to beauty, which is then equated to being a woman’s key to happiness. “Happily ever after” comes almost as easily and naturally to them as their beauty does. What results is a kind of “beauty contest motif” (Rollin, 1987), in which the beautiful get their reward, and the ugly never

In the past century, we have seen how Disney princesses have evolved alongside the evolution of society and what society was, or is, believing in. Women have, over the years, brought about change in gender equality. We believe that Disney has created his Disney princess movies to adhere to the beliefs of the society at that time. Looking back at the history of society, it was discovered that the “generations” of Disney Princesses followed the characteristics, traits and beliefs of the three waves of feminism. The first wave concentrated mainly on women obtaining legal rights, political power and suffrage. The second wave inspired women to fight for equality in their personal lives and other forms of inequality in society, education