The Princess Syndrome

Throughout I am Princess X there are four major sections that you go through: The introduction of the characters and the discovery of the webcomic, the discovery of the first key and the truth about the Needle Man’s daughter, the discovery of the second key and the identity of who the Needle Man is in the real world, and the finding of the third and fourth key. The fourth key being the final piece to the puzzle: Libby Deaton.

According to Stephanie Hanes’ article titled “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect," she covers the story of Mary Finucane and her daughter, whom she observed and realized that she had changed abruptly from her usual playful self to a serious and more mature looking character despite her young age (509). Later she came to discover that this was because of the effects of the Disney programs that her daughter had begun watching. Hanes covers the issue of young girls growing up in a highly sexualized environment. Her article explains the influence that the media have on sexualizing the environment for kids through the biased images of women on the internet, books and even television. To support her notion, Hanes applies some

In “Cinderella and Princess Culture,” Peggy Orenstein compares girls lives to princesses. Society is stereotyping girls as princesses negatively impacting girls well being. As a result, Orenstein claims society should stop stereotyping girls as princesses and have parents limit the girl's exposure to them. Orenstein proves her claim by stating playing with princesses lowers girls self-esteem and can harm their mental and physical health. Orenstein also states the word princess is such a broad meaning, that it is very misunderstood. For example, when one hears the word princess they can think of a girl wearing a fancy dress, or all the princess products. A lot of girls are being stereotyped as being a princess,

Wiehe wrote about young girls in beauty pageant in the article, Nothing Pretty in Child Pageants and she also talked about the television show named Toddlers and Tiaras. This television show gave viewers a behind the scene look at what the young girls go thru before, during, and after the pageants. Some of the kids began their first pageant around the age of 2. On this television show kids are being paraded around in their hair extensions, added eyelashes, false teeth and high heel shoes. Parents are seen on occasion yelling and pulling on these girls in order to get them to cooperate. Also, on this show some of the girls are forced to participate in these pageants only for the self-gratification of their mom. This type of atmosphere only hinders a child’s development process it does not encourage young girls to be individuals or build their character. Girls around the age of 5 are normally playing dress up and not being forced to dress in a fashion that attack the audience attention. These girls are being sexualized at an early age. This often portrays the wrong message not only to the individual but to society. They are forced to dress and act like adults at an early age.

Many parents/caregivers today may ask themselves if their little girls may be growing up too fast? Are they becoming little women too soon? Stephanie Hanes wrote an interesting and valid article “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect, “ which argue that many young ladies today in age may be impacted by Disney Princess regarding their life expectations. The author talks about the issues of young girls feeling the necessity to mature sooner rather than at a timely matter.

“It doesn’t matter if you can breathe. All that matters is if you look good”. Just Googling the search term “beauty pageants coming up,” will result in 2,710,000 results appearing in 1.18 seconds. Children are the fastest-growing segment of the beauty pageant market, with annual children's competitions attracting an estimated 3 million children, mostly girls, ages six months to 16 years, who compete for crowns and cash. Infants, carried onto the stage by their mothers, are commonplace. April Brilliant, reigning Mrs. Maryland and the director of Maryland-based Mystic Pageants, says pageants give little girls a chance to "play Cinderella." However, playing ‘Cinderella’ can cause children to develop insecurities or self-hatred if they don't

Girls especially are told that they are supposed to look how famous people look, but are not told how vastly edited and corrected the models in the pictures are. Today, women as young as 11 and 12 have began developing eating disorders due to the constant media bombardment telling them to look a certain way—incredibly skinny—which forces them into starvation. Psychologists have coined the new disorder ‘”body image disturbance syndrome” or BIDS. BIDS is characterized by the incessant feeling of being ‘fat’ when someone is perfectly healthy usually turning to one of two options: anorexia or bulimia. Anorexia is the act of not eating to achieve a body image, but this often results in gross malnourishment. On the other hand, bulimia is characterized by binge eating large meals followed by self-induced vomiting. The motivation behind bulimia is that if they keep the food in their body just long enough to absorb the nutrients, they can vomit the actual bulk of the food that makes them look overweight. The sad reality of the fact is that not only are the nutrients not completely absorbed until they reach the intestines, but the stomach acid brought forth with their vomit virtually rots away their

Authors James Poniewozik and Peggy Orenstein are both concerned with the increase of princess culture among young girls. Poniewozik’s article “The Princess Paradox” and Orenstein's article “Cinderella and Princess Culture” discuss similar aspects of princess culture that could be potentially harmful to it’s audience. Both Poniewozik and Orenstein take on a feminist perspective in their articles. Specifically, both authors discuss feminist themes in princess culture but Orenstein focuses on toddler to pre-teen aged girls while Poniewozik is more concerned with specifically teenagers.

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.

Starting at only two years of age, contestants of these child beauty pageants are being over sexualized. They are oftentimes made to wear tight and revealing dresses, to flaunt something they have not yet developed. Spray tans, hair extensions, fake nails and eyelashes, “sexy” outfits and bathing suits. These girls are even sometimes made to wear fake teeth, because what used to be “innocent and adorable” about the gaps in a child’s teeth from losing them, is no longer pretty enough in the eyes of the judge. In July 2012, Knox College in Galesburg, III. conducted an experiment on girls ages 6 to 9. In the experiment they showed the girls two different dolls, one was dressed in tight and revealing clothing while the other was dressed in a modest but popular looking outfit. The researchers asked the girls which

From as young as the age of two, girls who participate in child beauty pageants are being affected by America’s addiction to beauty. These little girls are expected to wear tight and revealing dresses that are meant to flaunt curves that they have not yet developed. Spray tans, hair extensions, fake nails, fake eyelashes, “sexy” outfits and bathing suits, these are only a few of the things these children are expected to wear. Furthermore, girls in child beauty pageants are often made to wear fake teeth called flippers, because what used to be “innocent and adorable” about the gaps in a child’s teeth from losing them is no longer pretty enough in the eyes of the judge. Unfortunately, as a result, many girls grow up to believe that beauty is

Blue, Alexis. "Princess by Proxy: When Child Beauty Pageants Aren’t About the Kids." UA News. The University of Arizona, 26 Oct. 2012. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. .

When Vogue published photos in 2010 of a heavily made up little girl wearing skintight clothing, heels and expensive jewelry, with her tiny little lips all puckered up, France was outraged. While the magazine insisted that it only wanted to portray young girls’ fantasies of being like their mothers, many in France didn’t buy it. “It is extremely destructive for a girl between the ages of 6 and 12 to hear her mother say that what’s important for her is to be beautiful,” Jouanno said in the New York Times. “We are fighting to say: What counts is what they have in their brains.” (Lalisse-Jespersen, 2013)

Imagine you are at home, watching tv. Flipping through the channels, you see a preview for next week’s episode of Toddlers & Tiara’s. They show the girls dressed in frilly, sparkly attire, fake teeth, fake hair, fake tans, and makeup that could transform their faces into someone in their 20’s. These children are usually misbehaving, disobedient, overdramatic and they are between the ages of four and six. Any person could see that this lifestyle is incredibly harmful to these children not just because of what it does to their appearance, but what happens when these little girls’ minds become tainted with the thoughts of needing to be beautiful and talented in order for people to like them. They also learn that being beautiful

Cramped in a small Los Angeles office, Walt Disney drew a few larger than life cartoons. After Disney’s big hit Alice Comedies and cartoons of Mickey and the gang, he moved his office to Burbank, California. There, Walt and his brother, Roy, came up with their most famous movies such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Alice in Wonderland. Now with two American amusement parks, three international parks, multiple cruise lines, multiple resorts, over five hundred films, and over thirty academy award, it’s hard to not heard of Disney. Every boy or girl has at least seen or heard of Disney movies. It’s such a big part of society today that it becomes influential in a kid’s childhood. This project will look at the underlying effect of the Disney princess phenomenon and how it shapes a young girls’ perspective of herself and how she’s “supposed” to be.