This coming week on Disney channel is "Princess week". Mulan, Tangled, Cinderella II & III...and of course, the premier of the newest shows, something called 'Sophia the First'. Basically, Disney channel is busy reinforcing for little girls out there this notion that they are all princesses, that they will have their princess ball, their prince, their little piece of royalty. Of course, I'm sure there is plenty of other merchandising about this princess kind of lifestyle for the girls as well...be it games, wigs, dresses, whatever...for a very reasonable price, your little girl can be the princess that she has always dreamed about.
It's interesting that in this time of relative gender equality that there is such a longing on the part of little girls (and especially their mothers) to return to this image of a princess. For years we've been telling them that they can be athletes, doctors, presidents, whatever they want to be...and many of them, at least for a little bit of time, want to be a princess. I suppose that this is true gender equality finding its home in the 'whatever you want' category...now that they don't have to BE princesses or nurses or mommies or teachers (the only four hopes of little girls 2/3 of a century ago), now they can be that as a part of their feminism.
But what does it really mean to be a princess? Yes, people dance in your village in front of you and there are all kinds of balls to attend...but what of the reality? How do people really feel about a princess?
In truth, it seems strange that we want to encourage royalty, being of course a democratic country whose history prides itself in throwing off English royalty. Yes, we still pay far too much attention to the British royal family, only as long as they don't really have any kind of power. Our national foreign policy throughout the 20th century in the United States was obsessed on ensuring that nations had some form of democracy...and so we were entirely suspicious of any kind of country where royalty (the type of social system princesses necessarily must live in) is that which is in charge. Indeed, have we also not focused on strongly on the end of royalty in places like France? We are suspicious of those who are not democratically elected, and even celebrate power to the people. We've seen it necessary that such people are eventually overthrown, killed even in order that democracy will thrive. No royalty here, and that is good.
So why, then, are we so tolerant of our own daughters who want to be princesses? Little happy princesses eventually grow up to be tyrant queens. We might have TV shows about them now...but years from now, will we be calling for their violent deaths?
