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Strollerderby
Geena Davis knew there was something wrong with media for kids when she started watching what her daughter was watching. With her two year old on her lap, she would watch G-rated videos and children’s television, getting increasingly disturbed. Where were all the female characters? And what was with the few there were? When she brought this up with people in Hollywood, they all dismissed her concerns. She’d say, ”Hey, have you ever noticed how few female characters there seem to be in G-rated movies and things for kids?” And they pretty much across the board would say, “No. No, that’s not true anymore. That’s been fixed.”
That’s when Davis realized her personal views weren’t going to change any minds. She wanted to show people it wasn’t about subjective impressions, but real numbers: data that could not be ignored. So she raised some cash and started The Geena Davis Institute For Gender and Media. The institute recently released a major study, and the results aren’t pretty.
The characters, on the other hand… Continue reading »
Disney Princess Half Marathon
First things first: I’m not a Disney hater. I’m not a Disney fanatic, either, but I’m far from the type to ban Disney products from my home. My 5-year-old daughter has seen almost every Disney cartoon that exists and enjoys playing with all of the Princess paraphernalia she’s been given over the years. I look forward to going to Walt Disney World with her; in fact, when I was in high school, I dreamed of growing up to play Snow White… until I found out that costume characters at the park only make minimum wage.
That being said, I don’t understand the phenomenon of the Disney Princess Half Marathon. Over 22,000 runners, mostly women, competed in the run today – beginning at 5:45 am! According to Run Disney, the course started just outside Epcot, heading toward Cinderella Castle inside the Magic Kingdom. ”Energizing music and characters” were on hand to entertain and encourage runners along their “storybook journey.” There were even a few handsome princes in the race.
Runners are encouraged to wear tiaras and tutus while they race, which is where Disney loses me. How can anyone can run 13.1 miles in what is essentially a Halloween costume? (I have a hard enough time doing two miles on the elliptical in sweats.) But what really gets me is the way Disney uses the notion of “girl/woman/princess power” (that’s a quote from their promotional video) to pimp products at their “Princess Expo,” sponsored by Lady Foot Locker. Continue reading »
This is what a princess looks like.
Did you hear? Kate Middleton and Prince William are getting married! That means, they’re going to have a wedding. A royal wedding. And when the wedding is over, Kate Middleton will be, you know, a Princess.
A real, live princess.
As a mother of a princess-loving now fairy-curious 6-year-old girl, I don’t know what to do about this. Will I tell my daughter Helen that there’s going to be a wedding on TV? Will I show her the pictures? She’d love the pictures, but the pictures could be the problem. Continue reading »
Soon this dress will be on your floor!
Your kid prances around in a princess costume. Oh the Disney princesses! You wait two beats, watch as the dance gets boring and watch as that magic costume to gets chucked to the ground and turned into a plain old plaything yet again. To you and me, a princess dress hitting the floor is same old, same old, to the animators of Tangled, Disney’s new take on Rapunzel, making a heap of cloth look real is a complex animation problem that took months to solve. Continue reading »
Beauty and the Beast Coupon
Bonjour! You may have heard that Disney is releasing its Beauty and the Beast Diamond Edition on Blu-Ray and DVD. While it may be a bit too early to start thinking about Christmas gifts, my daughter celebrates her 5th birthday next week, so I’ll be taking advantage of their $10 off coupon. Want one for yourself? Continue reading »
Diablo Cody, Oscar-winning artistic Wonder Woman behind the hit indy film Juno, recently had a baby girl. So now, like the rest of us moms, she gets to contend with all the joys and challenges of motherhood.
Including Disney’s array of princesses, minor dieties in the eyes of little girls everywhere.
Cody posted to Twitter:
Why are the Disney Princesses always grouped together arbitrarily? It’s like putting RoboCop, Tony Montana and Spock together on a backpack.
The answer, of course, is money. Those characters are worth a lot more to Disney clumped as an iconic lump of princess than they are as individual characters with their own identities and stories.
If you’re like me, you didn’t feel much like Cinderella when you were pregnant. More like Dumbo. Maybe if I had the appropriate attire, I would have felt like staying out ’til midnight.
Soon moms-to-be will be able to dress like their favorite knocked-up Disney princess. Well, sort of.
Disney has announced they have teamed with Motherhood to launch a line of maternity clothes. Continue reading »
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