Jo Swinson is a woman with an agenda…and it’s one that I can get behind. First the UK Liberal Democrat MP came out against retouched photographs and their negative influence on girls’ and women’s self esteem. Now she’s publicly denouncing the homogenous pink and pretty princess vibe of most girls’ TV characters.

Citing recent studies, Swinson points to the fact that the number of female characters on TV lags far behind the number of actual girls who watch the shows, and the fact that the girls who are represented tend to show a narrow and limiting view of what females can be.

This isn’t a minor problem, says Swinson. This kind of poor representation can have drastic results. “It can start the socialisation of inequality. It can restrict girls’ views of themselves and boys’ perceptions of girls too.” UK Minsters are being called upon to demand more girl friendly programming from British Broadcasters.When challenged with this observation, the head of children’s programming for the BBC had this to say:

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My daughter has long hair, which she loves, 99% of the time. But that other 1% is probably her least favorite part of the day. When it’s time for detangling, she runs, bargains, pleads, procrastinates, flat out refuses, and does just about anything she can to escape the misery of having her hair de-knotted.

I can relate. As a long haired kid, I used to dodge the brush so aggressively my mom just gave up and let me walk around ratty. Being on the delivery end of this kind of pain is one of my least favorite things about being a parent, just like being on the receiving end of it was one of my least favorite memories of being a little girl: The confinement (“If you move away from me, you’ll just make it worse.”)  The yank on my scalp, always inevitable but somehow still shocking every time. And knowing that tug of discovery was only the beginning of the tedious teasing-apart process to come. A bad knot could take days. Is it any wonder girls rail against this with all their might?

Which is why I fell in love with “Don’t Brush My Hair in Knots”. That, and the fact that the RAGING three year old girl in this video could well be the antidote to every shy, ingratiating, flirting, pandering princess your daughter holds in high esteem.

Check her out. Continue reading »

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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 »

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Would you send your daughter to princess training camp?

Nearly every little girl goes through a phase where she wants to be a princess. We all know the signs: They start wearing flowing satin dresses every day to preschool, tottering around in fake high heels, dancing with “princes” who look suspiciously like teddy bears, and issuing invitations to royal balls written in crayon.

While parts of this phase can be charming, it’s also alarming. Hearing my little girls obsess over looking pretty so Prince Charming will love them makes my blood run cold. How can all my feminist mommying have produced these pink-crazed princess worshipers? No mom I know wants her daughter to actually become a princess. So who sends her daughter to princess camp?

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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 »

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Disney has finally given us a trailer for ‘Tangled’, their upcoming princess movie. As expected, they’re downplaying the princess angle and pushing the prince. Word on the street is they’re aiming to market a princess movie for boys.

Good luck with that, Disney.

The trailer (which you can watch behind the cut, below), downplays the princess quite a bit. She doesn’t even show up till halfway through, and we get only glimpses of her. She’s a girl of few words, apparently. That’s all par for the Disney course.

Everything else is different. The prince is a thief, the dialog sharp and funny, the animation is CG fabulous and the princess…well. Let’s just say she’s not helplessly trapped in that tower.

In fact, all the hub-ub about her absence on screen and Disney’s marketing ploy for the ‘y’ chromosomes in the movie market has missed what seems to me the most important reveal of the trailer.

In ‘Tangled,’ Rapunzel has prehensile hair. Which she uses to beat up the prince when he invades her personal space. How cool is that?

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Oh, the royal girls of Disney. The ubiquitous princesses all us feminist mamas love to hate.

BoingBoing offers up this hilarious send-up of their messages to the young girls who admire them.

It’s a great encapsulation of why moms like me cringe every time our daughters lay hold of a princess doll.

What have your kids learned from Disney?

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