Princesses get plenty of support
A look at the newly popular role of princess in books and movies for young girls. While these princesses are not as passive as in the past, I stick by a statement I made as a little girl, “Who’d want to be a princess when you could be a queen, they have a lot more power.”
“Yasue Kuwahara, a professor of communications and the director of popular culture studies at Northern Kentucky University, says the image of the pretty princess is over-emphasized in the Disney movies and the Princess Barbie dolls.
“In that sense, I think it’s problematic,” she says. “The focus is on the looks.”
Kathy Burklow, a clinical child psychologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, says it’s typical for girls to try out different roles – princesses, brides, housewives – that are consistent with their gender.
That kind of play can provide parents an opportunity to teach their daughters that they’re capable of doing anything they want and don’t need to be rescued, Burklow says.
“You can be on the softball team and still wear a crown,” she says.”