The Truth About Princesses in Fairy Tales

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Recommended: Gender in mass media

Once given birth to a beautiful baby girl, often parents refer to her as their little princess; when having a newborn girl, that baby girl will often get all the attention from her surroundings, she will be showered in the most adorable dresses; cute shoes , baby clothes that say “princess” on it and either a bow or a bedazzled head band, perhaps a room that is nothing but pink, letters on her wall over looking her crib saying “Mommy’s little Princess”. There is nothing wrong with spoiling your baby girl. But as time goes her idea of her gender role begins to develop. Buying her princess toys, surrounding her with pink, and watching the Disney movies about how princesses are beautiful, always gets her prince charming, and lives an enchanted life for ever after, is a dangerous “reality” to create for young girls. Eventually, while growing up from child years to young adults, girls in this type of environment can develop a gender constructed identity that, they are superior and deserve an enchanted life. It’s a dangerous reality for these young girls because they will grow up to believe that, they’re entitled to the fairy tale life, having pure beauty , marry her dream man, conceive beautiful children and live happily ever after, but sometimes life is not a fairy tale and you don’t always end up getting what you want.
A typical American girl’s room consists of: books about princesses, dresses, tutu’s, pink bed sheets, a white dresser, with nail polish, and childlike make-up on top. Different kinds of dolls scattered throughout, and Princess movies stacked up next to her television ready to pop in whenever she pleases. Obsessing over how princesses live their perfect lives is detrimental to a young girl’s gender construction, be...

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...le, perhaps not even a happily ever after. Because life is not a fairy tale or neither enchanted , reading the story books and watching the movies about princesses doesn’t happen in real life. It’s a fictional story with fictional characters, these stories are supposed to entertain the younger crowd of girls. But some these younger girls get too caught up in the fantasy like world and begin to develop an enchanted life in their heads, which is not there. Then later in life it becomes a shocker to them when reality hits them hard , and their enchanted dreams have been shattered into pieces.

Works Cited

Cook, Jackie; Main, Wilson.“What is a Princess” Australian Feminist Studies 23.57 (2008).
Wohlwend, Karen E. “Damsels In Discourse” Reading Research Quarterly 44.1 (2009).
Pollitt, Katha. “Her’s; The Smurfette Principle”. The New York Times Review, April 07, 1991.

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