Book Review: Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture Adriana Cerezo

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Recommended: Media portrayal of gender roles

Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture. By Peggy Orenstein. New york, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011, 192 pages

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In this book, Peggy Orenstein explores the land of pink. She takes us on an adventurous trip to try and find out the truth about what society tells our young girls what they should be wearing, how they should be acting and most importantly looks are what matters. Orenstein herself is a mother of a preschool aged daughter so the topic of what influences young girls is of great importance to her. She struggles with making the correct decisions for her own daughter, Daisy, as she dives into the girlie-girl world, because as even she has found out, it is impossible to steer clear of it. She talks with historians, marketers, psychologists, neuroscientists, parents, and children themselves. She returns to the original fairy tales, seeks out girls’ virtual presence online, and ponders the meaning of child beauty pageants. In the process, she faces down her own confusion as a mother and woman about issues of how to raise a girl and teach her about her own femininity.
Orenstein explores the rise of Girl Power in the 1990s and the differences that are in today’s society. The rise and fast spreading message that girls receive from the Disney Princesses is one of her biggest issues. Not only does she disagree, but other mothers from Daisy’s preschool do as well. In the second chapter Orenstein invites all the mothers with daughters that are obsessed with Princesses to discuss the subject, one mother states that she sees no problem with encouraging being feminine and then states, “On the other hand, I a...

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...her toys for girls a bit difficult. In lower economic households, there may not me enough money to participate in events such as beauty pageants. Many young children have never even been to Disneyland and don’t have any idea of what princesses are. Orenstein point of view is from that of a middle class white woman. Even though she can’t quit understand why anyone would pay $500 for an American Girl and her accessories, she comes from a place where she and her friends can afford to spend that amount if they please. In a lower class family no way would that ever be possible.
All and all I think Orenstein does a great job of putting a light on the issues of sexualization of or youth and why so many choose Disney as a form of trying to keep our young girls safe. Money may be a small price to pay in order to keep our little girls from becoming little women too soon.

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