Don?t blame Elsa: It?s time to stop the princess shaming
Photos: Disney
I took my five-year-old daughter and the $20 she earned taking care of our neighbour?s cats to the mall this weekend. The idea was that it?d be a great chance to teach her about money and the concept of buying only what she can afford. Instead, I got a lesson about how deeply gender stereotypes had already taken hold of my little girl.
I led her to the first aisle of the toy section, which happened to be filled with action figures and trucks. She walked right past it and made a beeline for another aisle: one aglow with pink boxes and stuffed with dolls, tiaras and dress-up gowns. I called her back to the other aisle and said, ?Don?t you want to look down here" I see some robots.? She barely even blinked. ?No, the girl aisle is over there,? she replied. I waited, teeth clenched, as she surveyed shelves filled with Disney princess paraphernalia and actually held my breath as her little hand hovered over a Barbie Saddle ?N Ride Horse. As parents, my husband and I try to counteract gender stereotypes by exposing her to a wide range of experiences and toys without expectation or judgment. We don?t have a ban on Disney princesses, but we don?t push them either and we?ve been selective about the movies she can watch (Cinderella is on the no-fly list, as is Aurora, Snow White and Belle, but Rapunzel, Anna and Elsa get a pass). She has dolls and a tea set but also Rescue Bots and Lego. We make a point of focusing on her abilities rather than her looks, reinforc...
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