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9
The Problem with Prince Charming. I Blame Disney.
We are all used to the fairy tale wrap up at the end of Disney animated features. Prince and princess kiss, and live happily ever after. Do they really though? How can this fairy tale magic work if the princess has only just met her liberator?
Disney has made a lot of money marketing their princesses, but their princes are boring, dull, and lifeless. The prince characters exist only to rescue the princess and become a last minute solution to poverty, abandonment, and loneliness. The princess hardly knows a prince before she is carried away to his castle to spend the rest of her life with him. What has she got herself into? Some of the Disney princes don’t even have proper names and are only an archetype of a strong male savior, swooping in to save the day and validate the princess’s struggle. Let’s look at the worst offenders:
Snow White and The Prince: She doesn’t even properly meet him before she’s led to the woods by the huntsman and she goes into hiding. Their only interaction is when he interrupts her singing to the doves and she runs away, probably in fear. He sings to her briefly from below her balcony and that ends their brief courtship. Though the fact that he hears her shrill piercing voice and is still interested, does give him points in his favor. read more
18
Mattel gives Dora the Explorer a trampy make-over?
Nickelodeon and Mattel, makers of Barbie, are putting a new spin on the Dora the Explorer consumer products. The “problem” with the Dora franchise is that its geared towards preschoolers. This usually means that by around age 8, children lose interest entirely. Mattel, in an effort to extend the character’s shelf life, have decided age Dora in some consumer products to re-capture the girls from 8 to tweens. The new Dora will only exist in the toy-line and not on television, but the new look still has parents outraged.
Bloggers on the Huffington Post are calling the new Dora a “tramp” based the teaser silhouette of the character released last week. The silhouette left parents to believe that Dora’s long top would be a mini-skirt. After yesterday’s big reveal (she has leggings), many parents have calmed down, yet, still remained concerned. The president of Nickelodeon Viacom consumer products, Leigh Anne Brodsky, even spoke to the press to reassure the public that Dora isn’t going to change. The new look is for an interactive doll that plugs into your computer and aimed at tweens (think Teddy Ruxpin 2.0).