Cinderella Essay

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A Response to “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” In the article “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?,” written by Peggy Orenstein, one mother explores the possible consequences mass marketed princess themed products have on impressionable young girls. As a self proclaimed “feminist mother”, Ms. Orenstein struggles with the meaning of ‘Princess’ thrust upon girls as young as age two. A meaning, that may include traditionalism and perhaps old-fashioned ideas, that is alive and well in the stories that are the Disney Princesses. Is one trend so popular and so dominant these young girls feel they have no other choice? At any given time, approximately 25,000 Disney princess products can be found on store shelves, with more released every day. Are these mass marketed fairy tales in a box damaging our daughters by having them believe they are helpless and incapable and must be rescued by Prince Charming? Or are they inspiring our daughters to believe they can be heroines and have it all? As a mother I can understand the constant struggle to keep my own beliefs to myself while simultaneously allowing my daughter to grow and discover her own, or to my dismay Cinderella’s.(1) As a fellow feminist mother, I am of the same opinion as Ms. Orenstein regarding the princess obsession. I refer to it as such because it no longer seems to be just a fad or craze. I too have watched the Disney market explode on store shelves. What was just a small section of various princess items for the newest released, or re-released, movie just a few years ago has become aisle after aisle of every conceivable princess product imaginable. Ms. Orenstein is also correct in the fact that it is not just Disney riding the multi-billion dollar princess gravy train, but almost every other manufacturer of girls’ toys, including Dora the Explorer, Barbie and Fischer-Price. At what point does it all just

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