This is probably one of the most common responses I get when I inform friends that my 3-year old daughter, Amelia, has never seen any of the Disney classics, such as Sleeping Beauty, simply because I don't want her to.
What's wrong with princesses? Even in their actual definition, as a member of a royal family, they're somewhat useless. They're either paired up with a prince, or the daughter of a king, waiting to be married off to a future king. Which is fine, I suppose, if your highest goal in life is to be married to some dude in power.
There's plenty wrong, however, with cultural princesses, or 'Disney princesses', as they're generally termed. These fictional princesses spend their lives waiting to be rescued by a prince (or just a man in general). In the case of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, this is very literal, as the heroines can only be woken from their coma with a kiss from a man.
It's a romantic story, I suppose, from a certain perspective, but when that's the recurrent theme through almost every princess adventure it loses the magic and just becomes a message: Find a man to save your life.
So if I can limit my impressionable daughter's exposure to this way of thinking, I'll take every opportunity to do so. And guess what: she still loves princess stuff. She loves fancy dresses, fancy shoes, fake jewelry, the whole shebang, and that's fine. Getting dressed up and twirling around to classical music is great for a 3-year old girl to do, and she does it all the time. But she doesn't need to see disempowered women being rescued by men over and over to enjoy it.
We do watch some 'princess' movies, such as Tangled, wherein the princess rescues not only herself but her love interest repeatedly through the film. The heroine is also shown having numerous pursuits other than waiting for a man to show up, such as painting and playing the guitar. This was a heartening break from the usual Disney mold (and their 'last' princess movie, apparently). So it's not as if Amelia lives a life starved of princess imagery.
In the end, as a single dad, I want to raise my daughter so that she has every advantage in life as an adult. As a kid I want her to enjoy pursuits that she enjoys, and that reward her. But that's the thing: being a princess isn't a pursuit. It isn't a real goal in life, it's a fiction. Whereas boys can pretend to be firemen, police officers, or even astronauts (which until recently was a real occupation), girls are left in front of the makeup mirror getting prepped for their big rescue.
So no more princesses. Instead we'll have explorers, scientists, warriors, bakers, gardeners, doctors, musicians, construction workers... the options are literally limitless.
