Cleveland.com: Is marketing the princess mystique creating a pretty little monster for girls' self-esteem?
... The princesses -- Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty from the Walt era of Disney animation, and Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana and Rapunzel from more recent years -- were once simply movie heroines. But since Disney introduced the Disney Princess brand in 2000, they have become a $4 billion business, gracing 26,000 products, from "Tangled" hair pieces and pretend-wedding veils to pink-castle alarm clocks and pink TVs topped with tiaras.
They've also come to dominate the marketing of girlhood, helping to create a culture in which 3-year-olds wear glittery lip gloss and 8-year-olds fret over their looks, says Peggy Orenstein, author of "Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Frontlines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture" ($25.99, Harper).
"It launched this whole princess industrial complex," said Orenstein, an Oberlin College graduate who wrote the book after her daughter came home from preschool having memorized all the names and gown colors of the Disney princesses. "The new emphasis . . . really narrows girlhood and femininity to being about spa birthday parties at 4 and princesses and pinkness and makeovers." ...
... "The issue is how it has played out," she says. "Increasingly, it is telling girls at an unprecedented young age that they should express themselves through appearance and sassiness."
Sassiness, Orenstein says, is girl-marketing code for "sexiness." She refers to a 2007 American Psychological Association report on the sexualization of girls, which states: "Research links sexualization with three of the most common mental health problems of girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression or depressed moods." ...
