The Princess Drama

I have been thinking about this recently, the drama of the Princess obsession. The reason I have been thinking about this is that there are alot of people who strongly object to young girls playing with Barbie dolls and watching the Disney Princess movies. From what I can understand this has alot to do with the issues of body image and with regards to the princesses, the concern that girls will grow up to believe that they should always be rescued by a handsome prince who will fix all of their problems and they will live happily ever after in some sort of love induced haze. We all know that life is not really like that and I completely understand the need to instill in children, particularly girls, the understanding that life is not a fairy tale, but where do you draw the line, how far do you go and do you still let them have their dreams?

Unlike people who are quite vigilant with the whole Barbie and Princess thing, I have an abundance of them in my house. I just don't get the drama. My girls have all of the Disney Princess movies and like them, but they would much rather watch the Barbie movies or Dora the Explorer. As someone who has watched EVERY SINGLE Barbie movie ever made...not the MyScene Barbie like Barbie Diaries which is too old for my girls, but the Barbie Princess movies and others like Nutcracker and Thumbelina I would prefer they watch them than the Disney ones. I find that the Barbie movies promote courage, loyalty, honesty, friendship and strength. Sure there are the handsome boys that show up along the way, but in every single movie, the girls are the ones who rescue themselves from a situation, figure out who is the "baddie", save everyone and just generally save the day. Often the "handsome prince" shows up to save the day only to find that Barbie's character has already saved herself. Sure she then often ends up living happily ever after, but she does it with the person she loves and wants to be with, not the generic prince charming that she was rescued by.

As a child and young girl, I think I was often like a Disney Princess and it wasn't because I watched the movies when I was little, it is just the way I was. I was waiting for my Prince to come along and sweep me off my feet, we would get married and have children and live happily ever after. It kind of happened, but definitely not the way I was expecting. I do have my Prince Charming, we love each other, but life is not always easy and it certainly isn't a fairy tale. The thing is, I want that for my girls, I want them to experience the love and the relationship that I have. I want them to have the ability to have a partner and a best friend all in one, someone to love them and support them and give them confidence to be the best person they can possibly be because that is what I have and it is amazing.

So that is my prayer for my amazing, beautiful, gorgeous girls, that they will grow up to be amazing, strong, thoughtful and loving women and that they will find the one that makes them complete and the best possible them. And strange as it may seem, I think along with all the things we are trying to teach them, the Barbie movies are helping to instill in them the fact that they need to look out for themselves and each other while still being able to dream.