Posted on 06/13/2009 7:41:59 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The princess industry has been booming in the past few years -- not just the Disney dolls and scratchy toy-store ball gowns that are a rite of passage in most American girlhoods, but a brazen new breed of princess products that target a far wider age range and tap into less seemly attitudes. The hot-pink, leopard-print princess backpacks, T-shirts, purses and bedspreads that girls are now buying (or, rather, their parents are buying for them) have little to do with indulging sweet princess fantasies and everything to do with catering to over-indulged princess egos. [Taste] Sara Schwartz
Take the popular tween retailer Justice. At malls nationwide, it carries multiple "Princess" tops and accessories that look a lot more like Paris Hilton's attire than Snow White's. No surprise that part of its marketing slogan is "Love yourself."
For only $44 at Nordstrom, you can dress your toddler in a tank top that declares her to be a "Juicy Couture Princess" -- that is, someone whose parents can afford to buy designer shirts that will end up stained with ketchup or jelly. And until recently, numerous Saks stores maintained Club Libby Lu, a spa for 5- to 13-year-old girls offering princess makeovers with tube tops and miniskirts that left girls looking more like Real Housewives than Cinderella. The ailing retailer closed the tween operation in May, but it grossed $60 million in 2008.
Call it trickle-down narcissism. Today, even as the economic crisis continues, many middle-class parents aspire to give their daughters the best of everything, "the best" meaning the most expensive. A quick tour around suburbia will show princess-themed bedrooms (the rhinestoned-and-feathered kind, not the cartoon-character kind) and ostentatious birthday parties, as well as pedigreed dogs being toted in designer bags by 10-year-olds.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
There is a fine line between letting girls be girls, and letting them become self-important, high-maintenance and obnoxious.
There is a similar fine line to walk when raising boys — they need to be strong and self-assured, but not excessively aggressive or belligerent. You don’t want them to be weak or spineless ... and you don’t want them beating people up just because they can.
Honestly, I think the key is to ground their upbringing in faith. Christianity can teach girls to be girls without being obnoxious twits. And (when taught right) can teach boys to be boys without becoming bullies, or nancy-boys (though there is a strain of Christianity which seems to celebrate weakness in men).
I don’t have a problem with the princess thing specifically — it is the lack of grounding that is the problem. Children must be taught that there is something larger than themselves. Generally speaking, people seem to have a problem recognizing obnoxious behavior in themselves or their children.
SnakeDoc
When I read stuff like this, it makes me glad I had a son! I would not have known what to do with a ‘princess’. I was a baseball playing, horseback riding, skinned knee tomboy...lol.
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We’re kindred spirits there, kiddo! ;-)
We just can’t get away from the “American Women Suck” comments. (sigh)
The ironic thing is, it’s not the eeeevvilll independent American women who are stereotyping the Asian brides. It’s the men who insist on marrying those brides who wrongly stereotype them as submissive. I know many Asian women. They’re definitely NOT a submissive bunch of people.
True, the Jewish American Princess stereotype has been with us for very many years. What's different today is that in the old days, people had to assemble the princessification package on their own, these days it's already prefabbed for them, and is completely blatant.
The Make-A-Bitch Foundation effort is in high gear. Hopefully, it will be a warning sign to the boys as they pick who to marry, and who to sleep with and dump.
Again, yep. Imagine if conservative women went overseas for male order husbands. Damn, the resulting comments would be nothing but non-stop hilarity!
That was my daughter as a teen. She put her brothers and most of the boys at school to shame. She lived to play sports yet she was voted Homecoming Queen. When she seriously started dating, she stated that when she got engaged she would pass on a ring and would prefer a ten speed bike. Let’s be honest ,that may be taking things too far. She’s now 38 and has 2 gorgeous diamonds on her hand.
My sister and I had little glitter heels and white fake fur stoles and we thought we were so hot. LOL
Tomboys tend to become conservative women. Spoiled princesses, on the other hand, usually end up becoming foolish liberals who see Big Government as their sugar daddy.
Thai food is pretty easy to cook, you could probably make it yourself.
Heck, just being a cougar and snagging a younger man is enough to bring on the snide comments. Meanwhile, the older man who snags a younger woman is given pats on the back and complimented on what a “playa” he is to “score” such a “trophy.”
She sounds like a wonderful daughter. My Sassy is a bit greedy since she plans on getting all my rings. Says she won’t need a boy to give her stuff. Sassy is kind & loves animals. If there is a child being left out she will go play with her or him. We home school her & since leaving school I don’t get the I have to have that bs anymore. She does talk an awful lot though. She wants to learn about everything. Her 4 brothers spoil her since there is big age difference but she isn’t a brat. Everyone she mets seems to love her. We are truly blessed with Sassy in our lives.
“Tomboys tend to become conservative women. Spoiled princesses, on the other hand, usually end up becoming foolish liberals who see Big Government as their sugar daddy.”
Excellent point. Also, tomboys tend to pick ‘real men’ as mates when they grow up..not the effeminate,emasculated, metrosexual males too often seen in the liberal variety.
OMG, dont even get me started on Bratz. Sluts in training. No Bratz in this house. Why parents would spend money on this trash amazes me.
This is NOT new? Since when did women in the 50’s and 60’s wear “princess” gear and walk around with a sense of entitlement. They expect good treatment from both men and the government based on their gender. It’s disgusting.
“We’re kindred spirits there, kiddo! ;-)”
I always figured we were (grin).
I just pray my son doesn’t bring home a ‘princess bride’ one day...lol. Oh..scratch that..as long as she is good to him and loves him, I don’t care. He has a good head on his shoulders and will find a good conservative gal.
I think the thirty years of feminist-influenced school curricula and cultural programming has done more to produce the current generation of female narcissists than anything else. The whole “princess” thing is just another symptom of the “it’s all about the girls” culture. This is partly why the Islamic world is slowly ramping up to conquer the West. As defective and backward-looking as it is, one thing it has going for it is that it hasn’t been emasculated like the West. It retains the vitality and masculine energy required for conquest. Now they’re getting the financial and technical means to put it into effect. I’m afraid long term the feminized metros are no match for the retros, and when it’s all said and done the “princesses” are going to have a lot more to worry about than a pea under the mattress.
Oh god..the memories..lol. I can still remember laying on the kitchen counter top while my mom ‘waterboarded’ me in Toni Home perm solution.
My hair got stuck in the drain pipe once and she ended up having to cut off my hair to extract me from the kitchen sink. I went from long hair to a ‘Twiggy’ style in a matter of minutes......lol!
Tony Home Perms? i must have gotten off easy- My mother put my hair in “rags” -— anyone remember those?
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