Princesses Are Not Great Role Models for Girls
thewire.in
thewire.in
However:
"Mulan is a bold Chinese warrior, respected and followed by her people…all of whom think she is a man, because she has deceived them by cutting her hair. The point here appears to be that to become a good leader, a woman should look and act like a man."
This person has severely misunderstood the point of Mulan.
If you make a movie about life in a society which does not value women equally, how can you be surprised that the movie does not present them as such.
"Mulan is a bold Chinese warrior, respected and followed by her people…all of whom think she is a man, because she has deceived them by cutting her hair. The point here appears to be that to become a good leader, a woman should look and act like a man."
I mean....what? Is that the lesson you got out of that movie??? It's an extremely shallow interpretation of the message here, one that almost seems bent just to fit a certain narrative.
"But, the protagonist Elsa has dubious leadership skills. As the elder sister, she is responsible for governing, but when she gets nervous she lets her emotions get the better of her. Despite her good intentions, she cannot effectively wield power.
As a result, she freezes her realm and withdraws into a solitary world. In other words, she lacks emotional intelligence."
Once again, you are trying to make the interpretation fit the narration. Maybe she is just portrayed as a normal human being who has flaws, not a perfect-in-every-way robot? Wouldn't a film where the main character never makes any mistakes and has perfect control of their emotions be just.....boring? If anything, I'm really bothered by the fact that in those movies men are shown as having zero emotions whatsoever, as if men should have everything planned out beforehand - what a stupid idea.
But I departed about halfway through the article, at "gender free toys."
It's no secret that on average, women tend to be more empathetic than men, and men tend to be more assertive/combative than women. There are of course exceptions to this rule, and of course, reasons why each sex should develop both skills.
However, after reading "Now, Discover Your Strengths" it's also _vitally_ important that you play to your natural strengths more than anything. For a large percentage of women, this may mean developing the very valuable skill of empathy, and for men, this may mean learning to control and focus their natural aggression. Gender oriented toys can help children develop these skills at a young age.
There's a wide spectrum of overlap between men and women but denying the very obvious truth that they are inherently different is not only ridiculous but can disable people from using their natural abilities to suceed.
How do you feel about the marketing, though? I don't object to my daughter reveling in dolls, fancy clothes, and Playmobil, but I do object to specific character brands being pushed at her. I feel they collapse the imagination space too much.
I have, somewhat shockingly to my sneering internal 13 year old boy, allowed My Little Pony branding through my relatively strict anti-brand filter, because the female characters are surprisingly reasonable.
But on the whole, it's a struggle. Every other product my daughter sees at Target is a branded Disney product, and even though she's never even seen most of the characters animated, she's drawn like a moth to a flame.
I think the author meant something different with "gender free toys" than you are implying here, as she's merely talking about the marketing. You didn't really explain why you departed halfway through the article.
Try flicking through a toys store booklet, and you will see the stereotypes and strict categorization in words, color and example come flying at you.
In Pocahontas the antagonist is the exploiter, the disrupter of natural order, and the destroyer, and male. In Hercules he is the manipulator and manifestation of evil. In Mulan he is represented as the mindless horde of destroyers. In frozen he is the liar, the cheater, the bully. In Aladdin it is the mustache-twirling, eye-rolling, leering, and old man.
There is a small minority of Disney movies that have a female antagonist, but they are all version of the same evil witch stereotype. Old, infertile, predator of children.
So what does this teach children about social behavior and crime? What about who deserve sympathy and who is redeemable? About conflict resolution and handling of blame?
Disney movies aren't the best places if we want to avoid stereotypes, and that include the newer movies like Frozen.
But this statement, which the author implies is problematic:
"A successful public life interferes in a woman’s private life."
Just seems true, regardless of whether you replace woman with person.
Pretending all adults have limitless capacity to be SuperFamily while simultaneously being SuperWorkerBee just seems silly.
As it happens, I tend to think The Kids Are Alright is a pretty good way of thinking about family/work compromises; it's mostly about adult's preference to be all things to all people, not about kids' needs.
In a way, I think this idea we're super accessible to kids even when working hard actually can lead to worse parent child engagement. Really high quality interactions often take planning, and if you're too busy beating yourself up over missing bedtime, you don't take the time to plan that special activity.
The reality for most actual Princesses throughout history is depressing and off-putting, and the fantasy is saccharine and irresponsible.
There's a difference between "back off the pink and guns" vs "respect natural tendencies, and variations thereto".
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Night-Stories-Rebel-Girls/dp/0...
2. Women are better leaders when they look and act like men.
3. A successful public life interferes in a woman’s private life.
4. When women get emotionally involved, they lose rational thought, and their leadership capacity fails them.
I couldn't agree more.