Both authors indicate parental and business opinions of princesses in pursuance of appealing to many readers. Orenstein expresses her dislike towards Disney princesses by proposing that young girls learn incorrect values from the original princess movies, since they teach women unrealistic love and beauty standards. However, Poniewozik believes that recent live action princess movies demonstrate women achieving their personal goals before seeking true love in order to teach independence and convey his supporting views of modern princesses. While Poniewozik and Orenstein want to see the next generations of females become strong, self-sufficient women that do not need a fairytale lifestyle they disagree with how princess movies in general teach these lessons to young
Furthermore, Orenstein continues to complain about how even in the shows where the girls are supposed to be more of a tomboy, they find ways to bring in the princess culture. She says that they undermine the girls and how they will grow up. Then Orenstein goes on to point out some other facts like how, “girls can embrace their predilection for pink without compromising strength or ambition.” (Orenstein 328). After this realization she begins to believe differently contradicting her former belief that pink and princess culture is all bad. Although she doesn’t confirm her change until the very end.
This helps get his point across. Hollandsworth’s article explores the world of child pageantry and attempts to convince the readers that the girls participating are being exploited and hypersexualized on stage. The article also talks to former pageant girls like Brooke Breedwell, forced into pageantry by her mother at only 3 months but quit at age 8 because of what she was missing out on a normal life. Shadowing the girls makes the article more interesting because it is coming right from the person who is a part of that world. Hollandsworth successfully fulfilled his purpose of showing the world that these girls are being overexposed and hypersexualized because of the world they are
In “What's Wrong with Cinderella?”, Peggy Orenstein retaliates against the princess culture that bombards her daughter's life. Princesses, it seems, dominate the market for toys to young girls due to their inexplicable appeal to being pretty, pink and - as most girls see - perfect. As a feminist mother, Orenstein feels the need to rebel against this not-so-sudden craze that attracts her daughter's attention. The author assumes that the subliminal messages presented to her daughter's developing mind aren't beneficial to her future expectations in life. Because of this, she critiques the faults of princesshood in order to demonstrate the possible detrimental impacts that the princess culture may have on a young girl.
“After an hour and thirty minutes her daughter has become part Barbie, part Madame Alexander doll, and part Las Vegas showgirl” (Hollandsworth 1). These shows strip the girls of their childish innocents and use their oblivion to do so. They cannot process, with their undeveloped brains, to tell the difference between right and wrong in how they compete in the pageants. They base their worth by their appearance rather than what they are capable of doing. They grow up without a real identity and are only use to being exploited for how they look and
She points out that girls emphasis a lot on their body image and they tend to drop out of sports because they think their body appearances look funny doing certain sports. “The Woman’s Sport Foundation found that 6 girls drop out of sports for every 1 boy by the end of high school and a recent Girl Scout study fund 23 percent of girls between the ages 11 and 17 do not play sport because they do not think their bodies look good doing so (Hans pg. 511). Hanes is also able to create pathos by relating to other mothers and giving a glimpse of the unhealthy side of the media and how it effects their
In A Great and Terrible Beauty, a novel by Libba Bray, Felicity’s characteristics impact the group of girls; her peculiarity both brings the girls together and tears them apart. She disregards the notion of submitting to a state of dainty, pure compliance like most people do now. Women today should take advantage of the privileges they have, accept themselves as they are, and not let stereotypes get in their way as they pursue
The phrase "like a girl" has become an expression that invokes an idea of weakness, femininity, and limitations. Lauren Greenfield partnered with Always, a company that makes feminine products for women, in order to express their belief that "like a girl" is a useless phrase that holds no real meaning. Most girls struggle through the awkward stage of puberty. During this time, a girl’s confidence plummets; this has often lead to an increasing amount of girls quitting sports, even if these sports provide a sense of happiness and belonging. These adolescent girls going through puberty need the help and guidance of their elders to help them raise their self-confidence and to keep them engaged in the activities they love.
In “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and “Homage to My Hips” by Lucille Clifton, women are presented with societal expectations for their gender. The girl in “Barbie Doll” is told that she has “a great big nose and fat legs.” In the following stanza, the girl is described as healthy, intelligent, strong, and a number of other positive qualities. When the comments about her nose and legs continue, she is encouraged to lose weight, smile, and be pursued by males in order to be of worth. She loses her former good qualities in exchange for society’s standards for perfection. Eventually, the pressure to be attractive leads her to commit suicide and finally, people begin to call her pretty when she has a “turned-up putty nose” in her casket.
Instead of making parts of their body smaller to achieve that “wasp waisted” look they are making parts of themselves bigger by use of injections and other body enhancements.Plastic surgery is so prolific in fact that many women especially actresses feel that as they age have to get work done in order to keeps job. Yolen compares this behavior to them “flinging”themselves “down the stairs” (7) in order to impress and please others . In the real world, however, no sane woman flings herself down the stairs but many do something just as dangerous with no one batting an eye to achieve that elusive, desired beauty. For example, many women who get breasts enhancements are quite literally putting poison bags full of silicone and salt water within their bodies and going through days worth of pain and permanent scarring in order to look beautiful for other people, men and women alike. Kim Kardashian ,one of the most influential women in America.