The Complexities of Princess Education: Unveiling the Drawbacks
When children reach a certain age, the Disney princesses seem to be everywhere, and parents often question how princess culture might influence little girls, particularly those who seem besotted with their images and stories. While fairytales can nurture a child’s imagination and teach them about real life, experts agree their overall effect is positive, but not always. It’s important to consider the potential drawbacks of princess education and understand the complexities surrounding this cultural phenomenon.
The Disney Princess Phenomenon: A Brief History
The Disney Princess franchise as we know it was conceived in 2000 by Andy Mooney, former president and chairman of Disney Consumer Products. Mooney was inspired after attending a Disney on Ice show, where he saw little girls dressed up in off-brand costumes, generic princess regalia, and homemade dresses. It became painfully obvious that the franchise was created as a way for Disney to rake in a little extra cash. By creating this franchise over two decades ago, Disney found a foolproof way to squeeze more money out of parents and Disney fans - and it worked like a charm.
Becoming an official Disney Princess isn’t as straightforward as simply being a princess in a Disney movie. After all, Mulan isn’t a royal, but she is a Disney Princess. Princess is they perform an act of true heroism - hence why Mulan is included.
When you take a fine comb to Disney Princesses, it quickly becomes clear that the idea behind them is wholly arbitrary. When you look at Disney’s massive list of female characters, there are a large number of them who qualify for the title but miraculously are not included. Pixar princess Merida is allowed to be a Disney Princess because Pixar is a property of Disney. Besides the arbitrary nature of the selection process, there are many people who accuse the concept of Disney Princesses of being old-fashioned.
Gender Stereotypes and Princess Culture
One of the primary concerns surrounding princess culture is its potential to amplify gender stereotypes. Sarah M. Coyne, PhD, a professor at the School of Family Life at Bringham Young University in Provo, Utah, first researched the topic of princess culture because she was concerned about her 4-year-old daughter’s fascination with dressing like a princess from fairytales. Coyne’s 2016 study on the subject found that among preschool-aged girls a Disney princess culture amplifies gender stereotypes.
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However, Coyne’s 2021 study indicates that greater engagement in princess culture at a younger age resulted in more progressive attitudes about women in early adolescence. It also promoted a belief that education, relationships, and careers were equally important for women and men.
Credit Chang W. notes that the concern arises when a girl’s value is placed more on how she looks than on how she acts and thinks. When it comes to boys, an increase in stereotypically female behavior might be viewed differently. Hains suggests that this difference in perception is all about the starting point.
Alice Dreger, a Northwestern Medicine professor, writes in Pacific Standard that although gender roles are largely socially constructed, there is a strong genetic/evolutionary basis for them as well. Dreger suggests that exhibiting certain behaviors typical of one’s gender shouldn’t just be a source of shame, whether there is a biological basis for it or not.
Passivity vs. Activity
Another potential drawback lies in the portrayal of princesses as passive characters waiting for rescue. Some argue that older stories like "Snow White" and "Cinderella" depict princesses who are active, but not necessarily in masculine ways. However, the images associated with these princesses often show them in pretty but passive (and often sexualized) poses.
The Superficiality of the Franchise
My issue with Disney Princesses is that the franchise ultimately reduces strong female characters to superficial, voiceless versions of themselves. Removing characters from the context of their movie might have been okay for more classic princesses like Snow White and Belle. As Disney continues to release characters who rely on deeper cultural and historical contexts - characters like Moana and Tiana, who are both officially marketed as Disney Princesses - it becomes more unacceptable to remove them from those contexts. Strong, culturally influential characters like Raya should be allowed to exist without being tied to an arbitrary, superficial hierarchy.
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Rethinking Schooling and the Princess's Question
As a student of education, I have been constantly deliberating on the issues related to schools. The school remains imperative and is considered a right of every child comparable to the right to life itself. What would be the kind of life of a person who is denied the right to education? Even the Supreme Court of India declared the right to education as a Fundamental Right by expanding the right to life.
Deliberating and critically examining issues of access and equity, school as an institution remains as something indispensable in modern society. Of course, there have been voices of dissent, for example, de-schooling and home-schooling. But these alternatives to formal schooling generally remained in the domain of academic debates with not too many educationists supporting the same. So school was always a given. A child has to go to school. Denying a child an opportunity to go to school is absolutely unfair and now illegal too.
My only concern was to pray and hope for a ‘good school’ till Dadu and Dadi’s little princess began her school journey and started asking every day, ”Mujhe school jaana hi kyon hai”? It was easy to tell her if she will not go to school she will become a ‘buddhu’. But her repeated questioning and seeing her everyday trauma borne out of what psychologists term as separation anxiety, set me thinking. Is education synonymous with schooling? Is this the only way to learn, to acquire knowledge?
A three-year-old who had spent almost two years in ‘corona times’ as she understood, it was a traumatic experience for her and us, to be handed over to utter strangers in a prison-like building where mama, papa, dadi, or dadu could not be with her. She would scream in her sleep, plead daily to let her be at home only, not eat anything in school, and bid a teary-bye every day. The weekend was such a relief for all of us with Monday blues creeping in on Sundays only.
Her parents talked to their friends. There was some consolation in the fact that their friends’ kids were experiencing similar trauma. So at least there was nothing very unusual about her. Some solace indeed! And then the usual refrain-oh she will adjust after some time; all children go through this phase. It is painful no doubt but eventually for her betterment only. After all school to jana hi padega. There is no option, no alternative. Parents were putting up a brave front. Schooling, like vaccination may be painful but a must in the long-term interest of the child.
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I would point out to her children rushing to school in the morning; by buses, autos, pillion riding their parents’ bikes, and some walking down to their respective schools. I would tell her, “See all of them are going to school because nobody wants to be a buddhoo. Are they crying?” But I would not tell her that all of them looked so listless and non-enthusiastic. I shared my dilemma with my students of education in the college and asked how many of them were really happy when in school. Just a couple of hands went up and they too admitted that it was mainly because of the friends they made in the school.
She would play ‘school’ with me. She would ask me to behave like a reluctant child absolutely unwilling to go to school. Then she would reason with me that going to school was important and that it would be fun. She would repeat my arguments and finally drag me firmly to that imaginary school. I dug up my old notes, revisited many educationists, read Ivan Illich all over again, researched homeschooling and looked for alternative and innovative schooling (not alternative to schooling), and re-read prominent educationists, keenly searching for their comments on schooling. Rather I would admit I hunted for their adverse comments on the formal school system, reinforcing and so much in sync with my current mood of disenchantment. I just lapped up a radical perspective on schooling that I came across. Yes, it was time to rethink schooling.
Her parents thought I was overreacting and unreasonably emotional over a non-issue. I was even accused of being overindulgent. But I am still looking for an answer to her question about why she needs to go to school. To learn discipline? To prepare for life? (Or to experience life itself as Dewey looked at the function of schooling?) To learn to conform? To learn to obey, acquiesce? To learn to cope? To learn to adapt?
I felt vindicated to rediscover many an educationist who thought like me. The modern factory-schooling education system is one of the greatest crimes against humanity. School appropriates the money, men, and goodwill available for education and in addition discourages other institutions from assuming educational tasks. But who is to be blamed for this? Certainly not the school authorities who are working hard to take meticulous care of the children in their ‘custody’, ensuring their safe entry and exit. The teachers are already overwhelmed with so many wailing princes and princesses. But where?
Illich floated the concept of de-schooling in 1970 and hoped for fast disestablishment of schools, but it has not materialized to date for obvious reasons. Homeschooling and alternative schooling is still schooling only. Even supporters of homeschooling admit a lack of peer group socialization is its drawback. Moreover princess, how can I negate the fact that in our multi-layered unequal, and unjust system you are God’s own child to be in an institution which is on the coveted side of the great divide of our school education system? How can I not think of so many little ones for whom even to be able to go to school is a big achievement?
Meanwhile, I am just waiting for the day when you will stop asking this question and I know eventually it will happen. You have already transcended from, “Why do I have to go to school?” to “I don’t want to go to school” and now, to “I don’t want to go to school today”. You have begun accepting what is allowed and what is not allowed in school. You are coming to terms with the idea of the inevitability of going to school. There will also be days when you may look forward to going to school. And then after a few years, your questions will change. Princess, I may not be able to answer your questions to my satisfaction but keep that spirit alive. Keep asking, keep shaking us out of our complacent acceptance of formal schooling. We, adults, need to keep listening to such questions seriously and constantly strive to make learning a pleasurable experience. “We must speak for hope, as long as it doesn’t mean suppressing the nature of the danger” (Williams 1989, p.322). There are identifiable dangers to identifiable groups of people in public schooling as we know it. But the privatizing alternatives may be much worse. Apple, W. ).
Navigating Princess Culture: A Balanced Approach
Given these potential drawbacks, how can parents navigate princess culture in a way that promotes healthy development? Coyne suggests that parents can focus on the princesses’ qualities that support their values. “Call out the good things,” she said. “She’s pretty and she’s so smart. Belle always has a book in her hands. Anna is really a problem solver. that are important to your family.”
Connors advises against going overboard in our explanations.
Fairytales - make-believe stories that often reflect reality - give children space to expand their imaginations and teach them how to relate to people in real life. These tales explore common themes, such as loyalty, justice, greed, right versus wrong, and the triumph of good over evil.
Although fairytales contain unrealistic themes and tend to perpetuate stereotypes, experts agree that they have an overall positive effect on a child’s development.
For example, learning about two characters at odds with each other can open a discussion about conflict children might experience in their own lives with siblings, parents, or classmates.
Think about the tension Cinderella has with her stepsisters, or how two very different characters come to appreciate and love each other in The Beauty and the Beast.
Albert Einstein once said: “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairytales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairytales.”
So, how do fairytales benefit or contribute to a child’s development? And what role do they play in a child’s overall well-being?
By seeing themselves reflected in fairytales, children may feel more comfortable in themselves. They may even be inspired to explore their own emotions.
On the surface, “The Three Little Pigs” seems like a lesson about choosing the right material to build a house - but kids can read deeper meanings into the tale. For example, a study reports how the tale helped sick children ease their anxieties and fears around their illness by labeling it the “big bad wolf.”
The researchers noted that fairytales allowed the kids to “get in touch safely with danger and death anxieties.” Other research, including a small 2014 study, has suggested that using narrative strategies and storytelling - such as fairytales and traditional folk tales - may improve a person’s overall well-being. The study found that fairytales had a positive effect on the people’s personal growth and self-acceptance.
And, a small 2018 study found that fairytales had a positive effect on building a child’s sense of cooperation.
And a 2016 study, which looked into 353 school-age children for 2 years, found that narrative therapy effectively improved social and emotional skills in children ages 8 to 10.
Fairytales can also teach children about self-awareness and emotional regulation, according to the study.
Fairytales have been told for centuries over and over in slightly different ways in cultures across the world. Perhaps the most well-known tales involve a princess or a prince who faces obstacles they must overcome in order to find happiness or make the world a better place.
But, is the notion of a princess or a prince - with their sparkly clothes and fancy digs - healthy and appropriate for kids? And does it place too much emphasis on appearances and undue pressure on young girls?
A 2011 Greek study, involving more than 400 participants, noted that fairytales are an integral part of a child’s development as they promote personality building, family bonding, and self-discovery.
Reading fairytales can benefit child development in a variety of ways. Exposure to fairytales during childhood can:
- entertain children while teaching the basic structure of telling a story
- foster child development by allowing children to project their imaginations and creativity into a story
- help dispel fears of the unknown
- help children cope with the difficulties of growing up and foster a belief for a better tomorrow
- help children learn about conflict and possible ways to solve a problem
- explore universal themes, such as love and hate, fear and courage, and greed and generosity in the safety of an interesting story
- provide a way to validate emotions a child may be feeling in real life
For parents who prefer to stay away from fairytales, there are plenty of alternative book choices. Wordless picture books are great to introduce little ones to reading. Or you may want to choose a book of fiction about birds, airplanes, flowers, or something specific that interests your child.
To spark your child’s creativity, you can make homemade books that include photos and captions that tell your child’s own story. You can also label drawings brought home from school and put them together to make a book you and your child can read together.
Other ways to nurture your child’s creativity include:
- playing
- making art
- listening to and playing music, singing
- exploring the outdoors
- talking about emotions and ways to express emotions
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