<![CDATA[Jezebel: tiaras]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jezebel.com.png <![CDATA[Jezebel: tiaras]]> http://jezebel.com/tag/tiaras http://jezebel.com/tag/tiaras <![CDATA[What's The Allure Of Everything Disney?]]> Disney. Whether you love it or hate it, it's everywhere. The man, the myth, the mouse, the movies, the Land, the World, the Princesses. The bridesmaid dresses! An American childhood is an immersion in Disney culture. It starts with the films, infiltrates the toys, and, in some cases becomes integral to vacation and career goals. And when you're all grown up? You can live in Celebration, Florida. Seth Stevenson spent some time in the planned community and wrote about the experience for Slate. Even though, at first, "Everything looks waaaaay too perfect" "manufactured" "scrubbed of individuality," Stevenson admits to liking the post office and the movie theater. Uh oh! Brainwashed by the mouse!



When Rosa Brooks asks her 3- and 6-year-old daughters what they want to be when they grows up, they both answer, "a pwincess." Brooks writes, in an Op-Ed in today's Los Angeles Times:

Don't be fooled by the sparkly magic wands, the pint-sized tiaras and those cute little "animal friends." The Disney princesses aren't sweet and innocent. They're a gang of vicious hoodlums, and they're plotting against you [...] Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and the rest... Rarely slay dragons, play sports, pilot jets or do open-heart surgery. Instead, they fiddle with their coiffures, linger over invitations to the ball, flee ineffectually from evil crones and swoon. You don't have to be Gloria Steinem to realize that these are not, for the most part, useful professional skills in today's world.
Of course, Brooks' daughters wouldn't want to be princesses without the Disney influence. She admits that they have watched the video Disney Princess Enchanted Tales about 10 billion times. All kids have fantasies, but the difference between wanting to be a princess and a firefighter is that a firefighter has a job. So why — from movies to weddings to an entire town — are some of us buying into the manufactured Disney dream? (And is it any wonder that tiaras are making a comeback?)


The Mecca of the Mouse [Slate]
Resist The Princesses [LA Times]
The Crowning Touch [Portƒolio]

Earlier: Disney Flower Girl Dresses: For Little Girls Who Still Believe In Fairy Princesses
Disney Bridesmaid Dresses: For The Fairy Princess In None Of Your Friends
Disney Bridal: For The Fairy Princess In None Of Us
Playing Princess Is Just A Phase... Except When It Isn't
Marriage Is Not A Fairy Tale
Who's To Blame When Your Fairy Tale Doesn't Come True?

]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=372906&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Playing Princess Is Just A Phase... Except When It Isn't]]> Last week, in Barbara Ehrenreich's Huffington Post essay entitled "Bonfire Of The Princesses," the Nickel And Dimed author wrote: "Disney likes to think of the Princesses as role models, but what a sorry bunch of wusses they are. Typically, they spend much of their time in captivity or a coma, waking up only when a Prince comes along and kisses them... The Princesses have no ambitions and no marketable skills, although both Snow White and Cinderella are good at housecleaning." Today, Trey Ellis posts a rebuttal, "In Defense Of Princesses." As a father, Ellis has a different perspective.



He claims:

When it came time to raise my own little girl I made sure to expose her to sports, cars and soccer balls. She could've cared less. Three-year-old Ava was passionate about cooking, baking, her nails, edible makeup and anything having to do with princesses. I was terrified she was going to grow up to become a Republican."
In Ellis' opinion, "Most, but not all little girls go through a pink, princessy phase. Most, but not all little boys go through a phase where everything needs to be whacked and/or destroyed. The good news is that these phases are absolutely normal and, like all phases, they pass." Or do they?

The hot accessory right now is a sparkling tiara, reports The Seattle Times. "Something shocking happened last year," says Susy Korb, executive vice president and creative director of famed jeweler Harry Winston. "We sold two tiaras within two weeks in the U.S. These were real people, accomplished people, celebrating life's milestones with tiaras." But Korb doesn't connect the dots between worshipping Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Belle with the desire to wear a crown. "Americans didn't grow up with royalty so it's not quite as loaded in meaning," she says. Ah, but we do have royalty in this country, and their realm is in bedtime stories and animated flims. We're serfs in their kingdom at young, impressionable ages. Still, part of being a kid is dreaming of fantastical lives; lion tamer, firefighter and yes, princess. Does princess-worship mean that little girls will grow up thinking a prince will rescue them from doing housework? Or is it simply, as Ellis posits, a phase? And raise your hand if you've ever worn a tiara, just for fun. (I have 3.)

In Defense of Princesses [Huffington Post]
Tiara mania: C'mon Princess, You Deserve One [Seattle Times]
Related: Bonfire of the Princesses [Huffington Post]

Eariler: Why Barbie Is Bad
Marriage Is Not A Fairy Tale
Who's To Blame When Your Fairy Tale Doesn't Come True?

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