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Pondering the princess.
Dec. 28th, 2010 02:07 pmSo I was talking to Cat, and we somehow got onto the topic of Candy Land (I think I'd been complaining about the infantalization of the third generation of My Little Ponies, who went from kicking Satan's ass to sharing fashion tips about butterflies). This triggered a rather impressive amount of ranting about the transformation of Queen Frostine from a blue-haired, strong female character* in a full-length gown to a blonde Barbie-girl figure skater. Oh, also? She's not a Queen anymore. She's a Princess.
This sort of gave me pause. Because, see, I got the new My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic gift set for Christmas (and I love it very, very much), and it included the current ruler of Ponyland, Princess Celestine. Now, Princess Celestine does all the things one associates with a ruler. She rules, for one thing. She also controls the magic of the day (her sister gets the magic of night, and since My Little Ponies are primarily diurnal, she's kinda pissy about that). She makes laws, passes judgments, and generally keeps things functional. Not easy! But she, and her sister, remain princesses. Meanwhile, back in the generation one Dream Castle, Queen Majesty is laughing her blue-spangled ass off.
(Interestingly enough, one of the unicorns in the new line, Rarity, looks almost exactly like Majesty. Only she's not even a princess. But I digress.)
Where have all the queens gone? Ozma was never Princess of Oz; she was always Empress. Alice didn't become a Princess of Wonderland; she became a genuine Queen. "Princess" was never a career aspiration, not like it is now. There were princesses, but they were almost always presented as being prissy and overly-concerned with their own appearance or dignity. The Princess Ponies freaked out when they got dirty, while most of the other Ponies just said "Whatever" and got back to work. That recurred throughout a lot of children's media. If you were a princess, you didn't do a damn thing. You let other people do it for you.
Most of the early Disney girls found their stories ending as soon as they became/were revealed as princesses. Sleeping Beauty liked living in the woods with her animal friends. Cinderella and Snow White both had lives before their princes came along. They weren't necessarily good lives, what with the homicidal mother figures and all, but they got to do things, beyond getting married and swanning off into an endless world of merchandising.
Now there are no queens. When Disney makes a sequel, it's almost always set either before the first film ended (as with the two Aladdin followups), or the now-married original princess is still a princess, even if the king and queen are never shown (Prince Eric is still credited as such in The Little Mermaid II, implying that Ariel remains a princess). The only confirmed crownings I can find are Kida of Atlantis, who is queen in her direct-to-DVD sequel, and Rapunzel, although they haven't had time to make a still-the-princess sequel to Tangled. Characters with no visible claim to a throne are turned into princesses constantly, like Barbie and Dora the Explorer will be happier now that they have to wear (mor) uncomfortable shoes. It's like the ultimate goal has become "all the bling, none of the legislating."
I don't get it. When did we decide we'd rather have prettiness and pearls than power? When did we decide that our little girls needed to be put in holding patterns, unable to take the throne of self-determination, but too elevated to play in the mud and get their hands dirty? I mean, I call myself a pretty pink princess. I don't think there's anything wrong with aspiring to princess-dom. But...it seems really strange to me that no one's looking past that to the throne, or encouraging it in little girls. Majesty and Frostine were quite happy as queens. I bet Celestine and her sister would be, too.
Just a thought.
(*Some people will say that you can't have a strong female character in a board game. But as someone who was a little girl and played Candy Land? I always saw Queen Frostine as being pretty much in charge. Remember, kids narrate games to themselves, and when Frostine was on the board, there was no question about who was the boss. The boss was the blue-haired lady who would kick your ass if you crossed her.)
This sort of gave me pause. Because, see, I got the new My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic gift set for Christmas (and I love it very, very much), and it included the current ruler of Ponyland, Princess Celestine. Now, Princess Celestine does all the things one associates with a ruler. She rules, for one thing. She also controls the magic of the day (her sister gets the magic of night, and since My Little Ponies are primarily diurnal, she's kinda pissy about that). She makes laws, passes judgments, and generally keeps things functional. Not easy! But she, and her sister, remain princesses. Meanwhile, back in the generation one Dream Castle, Queen Majesty is laughing her blue-spangled ass off.
(Interestingly enough, one of the unicorns in the new line, Rarity, looks almost exactly like Majesty. Only she's not even a princess. But I digress.)
Where have all the queens gone? Ozma was never Princess of Oz; she was always Empress. Alice didn't become a Princess of Wonderland; she became a genuine Queen. "Princess" was never a career aspiration, not like it is now. There were princesses, but they were almost always presented as being prissy and overly-concerned with their own appearance or dignity. The Princess Ponies freaked out when they got dirty, while most of the other Ponies just said "Whatever" and got back to work. That recurred throughout a lot of children's media. If you were a princess, you didn't do a damn thing. You let other people do it for you.
Most of the early Disney girls found their stories ending as soon as they became/were revealed as princesses. Sleeping Beauty liked living in the woods with her animal friends. Cinderella and Snow White both had lives before their princes came along. They weren't necessarily good lives, what with the homicidal mother figures and all, but they got to do things, beyond getting married and swanning off into an endless world of merchandising.
Now there are no queens. When Disney makes a sequel, it's almost always set either before the first film ended (as with the two Aladdin followups), or the now-married original princess is still a princess, even if the king and queen are never shown (Prince Eric is still credited as such in The Little Mermaid II, implying that Ariel remains a princess). The only confirmed crownings I can find are Kida of Atlantis, who is queen in her direct-to-DVD sequel, and Rapunzel, although they haven't had time to make a still-the-princess sequel to Tangled. Characters with no visible claim to a throne are turned into princesses constantly, like Barbie and Dora the Explorer will be happier now that they have to wear (mor) uncomfortable shoes. It's like the ultimate goal has become "all the bling, none of the legislating."
I don't get it. When did we decide we'd rather have prettiness and pearls than power? When did we decide that our little girls needed to be put in holding patterns, unable to take the throne of self-determination, but too elevated to play in the mud and get their hands dirty? I mean, I call myself a pretty pink princess. I don't think there's anything wrong with aspiring to princess-dom. But...it seems really strange to me that no one's looking past that to the throne, or encouraging it in little girls. Majesty and Frostine were quite happy as queens. I bet Celestine and her sister would be, too.
Just a thought.
(*Some people will say that you can't have a strong female character in a board game. But as someone who was a little girl and played Candy Land? I always saw Queen Frostine as being pretty much in charge. Remember, kids narrate games to themselves, and when Frostine was on the board, there was no question about who was the boss. The boss was the blue-haired lady who would kick your ass if you crossed her.)
