http://www.jpgmag.com/stories/11918 has a rather interesting photo set that grabs Disney Princesses (and for some strange reason - Little Red Riding Hood) and sticks them in scenes of 'challanges facing modern women'.
While I really like the concept I think I do tend to feel that the princess could have been matched to the issue a little better in some cases (however the cosmetic surgery Beauty/Belle is obvious indicator that this doesn't apply to every image) - for example while I think it's clever that the 'eaten' little Red Riding Hood is now suffering an eating disorder I would have liked to have seen something a little more rubbing against the grain of the more common theme of the tale.
While Disney has populated the 'princess syndrome' we can't exactly pretend that they are wholey responsible for the masses of girls waiting for a dashing prince to come in and save the day - indeed it seems as if the collective history of humanity has done this and as with everything else it shows up brightest in the tales we tell our children.
So what do we do?
Tell different tales? Adapt the old ones? I'm not a huge fan of modernising fairytales simply for the sake of moral rights - convincing kids that the world is totally free of unreasonable expectations is perhaps not the best thing, but instead discussing the history of the tale, or mixing it up with more empowering stories. It would be a shame to totally ditch Cinderella just because she is portrayed with a perfect prince who swept her off her feet - she has such interesting history behind her.
P.S. Apologies for not posting this past few weeks - Illness and death (not my own death though) prevented me.
~Roslyn
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