Disney’s New Princess Is A Little Girl, Will Teach ‘Lessons’

sofia the first new disney princessWhen I was a little girl in the midst of princess culture, all the Disney princesses were women. Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty may have behaved like little girls, but anatomically speaking they were adults. And as an entire generation of little girls took their social cues from Snow White cleaning the dwarves’ home and Jasmine’s awkward seduction of Jafar, part of the mimicking and even apprenticeship of Disney Princesses occurred because they were adults.

But Disney’s newest addition to the princess set, Sofia, is explicitly a “girl princess.” The little girl in the blue gown will star in a new television series entitled “Sofia The First” aimed squarely at kids ages two to seven set to debut in the coming months. Although princesses for little girls have a tendency to promote consumerism (after all, who else is buying those dresses and jewelry but Prince Charming or mommy and daddy?), Disney seems to be aware of this concern when crafting this new series.

Nancy Kanter, general manager for Disney Junior Worldwide, told The New York Times that even though Sofia has ”plenty of pretty dresses and sparkly shoes,” the show will tell girls that ”what makes a real princess is what’s inside, not what’s outside.” [tagbox tag=”Disney”]

Sofia will apparently instruct girls on the importance of getting along with siblings and how to be generous and compassionate. While those are values for girls that tend to get lost in our culture of mean girls and avid materialism, the idea of Disney charm school being taught by a little princess doesn’t exactly sounds like a parents’ ideal either. Does little Sofia also teach girls to remain quiet in the name of politeness? Will they be told that having an opinion makes them “difficult”?

If those crevices are avoided, then this is certainly a princess that I can get on board with.

(photo: nytimes.com)

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