Mirror Mirror On the Wall, Who's the Princess In My Hall?

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine posted the below on Facebook.

So I quickly reposted it, and many other friends posted it, and I got involved in several discussions about the messages the media sends to our children.

Neither of my children have ever seen any of these movies. They have heard the fairy tales behind many of them.

I do think that media images matter, and we are an intentionally low consumer of all mass media in our household. I think I matter more, for sure, but I just can't ignore the growing rates of disordered eating by girls - even very young girls, and I think the images are so much catchier now than when I was exposed to them as a kid - so I just can't blow it all off as benign.

Much as I try to weed out this stuff, I have to admit that Helen is drawn to this crap like a magnet in an MRI machine. Show her something pink and sparkly, and she wants it.

So, in the interest of full disclosure, this is how Helen went dressed to dance class today, because I haven't yet finished making the pumpkin costume she requested. And yeah, because she loves her pink and sparkly dress-up.

Elaine