Too dependent, or just pretty?

Re “Resist the princesses,” Opinion, March 27

Thank you for shining some light on the insidious infection of the Disney princess. Normally, because of my own “princess” mentality, I graciously accept gifts from friends, family and neighbors celebrating Cinderella and her clones and then try to hide them before my almost 3-year-old daughter can get her sticky little fingers on them. But the other day I spoke up.

My daughter and her female cousins received a gift from grandma in a Cinderella gift bag while her male cousins got Winnie the Pooh. To a chorus of there-she-goes-again groans and rolling eyes, my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law mocked my desire to protect my daughter from the Disney princess. I can’t wait to show them this article so I can see their eyes roll again!

Elaine Barrington

Playa del Rey

Rosa Brooks, please don’t punk the princesses. Yes, it is true that the princesses choose singing, dancing and playing with animals rather than kicking soccer balls or doing science experiments. But isn’t part of being a girl in today’s modern age about the right to be good at many things? Girls don’t have to only play house; but if they want to, is that so wrong? I would much rather see young girls in pretty princess dresses than in little skinny jeans and wearing eyeliner. Girls are shown by example that it’s good to grow up as fast as possible. Mothers, buy your daughters a soccer ball and science kits. But don’t be afraid of throwing in a princess dress or two.

Natasha Wegter

Valencia

Brooks doesn’t go far enough in her objections to Disney’s blatant stereotyping of little girls into their princess and pretty-dress roles. A deeper analysis really shows that those on the far right have their tentacles in this as much as Disney. Little girls who want to be princesses and wear cute little clothes are assuming the classic stereotyping of the many misguided families who believe that true families are nuclear, patriarchal, wedded and religious, and that little girls should be the lesser handmaidens of boys who too frequently grow up to be boys.

It is interesting that Brooks is dismayed when her own two girls “ran off to watch ‘Disney Princess Enchanted Tales’ ... while I glumly cleaned the kitchen.” It affects all of us.

Ralph Mitchell

Monterey Park