Don't get me wrong, I love pink. However, I never realized that my love for pink could have come from the fact that consumer industries try to make me love pink so they can make more money from females. My message to pink lovers like me is that, "it's not that pink is intrinsically bad, but it is such a tiny slice of the rainbow, and, though it may celebrate girlhood in one way, it also repeatedly and firmly fuses girls' identity to appearance" (pg. 34). Is it fair that consumer industries have forced the idea on young girls that pink is the color of innocence and beauty? I don't think so.
Princesses are supposed to represent innocence and girlhood. But on second look, you begin to realize that all these pretty princesses are extremely lonely and far from innocent. In fact, all princesses "avoid female bonding. Their goals are to be saved by a prince, get married, and be taken care of for the rest of their lives. Their value derives largely from their appearance. They are rabid materialists" (pg. 23). Is this the representation of girlhood that we want to be teaching our daughters? Not for me.
I chuckled when I read that "KGOY (Kids Getting Older Younger) theorists claim that adults stay younger older- fifty is the new thirty!" (83). It has hard for me to believe that women actually think they can stay younger for longer by simply putting a cream on their eyelids. However, when young girls watch their mothers do such things, the idea that getting "old" is bad opens the door to things such as botox, expensive serums, and SPANX. Is it fair that girls begin to think of getting old as "taboo" before they even hit the age of 30? I don't think so.
Oh yes, my favorite chapter of the book, the last. The overarching theme of the chapter is that "'[powerful women] teach girls that you have to do. You have to be the worker bee'" (pg. 180). Female leaders in power and the diversification of the appearance of dolls such as "Barbie" are slowly creating a world filled with more equality, balance of power, and acceptance than ever before. I am excited and motivated to create a world that I will be proud to bring my own daughter into one day, and I hope you will help me.
Orenstein, Peggy. Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture. Harper, 2012. Title Image: “Disney Princesses.” Fandom, disneyprincess.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Disney_Princesses.