Book #37: Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein

In this book, Orenstein talks about many different aspects of girl culture today, and how many of those things (like the obsession with things being pink, Disney princesses, Miley Cyrus, etc.) can be damaging to girls by making them overly focused on their appearances and hyper-sexualized from far too young of an age. She does a lot of reporting/visiting places like Disney World, the American Girl store, a Miley Cyrus concert, and also shares her experiences with this topic with her own daughter. Some of those experiences were rather heart-wrenching, like when her husband told her daughter she could have a Barbie, and she disagreed, and it ended in tears for both her and her daughter as she tried to negotiate this tricky question of what sorts of influences she wanted to allow her daughter to have.

I thought this book sounded mildly interesting, and just having had our first girl, I wanted to see what Orenstein had to say about raising girls in today's world. I have noticed many friends whose daughters wear only princess dresses and can repeat all the lines from the latest Disney princess movie and I have been bugged by that overwhelming obsession among little girls these days. However, I totally am aware that it's hard to keep kids from becoming obsessed with what they want. Before Dane was born I was determined that I wouldn't get into "brands" and get really into certain shows like Thomas or Disney characters--and yeah, that happened pretty quick. As parents, we definitely have some control or influence over what our kids get into but not total control. However, I think that Orenstein is overly concerned with this. I totally agree with her about the importance of giving girls good influences and not being too immersed in the Disney princess culture. (I didn't realize that "Disney princesses" weren't a thing until 2000!) But I think it shouldn't be that hard to just say no to buying ridiculous amounts of princess gear and to expose your kid to different types of activities and interests. Kids don't have to come pre-programmed to be obsessed with one thing. I also don't think girls should have NO ability to dress up or play princesses--I remember the Pretty Pretty Princess board game, where you got to put on pieces of jewelry as you went around the board, and LOVED it (and I was pretty darn tomboy-ish). I think the trick is moderation in all things. Of course.

I was annoyed by Orenstein's tone through a bit of the book. This book could DEFINITELY have been more in-depth and analytical about the research that has been done on this issue (because of course tons has been done)--it was a super quick read and was really light on actual information. I feel like it could have been a lot better researched. It also felt like a step back in time, since it was written seven years ago, and she talked a lot about kids being on Facebook and Miley Cyrus and Hillary Duff--all of which do not really apply today.