The uses of enchantment
Dutch is really into fairy tales these days, inspired by the evil Disney Princess obsession of some of her classmates. She's seen a couple Disney movies, and lately we've been reading the Grimm versions of some fairy tales. The Grimm versions are totally bonkers. We refer to them in our house as "The Bloodthirsty Fairy Tales." Dutch, who is so terrified by the comically inept policemen in the Pippi Longstocking movie that she can't watch the rest of the movie, accepts with equanimity all sorts of psychotic cruelty in The Bloodthirsty Ones. She has no problem with the notion that the world is completely black and white. Some people are good, and some people are bad. Bad people deserve to be tortured to death. Good people deserve to marry royalty and have clean little animals sing to them.
Happily, Dutch appears to understand completely that Pretend Life and Real Life are different. In Pretend Life (which is where she lives most of the time), stepmothers are bad and deserve to be rolled down the hill inside a barrel studded with nails. In Real Life, lots of people have perfectly nice stepmothers. *
Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'd rather that Dutch has lots of violent and cruel fairy tales read to her than that she buys into the evil Disney Princess worldview. Some of the DP-generated things she says and does make me feel sick. I go back and forth between thinking that A) this is no big deal, and she'll grow out of it and figure out a more ethical and non-misogynist worldview, and B) yes, she'll grow out of it, but it's leaving LASTING DAMAGE! At this point, because I'm lazy and DP is just too big to fight, I'm going with option A. I also do try to respect her interests at least a little, even when I find them to be sick-making, so I struggle with finding the balance there, too.
The princess thing is playing out kind of hilariously in Dutch's daycare, though. Dutch was very upset the other day because the alpha female in her class, whom she worships, keeps making Dutch be evil when they play princess. Dutch said "I ALWAYS have to be evil!" And last week, she was mad because Alpha Girl makes her be "the handsome girl-prince." Hee hee. I suggested that it's way more fun to pretend to be evil than to pretend to be good,** but she's not buying it.
* Dutch has a step-grandmother of her very own, whom she adores. Not to mention the fact that she apparently wants a stepmother and a stepfather.
** I know this first-hand, as Dutch occasionally asks me to play the roles of the Evil Stepmother And The Evil Stepsisters, if she can't procure any more fun playmates (ie anyone else in the known universe), and I get to give orders and be mean while she runs around and dusts things. Now THAT is a fun game.
Happily, Dutch appears to understand completely that Pretend Life and Real Life are different. In Pretend Life (which is where she lives most of the time), stepmothers are bad and deserve to be rolled down the hill inside a barrel studded with nails. In Real Life, lots of people have perfectly nice stepmothers. *
Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'd rather that Dutch has lots of violent and cruel fairy tales read to her than that she buys into the evil Disney Princess worldview. Some of the DP-generated things she says and does make me feel sick. I go back and forth between thinking that A) this is no big deal, and she'll grow out of it and figure out a more ethical and non-misogynist worldview, and B) yes, she'll grow out of it, but it's leaving LASTING DAMAGE! At this point, because I'm lazy and DP is just too big to fight, I'm going with option A. I also do try to respect her interests at least a little, even when I find them to be sick-making, so I struggle with finding the balance there, too.
The princess thing is playing out kind of hilariously in Dutch's daycare, though. Dutch was very upset the other day because the alpha female in her class, whom she worships, keeps making Dutch be evil when they play princess. Dutch said "I ALWAYS have to be evil!" And last week, she was mad because Alpha Girl makes her be "the handsome girl-prince." Hee hee. I suggested that it's way more fun to pretend to be evil than to pretend to be good,** but she's not buying it.
* Dutch has a step-grandmother of her very own, whom she adores. Not to mention the fact that she apparently wants a stepmother and a stepfather.
** I know this first-hand, as Dutch occasionally asks me to play the roles of the Evil Stepmother And The Evil Stepsisters, if she can't procure any more fun playmates (ie anyone else in the known universe), and I get to give orders and be mean while she runs around and dusts things. Now THAT is a fun game.
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