I object to Sally Marshall’s myopic view of girls and their interest in princesses. When I had just one girl, I thought I’d never let her play with Barbies.
Now that I have three interesting, intelligent girls, I realize that was an unrealistic and idealistic view.
We’ve now been through the Barbie phase, dress-up phase, train obsession phase, dresses-only and jeans-and-T-shirt-only phases. The truth is, all children try out many different roles as a way to find their place in the world.
When my girls and their friends used to play dress-up, often with princess outfits, they weren’t acting like the damsel in distress, waiting to be saved. If the story line of their play involved anything remotely similar to a fairy tale, they were the queens bossing their subjects around and making all the decisions for the kingdom!
