How to Promote Creative Play with Princess Toys
Helping Girls Avoid Negative Gender Stereotypes and Behavioral Cues
Nov 22, 2008
When buying toys and presents for their children, many parents feel pressured to supply their daughters with the hottest new products, particularly licensed media-linked products such as Disney Princess items. Unfortunately, popular princess products can promote a narrow idea of what a princess can or should be and end up limiting a girl's imagination.
Princess Toys Can Promote Negative Gender Stereotypes and Behavioral Cues
Negative gender stereotypes sometimes associated with princesses include the ideas that that princesses are passive, unambitious, or in need of rescue by a prince (or other outside force). Even characteristics that taken by themselves are positive – such as being nice or singing well – can become negative if they are taken to extremes or are presented as the only traits by which a girl is defined.
In addition, buying pink-saturated princess products from lines manufactured by brands such as Disney, Mattel, or Club Libby Lu can convince many girls that a princess must only dress in frilly pink costumes and only use pink accessories. Clothing and toys in other colors and styles end up being rejected as too un-princesslike, which ends up limiting both a girl's viewpoint on the world and the tools available for her to use to present an image of herself to others.
Brand-name Princess Toys Stifle Creativity and Imagination
In an interview with Nanci Hellmich for USA TODAY, Dr. Susan Linn [author of The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World, New Press, 2008] noted that toys linked to media products with pre-determined story lines inhibit true creative play. Instead of coming up with characters and plots on their own, children may just repeat over and over what they have already seen on a television or movie screen. A toy that stems from a media product is never a blank slate for creating new stories the way an anonymous doll or unbranded costume item is.
Counteract Negative Side Effects from Playing with Licensed Character Princess Toys
When used sparingly and supplemented with other items that promote more creative and unique play, Disney Princess products are perfectly fine for girls. However, parents should remain vigilant about how their daughters are playing with the princesses. For example, when questioned by a concerned parent, child and adolescent specialist Dr. Robyn Silverman offered advice such as:
- Find out from the child what in particular she likes about the princesses.
- "Go positive" and find something you like about the princesses, and then encourage the child to emulate this quality, be it kindness, gratefulness, having hopes and dreams, or being good friends to their friends.
- Acknowledge and clearly point out qualities in the princesses that you do not want the child to copy.
- Model behavior for the child that you do want the child to emulate.
- Supply the child with real-life positive models, such as good friends or local heroes.
- To counterbalance frilly pink princess behavior, get the child involved in positive real-life activities such as sports or dance.
Encourage Positive, Creative Play with Both Licensed Character and Other Princess Toys
- Seek out books and toys that offer many different perspectives on what it means to be a princess.
- Help children play out scenarios that move them away from the pre-determined scripts for Disney princesses. For example, Dr. Linn suggests having a child make food for Ariel. Children could also act out having Disney princess characters interact with characters of their own invention or use blocks and other materials to build new homes for them.
- Work with a child to come up with her own definition of what a princess is and what qualities she should possess. Start with positive qualities possessed by Disney princesses (smart like Belle, curious like Ariel...) and then add in traits from other stories or from a girl's own experience.
- Encourage a child to design her own personal princess costume, castle, and other princess accessories...preferably not all in pink!
The Disney Princess line offers many fun toys, and girls can certainly play with Disney princesses without experiencing negative side effects. That said, involved parents should balance Disney princess play with other, more open-ended princess play and monitor their daughters' self-image and behavior.
For princess-themed gifts that promote open-ended princess play and creative self-expression, check out Great Princess Gift Ideas for Girls (suggestions for dress-up items, furniture and room decor, and play areas), More Great Princess Gift Ideas for Girls (suggestions for toys, dolls, art and craft supplies, and board games), and Princess Books for Girls and Boys of All Ages.
Resources
- "What's Wrong with Cinderella?" Peggy Orenstein in The New York Times (December 24, 2006)
- "Is Make-Believe Vital to Kids?" by Nanci Hellmich in USA TODAY (June 25, 2008)
- "Defending Pretending: The Need for Prominent Play (Part 2)" on Shaping Youth Beta Blog (June 10, 2008)
- Dr. Robyn Responds (June 5, 2008)
