Your little girl can be an ample bosomed princess too!
This picture came about through friends of Pigtail Pals, Nic and Jenn. They have a friend who was shopping at Target and found this shirt. No sooner did I get a tweet from Nic and Jenn hollering “Has @PigtailPals seen this?”. Whenever I see that come across on twitter, I slowly take a sip of coffee and prepare for my head to explode.
Last week it was a singing, potty training pink toilet with Princesses all over it. *Boom*. Yesterday it was a mother who had dressed her infant daughter in a hot pink bikini and fish nets, and held her up to the pole of a floor lamp, suggesting the babe was a pint sized stripper. *Boom*
And today it was this t-shirt. *Boom* Head. Exploded. We all know how I feel about the Princesses, this is exactly why. So as I thought about writing a post, it just felt very yadda yadda yadda. Instead, I asked good Pigtail Pals buddy Jenn to write a post. Because she, and her little gal V, do like the Princesses. Below, Jenn makes an excellent point.
And here’s what she has to say…….
My husband and I tend to be a fairly liberal parents. Permissive, if you will.
OK, lets just say it.
Our daughter is completely spoiled.
There’s not a lot that we veto in our house. If she shows an interest in something, there’s a good bet that soon or later it will show up in our house.
Our living room looks like Disney exploded in it.
For a long time it was everything Winnie-the-Pooh. Now that she’s three, Disney Princesses are where it’s at.
She has Disney Princess figurines, castles, coloring books, dishes, clothes, wall decals, every Disney Princess movie known to man, you name it. She even has her own Disney Princess bouncy castle. No, I’m not even kidding. Remember when I said she’s spoiled?
It would be fair to say that, as a family, we are pro-Disney. I grew up watching Disney every Sunday night with my family. It’s a warm and fuzzy place for me.
So it was with great dismay that this TwitPic came to my attention this morning via my follower @VampireSmitten after she saw @posielove post it.
Go take a look at it above. I’ll give you a second.
Got it?
Yeah… so… about that shirt. Oh, where should I start…
My first reaction was an all caps ‘OMG’, followed closely by ‘my kid would wear that over my dead body’.
I understand the makers were going for a ‘You too can be a princess!’ message. However, they missed the mark completely.
I also recognize the Disney Princess are drawn with, shall we say, rather ample bosoms. I get that, and I’m pretty OK with it. It’s been a source of many jokes between my husband and I.
I do NOT want those same ample bosoms superimposed on my three year old.
As I said in conversation with someone about this earlier, I don’t want to think about someone staring at breasts on my kid (fake / drawn / otherwise). The ‘ick’ factor is high.
But it’s not just the fake boobs I take issue with on this shirt.
Take another look at the shirt.
Look at where Cinderella’s waist falls in comparison to the waist of the shirt.
What sort of message is that sending to young girls who are wearing that?
Here’s Cinderella’s waist <-> and here’s yours <——–>.
I don’t want my daughter to ever look in a mirror and think that she should have a waist like that. Ever. Why? Because it’s not realistic. Unless you’re closely related to Barbie. But in the real world? Not going to happen.
So why even put such an thought out for consideration?
As with anything in life, there can be fine lines when you’re discussing hypersexualization of young girls. This shirt jumped over that line.
It’s one thing for little girls to dress up in princess costumes that are falling off them as the run screaming around the house. It’s another entirely to overlay a completely unrealistic picture of what a princess ‘should’ look like over my daughters body image.
When Jenn isn’t busy being a spoiled wife or taking care of her beautiful special-needs daughter, she is running her mouth on her blog, Princess Prose . Her spare time is spent designing, coding, and prettying-up other people’s blogs and websites at Designs By PrincessJenn.
33 Responses to “Ample Bosomed Toddler Princesses: Really, Disney?”
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Next they’ll be advertising falsies for toddlers. (shaking head in shame) So ridiculous.
Jennifer´s last blog ..Finding Love
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Thanks Melissa for inviting me into your home to let me have my little princess rant
PrincessJenn´s last blog ..I’m Not
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[...] over invading PigTailPals blog with a rant about a Twitpic that came across my Twitter stream [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jenn J, House Husband, House Husband, VoiceinRecovery, tom.the.girl and others. tom.the.girl said: RT @PigtailPals: New Blog Post: "Ample Bosomed Toddler Princesses" A guest post by @PrincessJenn http://bit.ly/bBdcbP [...]
It’s weird and a little creepy (the shirt).
The fishnet baby photo just makes me sad. How much of a chance does the poor kid have if that’s how they start out?
thepsychobabble´s last blog ..Part Lizard
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I probably would have never noticed this shirt or all that is wrong with it. As a mom of three boys, I don’t give princesses a second glance. However that shirt is WRONG on my many levels. Adding breasts to a three year old is disgusting. The waist is just sad. I am a Disney NUT, but this is a total fail.
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Amen, Jen!
punkinmama´s last blog ..return to the dentist
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You’re absolutely right, I think the tiny waist thing bothers me even more than the boobs. And I also have a 3 year-old daughter who loves Disney princesses. But this is so far over the line that I can’t even imagine how this t-shirt was even made. Who on earth though this was a good idea??
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I saw the tweets about this shirt but didn’t see the actual shirt until today.
Wow. This shirt is wrong. So very wrong. When I was at Disney World in Feb., I was so
happy to have 2 sons so I was able to skip all of the princess stuff. Seeing this
shirt just reaffirms that fact
Excellent post!
drlori71´s last blog ..Not Oprah’s Book Club
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Here’s some other nice Target news: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/27/target-homophobia-ceo-gre_n_660990.html
I just tweeted yesterday about the fact that Target supporting anti-people policies combined with their skank-o-rama clothing in the 6-16 department means I have checked them completely off my list.
Lands End – here I come.
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I think this Disney princess thing is abhorrent, insidious, and wholly damaging. Not just this shirt, but the whole product. I could go on, but I would just get eviscerated. Disney’s deeper messages about femininity, normalcy, and manufactured memories are disturbing.
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well done, jenn. very well done… especially coming from the perspective of the mother of a princess.
i will say, as the mother of a toddler BOY… i quite frankly don’t even want him noticing shirts, merchandise, etc. like that. yes, i agree this is most definitely an issue when it comes to sexualization of young girls and disgusts me… i’m also learning though that this is about educating boys as well, and i want my son to be just as aware as i would a daughter (if i had one.)
cripes, did that make sense?
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PrincessJenn Reply:
July 28th, 2010 at 11:55 am
OMG. Nic, you need to write a whole post on that. It’s so true. In allowing clothing like this, we’re not only teaching little girls this is what they should want to look like, we’re also teaching boys that this is what the feminine ideal is. Not having boys, I had never even considered that side of things. Also, was it @antibob who said yesterday on twitter, that we would never allow pants with Mr. Incredible’s …ahem…’package’ drawn in for little boys, so what makes this shirt acceptable for girls?
PrincessJenn´s last blog ..Inappropriate Much
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nic @mybottlesup Reply:
July 28th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
jenn, yeah, it was @antibob who made the mr. incredible “package” shorts comment yesterday on twitter and i found it to be brilliant.
and yeah, i’ve been talked into doing a post now thanks to my big mouth.
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I agree with Nic. Well said. I’m pro Disney princess too BUT this def crossed the line.
Also, Melissa…I couldn’t get passed the pint sized stripper. OMG.
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I’m all for letting my daughter play disney princess dress up and play with disney princess toys and watch the movies. I draw the line at clothing that sends her a message that her figure is not good enough, she needs to look more like an unrealistic, drawn cartoon.
Target needs to take those off the shelf.
Lisa´s last blog ..Daddy’s Little Helper
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*BOOM*
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There is no way either one of my kids would EVER wear a shirt like that. I’m disappointed in the marketing department behind that line. T-shirts, shots, skirts with little Disney Princesses frolicking about? Sure, no problem. But that? That is just WRONG!
Carrie´s last blog ..Blogtrotting! Welcome to Kwikwetlem
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I have seen it all now. I too am pretty liberal in letting my daughter have things she’s interested in regardless of how I may feel about it. It’s important to intervene when things go awry and I’m finding I need to do that now that my daughter has decided to be Hannah Montana when she grows up. I’m trying to reinforce that she can be whatever she wants but that doing so while being HER is the goal. She’s not convinced yet. To her, Hannah has sunshine shooting out her ass. How do t shirts like this help with self esteem?
Karen´s last blog ..I love it when a plan comes together
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I don’t see anything wrong with it really. Hang on let me explain…
First of all it could be that because my girls are now 10 and 13 this isn’t even on my radar. It took me a minute or two just to figure out what I was actually looking at. 2nd of all, there isn’t a toddler/child out there that is going to see this shirt and think BOOBS! or “OMG I need to go on a diet” 3rd, without the huge hoop skirt to go with the corset top, it frankly looks like a graphic tee and not much else.
Guys, we grew up with Barbie instead of Disney Princesses and really when we got to the age of worrying about the size of our boobs, butts, and waists, we were also old enough to realize that Barbie was unrealistic and a TOY.
I think you’re reading *way* too much into this. It’s a shirt.
Just my humble opinion.
Becky´s last blog ..Where I’ve been…sort of
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melissa Reply:
July 28th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Hi Becky -
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Here is a website, the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, and should give you some insight into why exactly this t-shirt is so wrong: http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report.aspx
If you think this type of imagery doesn’t affect a young girl’s body image or self-esteem, you are mistaken. We grew up with Barbie, and the rates of eating disorders, Body Dismorphic Disorder, and plastic surgery have more than tripled in the last ten years. Those numbers are also sliding down to girls as young as ten. How unaffected do you thinks we really are?
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nic @mybottlesup Reply:
July 28th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
wow becky… i’m blown away and obviously disagree with you.
i sincerely suggest you show your 10 year old and 13 year old daughters that image that you couldn’t figure out what you were looking at, and ask them about what message it is sending to them about body image.
use the t-shirt as a starting off point for conversation and find out what your girls have to say about positive body image…
i only suggest this “exercise,” shall we call it, as a former middle school teacher who did something similar with my students once and had the wind knocked out of me.
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This is totally inappropriate. No mother in their right mind would let their 3 year old wear a Disney Princess halloween costume if it came with a 34D breast implant so why would one want her daughter to wear a t-shirt that mimics the same thing?
And the tiny 26″ waist…just makes me sick.
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I am the mother of a almost 7 year old princess loving daughter, and there is no way that this shirt would get anywhere near her body.
Completely ridiculous! Seriously.
There is no excuse or defense for this level of stupidity. My child is not a sex object. I will not send her out in public in a shirt that displays any level of sexuality. She is 7.
As for the mother who dressed her baby up like a pint size stripper….I think the government should stay out of our lives as much as possible and out of families, but sometimes Child Protective Services does need to step in. This is one of those times.
Tracie´s last blog ..An Unidentified Fuzzy Visitor
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I agree with SUnday, and I have twin girls that are 4 1/2. This frightens me. Seriously….I am going to share this.
erin´s last blog ..Tickled Pink Today With Holly of 504 Main
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Well, until they supply my son with Prince Charming’s, um…sword, I am not buying any tshirt.
Also, not only are we teaching girls that they are to have big boobs and no waist, we are teaching them that those are people you look up to.
Nothing against Cinderella or anything, but she’s no rocket scientist. Really, all that you did for a BOY? No college aspirations? I mean, I know I’m not 3 and all in to princesses, but really…come on!
Heather´s last blog ..Help Me Fight the YMCA
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To sum in a “retweet” sent out a coupla days back in the stream,
“Media portrayals, real or fictional, don’t merely inform us – they form us”
Rest assured, this will be fodder for the SPARK Summit on Sexualization big time. (the teen attendance is more about the actionist/activist/what are we gonna do about it) side…Little girls are OBVIOUSLY going to be included in the pervasive harm being seeded in “Inception” style…
“I’m not good enough” should not become the mantra of the media minions exposed to such ongoing surround sound in order to ‘sell insecurities for profit’ and REsell self worth back to these kids one product at a time. Bah. Not. Okay.
Put this next to the wired cup bra for 4-6 year olds on America’s obsession with breast size. Geezus. Oh, and on a related note: give Keira Knightley a Hollywood hurray and a high five while you’re at it: http://www.shapingyouth.org/?p=2003
Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth´s last blog ..Media Slave ReShaping Habits For More Summer Fun
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Over the weekend, my 6 year old decided she’d like to make some soup and so she went digging through my kitchen cupboard, looking for an apron. As it turns out, the previous week had been culinary week at the camp she attends, and so I’d sent pretty much ALL of my aprons to camp, and they were keeping them over the weekend to wash them.
So…. all she found in there was a JOKE christmas apron my husband’s grandma gave me a few years back, one I’ve never worn because, hello, inappropriate, with the giant painted on boobies and tiny little Mrs. Claus waist and short skirt, and yet I kept it because, “HI Grandma, yes, here it is in the cabinet. Thank you for the lovely gift”
Anyway… Alison just grabbed it and put it on, not even looking at it, and when I went in to help her cook the soup, yowza. My 6 year old with superimposed breasticles. I laughed, snapped a twitpic (yes, yes I did) and then took it off, turned it inside out, and helped her put it back on. Because it was funny for a minute, but at that point she hadn’t even seen herself in it and I didn’t WANT her to.
No way in freaking hell I’d buy that shirt for my kid!
Dre´s last blog ..Beast
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Pardon my French, but Holy Shit. That is my reaction to that enormously offensive t-shirt: Holy Shit. Just showed it to Hubs and he expressed same sentiment.
I am completely, utterly disgusted & terrified at the world I am raising my daughters in…
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Hi there,
I think some of you might find this blog interesting – all about the Disney Princess phenomenon and how to avoid some of the more glaring issues.
http://disneyprincessrecovery.blogspot.com/
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If I still had little ones, I certainly wouldn’t buy this shirt. I don’t want someone else seeing my toddler as a sexual being. If I’m going to let that happen, I might as well have a sign saying “pedophiles, check this out!”
Also, I like Nic’s idea of sitting our girls down and talking about what they think is a healthy body image. What they think about their own bodies. It can be a real eye-opener (do this with boys, too – they are under similar pressure). In college I even wrote a research paper on the damaging effects of Barbie on girls’ perceptions of themselves as women. I was careful to teach my daughter that Barbie was a toy and that if she was real, she’d have impossible proportions, so no woman can ever look like her, nor should they try.
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I’m a first timer, sent here by Fiona (thanks, Fiona!) and find your article, and the comments, fascinating.
I think the link to the APA article is key because we are finally getting plenty of studies that link media exposure (yes, this shirt counts) to a host mental health concerns, and health concerns…eating disorders, anxiety, obesity, it goes on.
I think most people are willing to agree that actual human models, re-imaged to size -4 and splashed across most magazines, creates an unhealthy backdrop for how we view our own bodies, and who we compare ourselves to.
But it’s interesting that we don’t look at where this begins.
And that we discount the equivalent of this for our pint-size pipsqueaks.
Taking this “way too seriously” has not been done enough…and kudos for drawing your own line in the sand!
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Great post. Of course, I don’t even like seeing little kids in bikinis, but that’s just me.
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