The Princess Invasion

I sat in the lawn chair inspecting Lily’s bloody toe. She obliged as I wiped it clean and rubbed in the Neosporin. Then I rummaged through the first aid kit for a band-aid. Lily balked at the Ariel bandage and begged for Cinderella, which we used last week on her scraped knee. As she contemplated Snow White, I asked myself how we ended up with Princess band-aids in the first place.

And then it hit me. The Disney Princesses have invaded my home.

Without really noticing, I’ve been sucked into Princess mania. Lily sports Ariel jammies. She squeezes Princess toothpaste on her coordinating toothbrush. She doodles in a bright yellow Belle coloring book.

I was caught off guard by this realization. Lily is more firecracker than delicate flower, and I was raised on a steady diet of feminism and analytical thinking – not exactly fertile ground for Princess tendencies.

I have nothing against a good princess every now and then. I think the Disney gals are charming, polite and sparkly. Frilly dresses are great fun, and I am always in favor of matching accessories. The princess archetype bothers me – a young lady who does almost nothing of value while she waits for a strong man to rescue her. But, I can take it all in good fun as long as my daughter consumes the fantasy in small doses.

Herein lies the problem. Small doses are now almost impossible since Disney upped the ante.

In late 1999, marketing legend Andy Mooney took over Disney’s struggling Consumer Products division. He quickly hatched a groundbreaking strategy. He set out to market Disney’s Princesses, as individual entities, as a group (for the first time ever), and all year long! Since the introduction of Snow White in 1929, Disney pushed individual Princess products only in conjunction with movie and DVD releases. This new strategy meant the lovely lasses would be available separate from the movie experience.

The full court press was on. Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty led the charge with the more modern Jasmine, Mulan and Pocohontas trailing behind. In 2001, sales in this division were a measly $300 million. Six short years later, with Mooney at the helm, sales topped $3 billion.

That’s a tsunami-style wave of Princess sparkles and frills now stuffing store shelves.

If your small child has ovaries, you are living this trend. With 25,000 Disney Princess items on the market, good luck dodging the onslaught. Down every aisle you’ll find Princess beach towels and backpacks, diapers and dress up clothes, pencils and pajamas, flip flops and fruit chews. And, it’s not just Disney anymore. You can have a princess makeover at the kids’ hair salon and sign up for this summer’s Princess Camp at the local kid’s gym.

Princess items threaten to become the primary theme of the modern girl’s childhood experience. And, that doesn’t really feel like progress to me.

Lily now trots around the backyard with a Snow White band-aid wrapped around her big toe. Maybe she’ll be up for a game of kick ball with her dear old mum. Has anyone seen our Ariel ball? It’s her favorite.