It's that the princesses don't DO anything but look a certain way and wear certain clothes and accessories. The entire princess universe is so scripted that, even when a princess-type character (such as the little mermaid) does something heroic (such as saving the prince's life), she is remembered for her pretty wedding dress and for being victimized by the sea witch. That's no accident.

I do object to boxing kids in. But I object MORE to boxing a child into a role that reduces the child to a 2-dimensional doll-model who craves pretty dresses and not much else. If the advertising usurped my child's choices by forcing physics textbooks on her, at least she'd be learning something.

Boys lose out as well. They are often thrust into violence-based roles or prevented from showing emotion or empathy. Neither of these is helpful to a male child's development. Why can't a boy have a baby doll to feed and care for?

For that matter, why doesn't my daugther EVER see a commercial with a girl holding a toy hammer? Is anyone saying that a child who never sees kids of her gender building something does not have any kind of attitudinal influence from this?

Bill Cosby is tired of seeing black kids in ill-fitting clothing singing about gangs. And I'm tired of girls being misrepresented in commercials as primping morons.

Yes, I grew up with the little girl fluffery, and I think it influenced me negatively. Just as many black people feel their own racism, I struggle to give my gender an equal chance in my thoughts and attitudes. Personally, I think that the restrictive girliness is worse now, because even active girl characters have been princessified to the point that their appearance overshadows the rest of their personalities.

My mother thought I was overthinking this. (Until 2 days ago, when she saw all the commercials for a half-hour show. She was appalled at the extreme gender stereotypes.) She had always said, "YOU grew up wanting dresses and pink shoes, and look how you turned out: a really intense feminist."

That's just the point. I don't want my daughter to be a feminist. I want her not to notice gender. Because she doesn't have to.

Two of the three girls in this segment mentioned marriage in their stories. None of the boys did.

Wouldn't this country erupt in outrage if boys spent all their time pretending to be princes, dressing themselves up in prince outfits, dreaming about what princess they could marry, and telling stories about their perfect prince weddings?

How are girls supposed to hold up half the sky if they're not coming up with the melting sea shell stories? How come I have to go to the BOYS' section in the party shop to get my 3-year-old a costume that isn't a dress?

The stories told by two of those girls demonstrates how we are stuffing girls into the princess box so early in their lives, setting them up to preoccupy themselves with the fluffery of the appearance industry. I keep reading about how spas are working on the 3- to 11-year-old girls to make them regular mani/pedicure customers. The girls who see The Little Mermaid and remember that she lost her voice but not that she saved the prince's life will make perfect lifetime customers.

Very sad.

On second reading, my last post seems to be reprimanding you, but I did not intend that at all. It's just that your description of full-time childcare was so exactly right, and it reminded me so much of my time at home with my daughter, a time when I really feel I served above and beyond the call of duty, anticipating and meeting my family's every freaking need, that it just hit me right between the eyes what you said about having a sugar daddy. It's just not fair to you. Not fair at all!