Cinderella Ate My Daughter REFLECTION

                 When Dr. Bogad said that this class was going to ruin how we looked at things I understood that to a certain extent; after reading Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Orenstein I fully understand why. This may have been the most relatable article that I have read yet in this course. New information that I thought i had known about has been brought to my attention, and things that I didnt even think about have been shown to me. Yes we all know that boys color is blue and girls are pink, thats how we as society show gender, but it wasn't allways that way. I've considerd myself mind blown when the author explains that back before the 50's boys were acttually sent home in pink and girls in blue. The original color scheme was because pink was a light shade of red so it was thought to represent power, and blue was the color of the Virgin Mary = me mind blown. Pink hadnt started to be pushed as a girls color until the late 90's early 2000's, Orenstein claims that after 9/11 it gave girls something to latch onto in a upsetting time in peoples lives, just like shirly temple did during the great depression.
               Because of the popularity of Shirly Temple, she was made into a doll, costing 4 times the amount of any doll o the market at that time, she was relatable and seen as a good thing for children. The American Girl Dolls are said to have the same popularity, they arent big chested like the barbie dolls, and they have an educational back story of not just shopping but as heros, having power and not living fully up to female expectations. The American Girl Dolls ran about $110 dollars while your average barbie was around 10, and the limited edition ones would cost you twenty more dollars on top of that. Im not sure if my mom just didnt want to spend the money on the american girl dolls, or that she knew we would end up destroying them or the dog would probably chew off one of her extremities just like our barbies; but we were never allowed to have one. My mothers reasoning to us was that "in order for us to have one of those dolls, a little girl in china would be getting paid 1 penny an hour for making something that we are being charged 100 dollars for" my mother always said it wasn't right, but weren't we doing the same thing when we buy barbie dolls?
              Barbie dolls have changed dramatically over the years as well. At my grandmothers house she still has all of my mom and aunt's barbies. They have dark hair, usually up in a beehive hair-do, they have plaid skirts that go past the knee and also a top that is simple and covers all. The barbies that I had when I was younger were things such as tropiccal barbie who had a palm tree bikini and super long blonde hair that went to her knees. Needless to say me and my sister liked playing hair dresser, and that when we were done with her, the poor barbie looked like someone cut her hair with a chainsaw. We once played a game to see who could get a barbie stuck in the apple tree that was outside our 2nd story window, the poor girl was up there for 5 whole years. It became a laughing matter in our house, taking bets on which storm was going to knock her down.  Orenstein says that studys have shown that as much as girls love playing with dolls, over 40% will mutilate, draw on or somehow change the barbie.
                     The last thing that I would like to bring to your attention is that while the pink fad lauched in the 2000's so did the launch of the disney princesses line. Yes we all know who they were due to the classic movies that we grew up with, but they were relaunched, and sold to little girls. Shown and sold to them because disney knows that being a princess is a little girls dream. Mattel, the producing company takes the generic disney princess and leaves behind those who dont wear the jewels, or hold the same values as the others. Poor Pocahontas and Mulan are left out of the collection, because one pretends to be a boy (not cool) and the other doesnt have a fairytale ending (unless you see movie 2 and 3 which werent produced until about 10 years later). These two woman dont thrive on finding a perfect man or get to wear a dress (suitable for a ball) all movie. All woman come from different eras, places in the world, and are seen to be independant of eachother. There havent been any cross over movies, or stories where they meet up and get along. Even when put into cartoons and photos with eachother, it has been pointed out that the girls aren't actually interacting with eachother, they arent even looking the same way. Orenstein says that they are shown to the public as independent, and even worse show little girls that they advoid female bonding. Inn no movies does one of the princesses have a super awesome girl side kick or even friend. The girls in the movies are often shown as the villans if they aren't a princess.
          Seeing pictures such as this ...
  ...... just adds to what the article had said. they are not friends!