Can an obsession with princesses at a young age perpetually paralyze a woman in a pink fantasy world?

Lamb's co-author is even harsher in this regard, stating that "princess pink is in that way connected to other, more sexual choices... If what we want is innocence, why do we consider princesses in romantic story lines, when there are a load of other innocent activities for girls, like sports and science?" Cultural journalist Peggy Orenstein (who writes with considerably more humor) has her doubts more evenly distributed. Interviewing Andy Mooney for the New York Times, Orenstein asked him, "Aren't the Princesses, who are interested only in clothes, jewelry and cadging the handsome prince, somewhat retrograde role models?" Mooney, for his part, avers that "they are caring, they are loving, they are friendly, they are courteous. This is not really about being a damsel in distress. This is really about these girls projecting themselves into the life of a princess and the environment of a princess, and kind of really reveling in that moment."

Does Disney (already accused of numerous cultural poisonings) actually constrict the fantasy play of young girls, subject their secret dreams to commercialized pabulum, and sexualize them at too early an age? Is there a conspiracy both economic and psychological in nature to channel girlhood down a path of pink puffery? Or could it simply be that Disney is simply treading a well-worn path made smooth by generations of fairy tales and stories that end happily ever after? As ABC news (yes, I know, it's Diz' biz) asked last April, "What's Wrong with Being a Princess?"

Well, plenty, if the Disney Princesses are a girl's sole source of acculturation, just as it would be for boys if the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or the GI Joes were the primary map to their social roles. However, we know that this is simply not true. Theories of child development pay heavy heed to the function of fantasy play, and indeed fantasy seems to be so endemic among children that one might suspect it was genetically programmed. If anything, children's fantasy lives give as much credence to Jung's concept of a collective unconscious as do the world's religions.

Daydreaming about being Princess Giselle isn't something most little girls will engage in for a lifetime.

It appears that Andy Mooney and his development team tapped into a wellspring common to all children. The real danger posed to girls, it would seem, is being permanently stuck at some level in the princess fantasy or having it become a template for future expectations. In most cases, this result would be highly unrealistic. Were it not true, most girls at play would be grossly retarded in their process of maturation or at least in their ability to employ reality testing. In the film Enchanted, Princess Giselle rudely arrives in New York and is considered to be delusional, or at best, an oddball; so would it be for any girl who went so far as even high school still immersed in a princess fantasy.

One UCLA child psychiatrist, Dr. Mark DeAntonio, went on record with ABC news, stating, "I think it's normal for kids to kind of fantasize roles, to try them on for size... both boys and girls do this, and it's a very normal thing... The values that kids really pick up on and incorporate are really more the values they're exposed to with their family, within their community, with people." Even Orenstein admits that "...just because [little girls] wear the tulle doesn't mean they've drunk the Kool-Aid. Plenty of girls stray from the script, say, by playing basketball in their finery, or casting themselves as the powerful evil stepsister bossing around the sniveling Cinderella."

Thus we can see the Pantone Pink period for what it truly is: a developmental phase of no great consequence, notable only for its commonality. Orenstein asked, "Will the girl who is wearing 'Princess' across her chest when she's three be wearing 'Spoiled' across her chest when she's six, and 'Porn Star' when she is 12?" Why, indeed, should this happen? Can repeated viewings of Disney Princess Stories: Beauty Shines from Within produce such an effect? Or playing the videogame Kingdom Hearts? Might it be deficient parenting and poor socialization skills that set up expectations of entitlement, rather than sing-along videos? Can one really set up girls for premature sexual tendencies by singing with Ariel and Jasmine? Has anyone ever seen Snow White wearing a shirt emblazoned with "Porn Star"?

It should be noted that Disney could have added another Princess with great ease: Esmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. If Mulan could be a princess, why couldn't Esmerelda? She was beautiful, kind, had a cute animal sidekick, and won the guy in the end, right? The answer is one that almost exonerates Disney from charges such as the one leveled by Orenstein and others: Esmerelda was an identified object of male lust, pursued by no fewer than three men during the film. Esmerelda did not dance like Snow White and certainly did not exude the naiveté of Ariel. She was a fully adult, sexualized female who was not even allowed to "guest" on the Princess' videos. Yet, it would have been so easy to simply pass her off as a gypsy princess and give her full membership in Princess Academy. So where is she?