Why Are All Princesses Skinny?

It is in the mundane, everyday moments of life that the most profound questions confront us and force us to rise above the wash, drippy spout, or untended weeds for more awesome things.  The moment comes unlooked for and, generally, unasked for.  They catch us unguarded, ill prepared, and distracted.  It was such a moment when my six-year-old daughter skipped up to a tired, Civilization IV playing me at the computer and asked, "Why are all princesses skinny?"  She was holding a diminutive plastic Jasmine figurine.  The figure was in the style of the picture above which in fact shows one of Ariel's many slender sisters.  While the sister above is posed much like a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model (only with less clothes), the Jasmine figure I can't currently find is much less contorted and doesn't look like she is trying touch her shoulder blades to her tail bone.  Nevertheless, the Jasmine figure certainly puts the figure in figurine, if you know what I mean.

I have found that when confronted with a difficult question or one that one does not wish to answer, it is best to answer with a question.  So I said:
"Why do you say that?"
"Because all of the princesses are skinny.  Ariel, Jasmine, Cinderella, Belle...all of them are skinny."
[my answer redacted out of shame]
"I think they are skinny because if they were fat, no one would know they are princesses."
[my answer redacted out of shame]
"When I grow up I am going to get really skinny so I will look like a princess."
[my answer redacted out of shame]

She is only six.  It was, of course, much later that I thought of much better things to say than the pitifully weak things I did say.  The incident caused me to question much of what I have been told about raising little girls.  In days before TV, girls were raised to be free of vanity, so compliments were kept to a minimum.  Later, the same psychologists who have given us our public school system told us that this was damaging to a developing child's self-esteem, so a plethora of compliments were encouraged to build up a girl's self-image.  I fear sometimes that we have gone too far in telling all of our girls how beautiful they are.  To continually do so can only make them think that the main thing we value in them is their appearance.  They become vain. 

The last time I was at Disney, the six princesses did a song in front of the castle.  The lyrics were something to the effect, "Every girl is a princess."   Every girl wants to be a princess, but I have to wonder if that is a dream to which our girls should aspire when the target that the royal ladies make is so narrow in the waist.
ace

Peace
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