Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture

Hide your daughters 'cause it's a big bad world out there in pink taffeta. For the positive, I learned some interesting bits of trivia about Disney princesses and European fairy tales. Otherwise I found it to be a big book of worry that offered few if any solutions of what to do about all the evils of modern American consumerist life that threatens to engulf girls in a pink tide of an unreal sense of self, princess fantasy, and an over reliance on looks over feelings. Okay, it is a dispatch from the "front lines" of girlie culture and not a guide book with any solutions. Best to follow this up with a book by an expert and not a journalist who can help parents move from the battle lines to more peaceful shores.

Peggy Orenstein once again has hit the nail square on the head. Marketing being the nail that closes the coffin of childhood. Children as such have never had it easy. They were and still are exploited whether by the farm needing hands, the drudge factory of centuries past and now, the hungry maw of salespersons in need of consumers. Where is the line? Should you raise your child as an Amish or Hutterite or, let them slide into a life that will forever feed the giants of industry? Our country survives on capitolism creating jobs and selling product. Talk about a two edged sword. As an old feminist I thank you Peggy Orenstein for trying to make sense of this crazy world.

The examples drawn from everyday life made this a compelling listen. American Girl dolls, princess parties, Toddlers & Tiaras, even Miley Cyrus - I could relate to all of it. The author has really done her research and draws upon many experts in various fields to flesh out her warnings about the dangers of Cinderella and the rest of the princess pack to young women as they struggle to find their place in a world that increasingly pits the Real Housewives of Orange County against the women of the WBA. When even female Olympic divers wear eyeliner as they compete, what does this say about the messages are we giving little girls?I urge all parents, mothers AND fathers, of young girls to read or listen to this book NOW!

Yes, it's a complicated topic, and the author reading the book makes the feminist dialogue easier to understand. It is more like having a conversation with Peggy, discussing opinions of gender instead of reading a long lecture.

When she discusses allowing her daughter to have choice, instead of coercing her towards commercial femininity or coercing her away from it. I though that was a very relevant and poignant passage as eventually it's a complicated issue and her daughter can be as typically feminine princess-y as she wants.

That it's important to discuss commercialization of media with your children so they can on some level engage with the socialization of gender, instead of commanding them to present their gender one way or another.

Brilliant, thoroughly enjoyable.