I was a bit appalled to see that you can now buy Angel Princess Barbie.
Without getting into the "angel" part, I found myself wondering about the
"princess" designation.
I imagine this is partly due to the public's fixation on Princess Di. (Come
to think of it, maybe the "angel" part is due to that too.) But I also
realized that Barbie will always be termed a princess, and never a queen.
When I look at the role of princesses in fairy tales, I see women who are
virginal and powerless. Often their role in the story seems to be to get into
peril (often caused by a woman, jealous of the princess's youth or beauty) and
then be saved by Prince Charming.
Queens in fairy tales are sexual and powerful. And, it seems to me,
invariably evil. A king may be good or bad, but if a queen is present in the
story, she's wicked.
Or is this too sweeping a generalization? Are there fairy tales in which the
queen is good or at least neutral?
Anny
Who is hoping that list subscribers won't march her to the wall and have her
executed for bringing up Barbie again
AnnyMiddon@aol.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:41 PDT