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First LEGO designed a line specifically to tell girls that shopping and tanning should be their ultimate priority, but now parents have new culprit: Hasbro. The company is currently shilling Princess Celestia from the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series — a line that I know all too well from my own childhood. But it’s not the princess element that has moms and dads leaning in a little closer to hear what this talking pony espouses. It’s that all this stupid pony talks about is how pretty she is and how pretty your daughter is too! That’ll certainly encourage her to be a math scholar.
Rebecca Hains, mother to a 3-year-old, recently visited a Target when she says her son was delighted to find Princess Celestia whom he recognized from the show. But the mother says that in her toy incarnation, this princess leader and mentor to other ponies has been reduced to a ditsy stereotype — something that kids will find incongruous with the show:
Although in Hasbro’s cartoon Princess Celestia is a wise, powerful leader and mentor, Hasbro’s toy reduces her to a conceited, girly-girl princess stereotype.
Rebecca writes that of the 12 sayings that Princess Celestia says, five of them concentrate solely on being physically beautiful. And aren’t these wonderful values for your daughters to be hearing from her favorite heroine:
- I love when you comb my hair!
- Oh, my hair looks beautiful.
- My wings are so pretty!
- My barrettes look so pretty!
- You’re beautiful!
Hearing these phrases from their favorite pony countless times a day cements the cultural message that girls consistently receive about their beauty being paramount. That their other achievements and interests, not matter how much they excel at them, will come second to beauty — and that’s because they’re girls.
Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time Princess Celestia has been stripped of power and intelligence to allegedly appeal to girls. Lauren Faust, executive producer of the My Little Pony series and also creator of The Powerpuff Girls, prides herself on developing “images of girls and women as positive, active, individualistic, fun, and even a little edgy,” according to her website. Yet when Lauren originally wanted to craft Princess Celestia as Queen Celestia to convey her power and rule, Hasbro wasn’t having it. She commented:
I was told that because of Disney movies, girls assume that Queens are evil (although I only remember 1 evil queen) and Princesses are good. I was also told that the perceived youth of a Princess is preferable to consumers.
Rebecca has started a petition against Hasbro asking them to not ban princess-hood, but to merely consider crafting a princess who is just as focused on learning as she is on the TV series. The Change.org petition asks the company to consider phrases like “You’re so smart!” and “Can you tell me what you learned today?” Such questions would no doubt be in a “boy” My Little Pony if there was such a thing.
(photo: notimemommy.com)
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Seeing Celestia being Pink instead of white, like in the show, I knew this toy was catering to small girls, but not in a positive way. Like saying “girls HAVE to like pink.” I decided to press the button a few times to see what phrases she made and if any were recognizable from the show. I was severely disappointed in the “pretty princess” phrases they had her saying, since that is FAR from how Princess Celestia was. Celestia promoted learning and tolerance.
It was frustrating because I love Celestia (being a 20 year old female watcher of the show) and was hoping there was a toy. But the toy was FAR from what I wanted. I would rather her be white like in the show and say NOTHING then… THIS. A stereotypical little girl toy. This show is about DEFYING stereotypes (seen in the episode when a zebra, Zecora, is introduced). The toy just… kils the lessons taught.
I know Toys ‘R’ Us is making a white Celestia. With any hope, they’ll change the phrases.
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Also, why does the toy version of Celestia have to be pink? Why can’t she be white, like she is in the show? Cuz all little girls laaarrrvvveee pink? Ugh.
Oh NO! Less than HALF of the doll’s phrases are about physical beauty! SOMEONE BURN DOWN THE HASBRO PLANT.
“a line that I know all to well”
*too
“has been striped of power”
*stripped
Mommyish articles always seem to contain basic errors like this. So frustrating.
J, Thank you! I’m so glad I’m not the only one who notices. I think it’s shocking how many spelling, grammar, and even mis-used titles and names show up in Mommyish articles. For a media outlet, they really should check their articles a little more thoroughly.
Yes, because it’s so horrible in this day and age, when our children are constantly bombarded by the message that they aren’t good enough or beautiful enough, that they be told that they’re pretty. Is it the ONLY message they should hear? No. But if your parenting has been reduced to the point that the only positive message your child hears about her education is form a plastic horse, you have bigger problems.
I think you’re missing the bigger point. The fact that someone (Lauren Faust in this case) has to FIGHT to convey a message OTHER than “girls aren’t supposed to be smart, just good-looking” is sad. HER creations are being taken from her control, HER message is being sacrificed for the sake of more dollars in the pockets of the people in charge of Hasbro.
No, a toy should not be the only source of encouragement, but it can serve to reinforce whatever message parents and peers are bestowing on children.
Um, I don’t know if you’ve been on the internet recently, but My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is not for little girls.
At All. Not even a little bit.
…Google it, turn safe search off. There you go!
News flash–there is porn of EVERYTHING. Get over it.
Um, no. It WAS intended for young girls, became a hit with older guys, and then from THERE, some porn came of it.
It’s called Rule #34 of the Internet: There is a porn of it (‘It’ being anything you can imagine). No exceptions.
Welcome to the Internet.
Rule 34: If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions.
There’s also porn of Spongebob and Dora. Doesn’t mean they’re not for kids.