Walt is not your amigo

I feel the need to introduce you all to my new friends. They are known in this house collectively as the syndicate The Princesses.Morgan speaks at length about how she is having a Princess Party and now bases all time references to said party. For example, if I tell her we're going to a friend's house next week, she will ask if it is before her Princess Party or not.

The Princesses, as individuals, are great. Each one has a different tale, most not as princesses but as strong female characters. Or not. They're lumped together into this sea of conveniently different color coded merchandise and I tried not to let her fall into this world for at least a few more years, but they got me. They got her, actually.

I promised Morgan a good night story the other night and she asked for the story of Cinderella and I gladly obliged. I told my little girl the story of an oppressed girl, stranded in a house with people who thought her to be trash, only there for their service. She simply attended a party and caught the eye of the rich guy and they lived happily ever after. I told it better than that, but you get the idea. It was such a great story until you stop and think about it.

All Morgan cared about was the Princess and the castle. But she's 3 and that is all she should care about.

Imagine if I told her the story of Snow White and she asked if the Dwarves got a discount on insurance through their employer or if they were independent contractors. That conversation will happen in about 15 years if I play my cards right.

The Princesses have their faces, and their convenient color coding, on everything in the stores, right down at eye level. I wonder if Walt is somewhere shaking his disembodied head at the blatant, shameless marketing of his animations of fairy tales.

Fairy Tales...
...don't get me started with the whole Tinkerbell thing.