Critical Analysis #3

CRITICAL ANALYSIS #3 The text that I read from my book of “Everything’s an Argument” is titled “Little girls or little women? The Disney princess effect” the main idea of this reading is targeting whether or not our little girls become little women too soon, by female characters wearing sexualized attire. For example Disney Jasmine wears a sultry off the shoulder or Miss Piggy who shows cleavage. This article also talks about studies behind the reasoning of why parents are alarmed. For example the University of Florida polled that fifty percent of 3-6 years olds worry that they are fat & the marketing group NPD reported in 2003 that more than $1.6 million is spent annually on thong underwear for 7-12 year olds. Another study that didn’t surprise me when they compared the ability of college age women to solve math problems while trying on a sweater with that of those trying on swimsuits, alone in the dressing room of course, sweater wearers far out performed the swimsuit ones. The majority of women are insecure because they are never satisfied with themselves, and I speak from experience of talking to women like family members, girl-friends, and co-workers they always complain about something. It also mentions from the Experian Simmons national consumer research that girls start wearing lip gloss when they are 6years old and the percentage of 8-12 year olds wearing mascara almost doubled between 2007 and 2009. I was still unclear about the Disney princess effect. I did not understand why the reading did not stick more towards talking about the Disney princess effect. Yes, I understand the fact that while growing up girls are into the Disney princesses but what does that have to do with growing up too fast. I have two girls one is Lizzie she is going to turn 10 this coming Friday and Lonnie she is 1year and a half. Lizzie was all into the princess things to a certain extent the dress-up, play makeup, and being lady like. She is going to be ten soon and she is nothing like materialistic. I am a firm believer that it is all in what you instill in your children. Also talking to them about things is very important. Making sure they now what is important and what is not. You must be open with them when the time is right, don’t sugar coat anything. This text is very important because it is more of an eye opener for the reader. This text is very informational for the reader especially if they don’t know what to watch for. The majority of the facts in the text make sense; I mean there is nothing extreme about it. I think that this relates to the world around our lives if we choose to let our children grow up too fast. Yes, there is all sorts of pornography that they will run into while surfing the web, but that’s when the parent must block websites that are affiliated with such things. Also, talking to your kids about nudity and it not being cool is very important. Also paying attention to the type of friends they associate themselves with and talking to them about that as well, negative decisions bring negative consequences and positive decisions bring positive consequences. Above all having an open, trusting, and good relationship with the child builds the child’s comfort zone with what they can come to the parent about.