Comparative Critique Of The princesses Paradox

Essay by mjlittlegiant December 2012

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Comparative Critique

In the "Princess Paradox" James Poniewozik starts out his article by taking a stance against the princess movement, but then throughout the rest of his article he talks about how the movement is good for young girls by showing that they can control their own destiny. Unlike the "Princess Paradox", Peggy Orenstein's article "Cinderella and Princess Culture" takes a stance against the princess movement by stating that the movement is ruining the minds of young girls. Although both authors have feminist points of view, they have opposite opinions on how the princess movement affect young girls, which they try to prove by using different approaches to prove what their opinion is.

In their opening paragraphs both authors take a stance against the princess movement. Poniewozik starts out his article by saying that it is a recurring nightmare of high-minded modern parents of daughters, where the parents give many masculine toys, and then when Halloween rolls around they want to be a princesses; (666) while Orenstein writes her article from the perspective of a parent whose daughter was called a princess and treated as a princess everywhere she went, and Orenstein's tolerance of this treatment grew shorter until she lost her patience.

Though Poniewozik seems to take a stance against the movement in his opening paragraph he ends up leaning towards why it is a good thing for young girls, whereas Orenstein keeps her opinion the same, but she goes on to contradict the point that she was trying to make.

Both authors compare todays princess movement with the feminist movement that took place a few years ago. We've come a long way, it seems, from the girls-kick-ass culture of just a few years ago in which a 360 [degrees] flying roundhouse kick was a girl's best friend.