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Jan 06, 2012

Will rated it:

Once upon a time it was considered attractive for women to have some actual flesh on them; small boys wore pink dresses while little girls wore blue; childrens television shows were not designed specifically to sell toy lines, and manufacturers did not push pink-colored merchandise for a vast range of products to enhance their bottom lines. Pre-teen girls were not encouraged to dress like streetwalkers and bump and grind like exotic dancers. Surely girls were never presented with a global range More...

8 comments like (36 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2012

Michelle rated it:

It was good but lacking. She skims over a lot of interesting questions and conflicts, but don't really explore a lot of other ones because of her feminist agenda (and I'm a feminist). This book also suffers from her white, liberal, and (relatively) rich guilt and blinders. There are quick fleeting mentions of race (the last chapter she talks about the Princess & the Frog, and I was frequenting face-palming and rubbing my temples, esp when she mention her biracial daughter), fat, and sexuality. A More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

May 26, 2011

Skylar added it

A condensed version of the thoughts I catalogue here appears in my article Are Pink Things and Princesses Oppressing Our Girls?. Since I’m planning to take my daughter to Disney World for the first time some time in the next year, it seemed like a good time to read this. Of course, even at seven, she’s still more interested in Winnie the Pooh than in princesses. But, sure, she loves to dress up in gowns and necklaces and tutus, to put on pretend makeup (allowed only on weekends, in time for was More...

28 comments like (25 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2011

Rhiannon rated it:

Here's the deal: The two stars - those are for me. To someone who has read a fair amount about children/gender and feminism in general, Orenstein does not offer anything new. If I was a new or future-mom, however, an average middle-class mom who hasn't read what could be considered a "feminist" book since college (or possibly never!), or just one who finds most children's toys essentially "harmless," I think this book could be a real eye-opener - I think it could easily deser More...

1 comment like (12 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2012

Melissa rated it:

I read this book in one sitting, and then immediately fell to the floor to give thanks that I have a son rather than a daughter. It was hard enough for me to grow up in an era that did not involve sexting, facebook, Disney princesses, and pop stars who are marketed to little girls & also gyrate on stripper poles during their concerts. On one hand, I think the woman that Orenstein (and, I assume, all my friends who have daughters) wants her daughter to be cannot exist. This uber-woman who would n More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2012

Tracy rated it:

I loved this book. Orenstein's combination of research with memoir is very effective. It was easy to connect with her on a personal level (and believe me, I did, seeing as we share many of the same anxieties about raising daughters), but every story that Orenstein starts as an intimate tale of parenting she then backs up with solid facts and studies. Some readers might be disappointed that this book offers little in the way of solutions to the problems posed, but that is not what this is abou More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 09, 2011

Helynne rated it:

Author Peggy Orenstein’s four-year-old daughter Daisy loved to wear engineers’ overalls with the complementing bandana and hat until a boy on the playground yelled to her, “Girls don’t like trains!” After that, Daisy jettisoned the engineer garb and went off and running with the Disney princesses, Barbies, the color pink, and all the other trappings of what Orenstein calls “the new girlie-girlie culture.” “And what was the first thing that culture told [my daughter] about being a girl?” the a More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2012

Coqueline rated it:

The book deals with the issue that is very dear to me, as mother of a 5 year old, who has begun to embrace pink and princesses.

The book was a fast and enjoyable read, but lacking in conclusion, which make it sounds more like a compilation of blog posts than an actual book. I thoroughly enjoyed the parts where she went researching, getting professional insights and putting in historical context to the issue, but find it bewildering when she started to relate them to her own daughter a More...

14 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2011

Lara rated it:

This one was just okay for me. While she does make some great points about postmodern girlhood, many of her views are just as reactionary as the ones she criticizes. I actually could not finish this one because I kept getting annoyed with her logic. For instance, she criticizes Barbies, American Girl dolls, and baby dolls as being too limiting in the way they portray gender. Then, she discusses buying her daughter toy guns and Thomas the Train gear. Is she not just pushing her daughter into the More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 16, 2011

Meg rated it:

I appreciated that the author was honest about the fact that she was wrestling with some of the very same issues I am as the mother of a 3-year-old girl -- how to navigate the girlie-girl culture while keeping her a little girl with a smart head on her shoulders, a confident heart, and equipped for the "real" world. The author bashed just about everything out there, but ended with good advice.
page 192:
"...our role is not to keep the world at bay but to prepare our daug More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 20, 2011

Rae rated it:

I really enjoyed this look at what the princess culture might mean for mothers and daughters in this day and age. Some of the chapters really made me think, others made me cringe. I will need to reread this book again to get the full effect of what Orenstein is saying. Which is good in a book.

As for the kindle edition - which is what I ready - I was saddened when the book was over at only 63% because of all the annotations, bibliography, and index. The index is what did the book in an More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2011

Krista rated it:

Read. This.

Orenstein won me over whole-heartedly in this book when she ripped Bella Swan to shreds. Bella Swan is a twit to end all twits. Queen of the pathetic. Least of the lame. Why. Whywhywhywhywhywhywhy?

We have a lot to do, ladies. A long way to go. Still.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 21, 2012

Laura added it

Peggy Orenstien's Cinderella Ate My Daughter was a fun read, but also serious one. My own academic background began with an unfinished major in sociology, and my interest in the social construction of our reality has continued to influence my thinking as I studied literature, and as I teach young people. I've always been interested in gender roles and how our society is ever-changing and yet strikingly always the same. I also watch a lot of television, a lot of it bad television, and so I am More...

0 comments like

Jan 09, 2012

Andrea rated it:

WOW. So much of what she says resonates as we are living it with my almost-four year old "princess". Fantastic read. Everyone should read it - including the Dads and the grandmas. At one point, Orenstein reflects on the manicures and make-overs she and her mom used to bond over. She imagined doing the same with her daughter one day, but has since tossed out that idea; not because what she and her mom had was wrong but because the society that we NOW live in dictates an unhealthy f More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 09, 2012

Taylor rated it:

Much like the Disney Princesses , there wasn't a whole lot of depth to this book. It felt like a paper I might have written early on in college-- not heavily enough researched and with far too much jumping to conclusions. Orenstein herself doesn't really know where she stands, and her constant back and forth is not only annoying, it weakens her argument. Princess culture is destroying our children and families and we must take a stand... or is it not? Not being absolute is one thing, but making More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2012

Angela rated it:

My baby girl is just a month old -- and I haven't kept up with what other little girls are into nowadays -- so I was clueless about the scope of the princess thing. I was especially amazed to read that the Disney Princess line, which didn't exist until 2000, includes more than 27,000 items and has $4 billion in sales. Considering the marketing power of Disney, it's clear that we should be watchful of our daughters.

I was slightly disappointed that the author didn't provide much in t More...

0 comments like

Dec 28, 2011

Lia rated it:

I read this book fast. Because I couldn't seem to put it down for very long. Peggy Orenstein delivers a fascinating look at her own qualms as a mother with a daughter in an age of pink, princess hype, online push, extreme marketing, child beauty pageants, role model movie and TV stars, and more. The thing she comes back to over and over is how the cultural push tells girls what to be and how to look in such a way that they never consider how they feel, especially sexually. They are hyper-sexuali More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 09, 2011

Erin rated it:

This was an interesting take on how young girls of today are growing up in a society that shuttles them through a parade of uber-pink Disney princesses, toddler beauty pageants, and spa days for preschoolers up through Hannah Montana and into a hyper-sexualized world where they are told that their outsides count way more than anything inside. Not really anything new, but since Ms. Orenstein currently has a daughter traversing this difficult path, her words take on extra meaning.

Howe More...

0 comments like

Nov 30, 2011

Hend1745 rated it:

When I was pregnant I decided not to find out the gender of my baby. I was shocked at the way in which our culture pushes infants into gender roles. When shopping I found there were only three toddler cups in the store:Disney Princesses, Disney Cars, and one orange cup. What I also found shocking were the comments people made regarding my unwillingness to deluge my baby in either girl or boy products and colors. One person actually suggested my baby would have gender confusion since I wasn't More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 23, 2011

Readreactreview rated it:

Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture (Harper Collins, 2011) was sent to me by the publisher for possible adoption in a women’s studies course. I read it very quickly (a rare feat for me) and thought I would share a few thoughts.

Orenstein is a very successful writer. Here’s a bit of her bio:

Her previous books include The New York Times best-selling memoir, Waiting for Daisy; Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Kids, Love and Life More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 27, 2011

Nic rated it:

I'm not planning to have kids anytime soon, but I was glad to see this thoughtfully address many of the issues that make me panic a little at the idea of how I would ever go about raising a daughter.

The biggest one for me, I think, is telling my hypothetical someday-daughter that she's pretty. Everyone wants to feel attractive, and feeling pretty was especially important to me when I was a kid. I'd never refuse to tell my daughter she was beautiful. But on the other hand, I wouldn't More...

0 comments like

Oct 21, 2011

Shaya rated it:

Cinderella Ate My Daughter is an almost addictive read. Orenstein's narrative flows really well and is quite engaging. She goes through all the media influences that effect young girls. And all those influences are really complicated! On the one hand women's liberation has made leaps and bounds and there's more of an emphasis on girls being smart and atheletic. But there are also tons of toys marketed to really young girls that are overally sexual. Plus, while we don't want young girls to be lim More...

0 comments like

Sep 30, 2011

Elinor rated it:

I really enjoyed the book. I thought it had so many valid points about how we choose to define ourselves and our daughters. Even if people agree that "playing princess" isn't bad, I do think we underestimate how those roles and expectations shape how we see ourselves - whether pretty or not pretty, too fat, too flat etc. All of those fairy tales always mention a very beautiful woman and unless you only make all your toys and never go into a store, she will be assaulted by those expe More...

2 comments like

Sep 28, 2011

Elise rated it:

2.5 stars. There was interesting information here, and I definitely agree that today's society focuses far too much on outward appearance.

And I am all for a decrease in materialism and consumerism and riding on the trends of the media.

However. I never really saw the link between playing princess and becoming a slutty Britney Spears.

As long as parents make an effort to teach that inward beauty is far more important than outward beauty, I see no harm in letting More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 10, 2011

Melissa rated it:

As a mother of a 9 year old girl, I admit that I have always been more than a little uncomfortable with the whole Disney Princess phenomenon, which exploded onto the pink-tinged scene just in time to coincide with my Betty's entrance into the Disney marketplace world.

We may have never taken our kids to the Magic Kingdom (no character breakfasts with princesses and mermaids for us, thanks) but we certainly haven't escaped all things Disney in this house. Betty has been Jasmine twice fo More...

0 comments like

Aug 10, 2011

Laura rated it:

This was a fantastic, must read book for mothers of girls. Maybe because I have a degree in engineering, I have spent a LOT of time thinking about how you raise girls to care less about how pretty they look and more about who they are. There were many quotes I bookmarked:

"they now feel they must not only have it all but be it all: Cinderella and Supergirl. Aggressive and agreeable. Smart and stunning."

I wanted to scream YES YES YES. This doesn't end with childhood. More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 14, 2011

Suefly rated it:

Overall, I enjoyed the book but at the same time, it was not quite what I thought it would be. I felt a bit let down, as I myself HATE most things Disney and the sanitization of fairy tales. I agree with Orenstein that the princess theme of 'waiting for my prince' is unrealistic and can be damaging if the little girl is not encouraged to learn 'to do for herself'. It is not fair for little girls (nor, is it fair to put the same pressure on little boys) to grow up with the expectation or to be t More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 13, 2011

Megan rated it:

Oh, Melissa, you picked a doozy for book club! Definitely going to be some good discussion on this one.

Let me preface this by saying that I was prejudiced as soon as I found out the author is from Berkeley. I assumed an extreme liberal, feminist, wealthy woman with a hypersensitivity to issues of gender, racial and sexual discrimination. Well, guess what? I was right (except for maybe the wealthy part--not too sure if she's that wealthy, but her friends who drop $500 on a lark at More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jun 22, 2011

Alex rated it:

Recently I had a temporary job babysitting for a seven-month old baby who has two delightful sisters, aged seven and (almost) four. One morning, the girls showed me a picture from a birthday party the elder sister had attended over the weekend at a place called Sweet & Sassy. There was a group of about ten six and seven year old girls, fresh makeup, manicures, and hair done, wearing sparkly outfits dresses. A couple of the girls had on two-piece outfits (though, thankfully, not my little frien More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 17, 2011

Sheila rated it:

I have a lot to say about this book, and I’m having a hard time figuring out where to begin. I’ll go ahead and rate it 3 stars because I found it very interesting. And while there were times I wanted to throw it across the room (or pool deck, as it happened), I never once considered not finishing it.

I suppose the most obvious place to start is the title and cover. I have never had so many comments on a book I was reading as I have for this one. One friend commented that I al More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

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