Dave Barry pokes fun at Disney Princesses

[Auggie Doggie]

You should check this out. It is really funny.

No Glass Slipper for This Little Princess

January 28, 2002


WALT DISNEY has taken over my daughter's brain. She's not even 2, but she's already obsessed with the Disney cartoon versions of "Snow White," "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty," all of which have the same plot: The heroine is beautiful, but sad. Or in a coma. But wait! Here comes a handsome prince! He kisses her! She's happy! Everybody's happy! Even the woodland creatures are dancing!

I have big problems with this. For one thing, if you see a squirrel dancing, you are looking at the final stages of rabies. For another thing, I don't want my daughter growing up believing that Handsome Prince Equals Lifetime Happiness, which is the basic Disney message.

The alleged exception is "Beauty and the Beast," wherein the beautiful heroine falls in love with a creature who makes the Wolf Man look like Hugh Grant. The enlightened message of this story, we are led to believe, is: Appearance doesn't matter! Inner beauty is what counts! But this message goes down the toilet at the end when the spell on the beast is finally broken, and he is revealed to be - you guessed it - Gary Condit. No, of course, the beast is a handsome prince. The heroine has no trouble with the fact that she is suddenly hooked up with a guy who looks absolutely nothing like the one she fell in love with. Clearly, she's thinking, "Whew! Now I won't have to shave our babies!"

My daughter soaks up the Disney stories the way a fraternity soaks up beer. Oh, I try to give her some perspective. I try to distract her from these shallow, gender-stereotyping, ludicrously romanticized girlish fantasies by interesting her in realistic, intellectually challenging, character-building activities.

"Sophie!" I'll say, "Let's watch football on TV!" Sometimes, she actually will spend a few minutes watching football with me. She clearly understands the game. When the teams go to the line of scrimmage, she says: "Ready." When they run a play, she says: "Fall down." When a player is lying on the field, writhing in agony, she says: "Boo-boo."

Sophie's commentary is much easier to follow than all that technical stuff about slot formations and zone blitzes. I'd like to see the TV broadcasters take the same approach:

Pat Summerall: Rams ready. Bears ready. Fall down! John?

John Madden: Yes, Pat. Fall down.

Pat Summerall: OK. Rams ready again. Bears ready again. Fall down! Uh-oh ...

John Madden: Boo-boo, Pat.

The problem is that after only a few minutes, Sophie gets bored with football - if you can imagine - and wants to go back to playing Snow White. This is a game she plays 814,000 times per day, using little figurines to act out the parts. Snow White is played by Snow White. The seven dwarfs are played by six dwarfs (Sleepy is currently missing). The wicked witch is played by a Fisher-Price Little People construction worker, who wears a hard hat, as if to say: "I may be evil incarnate, but dang it, I am not exempt from OSHA regulations!" The poison apple is played by a plastic apple from Sophie's play kitchen. It's roughly 10 times the size of Snow White's head; even if she didn't eat it, this thing could scare her into a coma. The handsome prince is usually played by a handsome prince, although recently he was misplaced, so Snow White was awakened from her coma by a romantic kiss

from - a sheep. It's from the Fisher-Price farm set, and as sheep go, it's reasonably handsome.

Over and over, in Sophie's little hands, these figurines act out the story: Snow White is put to sleep by the giant, mutant apple; she is awakened by the handsome prince/sheep; everybody dances around happily, including the hard-hat witch.

But I am not happy. I am eager for Sophie to reach a more mature age - say, 3 - so that I can explain to her, as a concerned father, that men, especially handsome men, are vermin scum. I will inform her that she will not be allowed to date until she is a minimum of 47 years old, and even then, her dates will have to be unattractive.

I will keep horses in the garage, and if a man wishing to date my daughter fails to spook them, I will politely ask him to leave, from behind the machine gun that I will keep mounted on a tripod in the foyer, next to a sign that says: "Kiss this, Prince Charming."

I'm just kidding, of course. I may be a protective dad, but I'm also a realistic and reasonable person. She can date at 46.

BTW, Barry is a local Comedian who wirtes an article every Monday here on Long Island.

[The Mad Hatter]

Er, Barry's local? Actually, he's based out of the Miami Herald, where he's then syndicated across the nation.

But yes, funny stuff.

[Scythemantis]

COMADY GOLD!!!

(Yes,I know it`s misspelled.It`s a catchphrase from another board I visit)

[Singin' Stray Cat]

I read that yesterday and nearly laughed myself sick. It was HILARIOUS! Thanks for posting it!

"That man...is a genius."

[Elven Moon]

That's so true! And where's MY handsome prince *consults watch* He's about 20 years late.

[langden alger]

ah dave barry..how you slay me..your sitcom left our world all too soon. i miss harry anderson. lol...

[The Dork Knight]

Good stuff....

- Foley Is Good

Boo-boo

[Jedigreedo]

Is he sane? Had he really hated those movies like that he wouldn't of let her watch them at that age in the first place.

He scares me, truly... that was funny and scary at the same time. It takes a very brave man to call a toy sheep handsome.

[Nightflower]

See? He shares my theory on why Disney stopped making princess movies!

[Ricochet]

Just more evidence on why Dave Barry should be president!

[optimal321]

That was brilliant! And after all the sequals come out, his daughter can act out those too.

Good call, Disney

[Danielle]

I loooooove Dave Barry. He is incredibly funny. Yes, we even get him here in little ol' Rhode Island.....I recall the article he wrote on cloning. Has anyone else read that one?

[Fantasie117]

Oh, man, that was hysterical. I think I scared my mom with my too-loud bursts of giggling.

[Sandro]

LOL... that was great! Maybe his daughter has the first signs of "Disney syndrome!"