The Toy That Insults Everyone

For Eliza's first birthday last year, she received this Little People Princess Castle from her grandparents. At first, I was just slightly annoyed that it was another large toy we were going to have to find room for with little pieces we were going to lose. Then we got it home and played with it and realized it's basically the best toy ever.

It's like every girl (and mom's) dream--princesses, singing, dancing, castles--it just doesn't get any better. And to add to the fun, for Christmas Eliza got the pack of all seven princesses, as well as Ariel and Eric's underwater carriage. I was beside myself.

We brought it all home and tried out all our new treasures. Each princess sings a different song and says a few different things. That's about when I started wondering about the hidden agenda of this toy.

Now I'm not ultra-feminist or anything, but some of the messages coming from this toy surprised me. Most notably from Snow White who happily sings, "I'm waiting for my prince, to sweep me off my feet." Ok, let's be honest, lots of women in real life are probably thinking the same thing (maybe not in such a bubbly tone), but nobody wants to admit it. So either Snow White is an extremely brave and strong woman for admitting that she wants a relationship or she's stuck in the dark ages. We'll see how that plays out for her.

This all isn't helped by the fact that we now have 9 women living together in a castle with one man. And the only way to get more men is to buy them in a two-pack with their princess.

But it's not all good for the men. Upon our return home with our brand new Eric little person, we realized...he doesn't speak! I guess that's how the princesses like their men. Dressed up fancy and mute.

Then there's Princess Tiana, the African-American princess from The Princess and the Frog who, with her mammy style accent and talk of cooking giant meals, is just a little bit questionable.

Despite all this, I can't help but love this silly castle. We'll just have to fix Eliza later so she doesn't go through life believing that womankind's sole purpose is to find a husband, men are better seen than heard, and black people leave the "g" off of all words ending in "ing."