DPS Disney Princess Syndrome

"Just because they wear the tulle doesn’t mean they’ve drunk the Kool-Aid."

http://www.swancher.com/word/mcphee/

according to Jo Paoletti, an associate professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, it ain’t so. When colors were first introduced to the nursery in the early part of the 20th century, pink was considered the more masculine hue, a pastel version of red. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin Mary, constancy and faithfulness, was thought to be dainty. Why or when that switched is not clear, but as late as the 1930s a significant percentage of adults in one national survey held to that split. Perhaps that’s why so many early Disney heroines — Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Wendy, Alice-in-Wonderland — are swathed in varying shades of azure. (Purple, incidentally, may be the next color to swap teams: once the realm of kings and N.F.L. players, it is fast becoming the bolder girl’s version of pink.)

Singer/ songwriter P!nk introduces a song "Stupid Girls" with a video that expresses the same worry, that females would be trapped in their minds and psyche of damsel in distress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR4yQFZK9YM

And yet, little girls all over the world, play with Barbie* and dress-up in mom's clothes and look at their worries parents. Smile happily. “But, Mommy?” they add. “When I grow up, I’m still going to be a fireman.”