My 8 & 7 year-old daughters accompanied me to a Daddy Daughter Dance last night. At the event, there was a young lady I’d worked with in local theatre dressed as a Disney princess. My girls were enchanted, and the heart of this daddy was full as the evening was spent treating my girls like the unique, special creatures they are.
There’s something about seeing your girls dressed up as a Disney princess that sets every father’s heart a flutter. It represents an ideal most of us have for our daughters – to see them made glorious, pristine, and perfected. Along with those dresses comes a dignity that says, “I am someone who is to be respected and admired. You are a lucky person should I give you my attention.”
But things are not so dignified at Disney these days. After three months on the job, Disney’s new chief corporate affairs officer Geoff Morrell has resigned. This is not a huge surprise after Disney’s image and stocks have tumbled in light of revelations regarding what is seen as an agenda to “groom” kids regarding their sexual identity.
Whatever your own beliefs about human sexuality, the idea of someone indoctrinating their personal views into the minds of your children without your consent is deeply troubling. Even though they may think they are trying to help the child, this attitude betrays a lack of respect for the role of the parent as the main guardian of the child’s education and development.
I’ve listened to people say parents are overreacting. However, when the President this week told a room of educators that the kids they teach are actually “their kids” and belonged to them as well as their parents, every parent who loves their child is going to respond. When the leader of the free world tells a room full of strangers they have the same authority over our kids as we do, don’t be surprised when parents revolt.
I have many friends with a wide variety of ideas about human sexuality and its boundaries. I introduce them to my children trusting them to keep any discussions age-appropriate and to respect my role as their parent. Some friends identify sexually in ways I struggle to understand, yet I respect their right to make choices in their own lives.
But part of being a father is the responsibility to protect your kids. So talk to my children about sex without my knowledge, and you’ll soon be identifying as a piñata.
If my attitude makes me a neanderthal, so be it. I am not about to abandon several thousand years of thinking about human sexuality, as well as Biblical teaching on God’s standard for sex, for the latest fad. I will not sacrifice my children on the altar of societies whims. Wait a couple of mittens and those whims will change once again.
You may say that Disney princesses aren’t realistic, and you’d be right. But that completely misses the point. They were never meant to be real, but ideal. Putting on a dress worn by Belle, Cinderella, or Snow White made every little girl a beauty. Sure, those girls have talents and abilities to be celebrated as well. But the dress said, “Even if I lacked any other admirable quality, I am a young woman worthy of respect. I am a princess, regardless of any other attribute or accomplishment”.
There was never anything sexualized about a Disney princess. They were all beautiful in their own way, but you were never allowed to see a man look upon them with lust – only respect and a desire for their favor. Though this was completely unrealistic, it was also completely appropriate. The films weren’t made for adults. They were made for little girls who needed to feel valued, and little boys who needed to be taught to respect them. No little girl should have any idea they are a sexual object to be leered at, especially before they even know what sex is.
Will some of those boys and girls grow up to question those traditional ideals? Probably. Does that mean the ideal should be destroyed? Of course not. Should it be sexualized to be more realistic? Only if you believe sex and children is something that goes together. And anyone who believes that should be put where they have no contact with a child ever.
A Disney princess is how most fathers want to view their daughters. The fact some may decide later to cast off those ideals doesn’t change that. No daughter will always look like a princess, just as no boy will always act like a prince. But it is an honorable thing to teach them they were created with a divine dignity, and to see themselves as royalty. That is how their heavenly Father sees them too…
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” – 1 Peter 2:9
I feel sad the Disney corporation wants to inject sexuality into fairy tales to make a more realistic representation of the world. We never came to Disney for realism, we came for stories of beauty, honor, and the triumph of human kindness in the end. That concept may not be realistic, but it is certainly a nice world to visit while we wait for this one to be transformed and for all of us to become the royalty God intended us to be.
