Saturday, January 4, 2014

Everyday pop culture- Glitter, Smarts and Zombie Hunting Princesses


   As I went Christmas shopping one day, I decided to treat myself to a yogurt.  As I snacked and mused on my journal, a mom and her four year old girl sat down next to me. I smiled at the girl and she struck up a conversation with me. Complimenting my Batman T-shirt and noticing a Disney store bag, she asked what I bought. I answered that I purchased a Queen Elsa doll for my niece but I hadn't seen the movie at the time, so I wasn't sure if she might like it. The girl delightfully assured me that my niece would love it because all girls wants to be princesses and wear glitter.

   Princesses and glitter? Is that what all girls want to be now? Did I miss that memo?


   As a believer in balance, I wondered what composed fictional heroines today. Girls are often placed in a position in which all sorts of people try to decide what they should be. You're either smart, tough or pretty but not all three. I rarely hear people say that a girl can wear a tiara and be a smart heroine and though it's no longer strange to encounter smart women in pop culture; in this politically correct era you wonder just what exactly is an ideal girl supposed to be.

   Who were the fictional women in pop culture now? Disney Princesses are timeless and always in but are constantly criticized, often cited as outdated. Monster High Dolls exist for the eccentric girls but supposedly they promote unrealistic body types. Super heroines have never been able to shed their sexed up reputation. Teens have it tougher since Hollywood tends to provide them romanticized versions of even the strongest heroines. 

   I thought about my childhood icons. Buffy always looked fabulous while slaying creatures. Sailor Moon serving justice in her ridiculously sexy outfit, tiara and heart shooting scepter was awesome. Oracle, the wheelchair bound former Batgirl and her birds of prey were girl power personified. Seeing so few of my childhood icons, I worried if my niece would have some of her own.

   Are they really gone though? Disney's newer princesses dream of bigger things than princes and have goals. The DC short Super Best Friends Forever, which stars three very different super heroines, has garnered petitions to make it an actual series. Buffy still lives and though Oracle might be gone, an equally able and intelligent Batgirl still exists. They live on in the comic book universe. Heroine centric films are now blockbusters. Films such as The Hunger Games and The Avengers  feature girls I would've worshipped as a kid. That these women are being held in higher esteem than love crazed girls is also a bonus. 

   They didn't leave, they evolved. They came back with different names to provide women of all ages a myriad of options. Girls that show you can be intelligent enough to outsmart a trickster god, tough enough to take down a government and look fabulous enough while doing both. 

   Christmas came and my niece, rocking a Princess Anna dress,  got her Elsa doll. She loved it, as predicted. I wondered as she played if she would grow up a princess or superhero girl. I noticed she was lining up all her princesses and giving them orders. Puzzled, I asked my sister. She answered that the princesses moonlighted as zombie hunters and they hunted together.  

   I smiled inwardly. Then again being both is always an option.      




Currently Listening To: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Soundtrack
Book on My Nightstand: Nightwing vol.2: Night of the Owls
On my TV: Doctor Who (Series 6)
Pop Culture Item I'm Currently Lusting for: An elusive Castiel Funko Pop doll. 
Random Pop Culture Thought of the Day: "What is the plural for TARDIS?"

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