I disagree. Where you are right is that one thing that has always bothered me about gender neutral is that it tends to skew male. That is male is the norm but female is gendered. Pink is girly but blue is gender neutral shorts are gender neutral but skirts can’t be. I hate this. This si changing at my daughter’s preschool there is one boy who rocks his truqoise, pink and purple spotted snow pants and proudly shows them to me on snow days, another one loves his bright pink crocs.

But princesses are awful and so are Barbies. Sure Belle read which is great and with each iteration the princesses tend to get more self actualized BUT 1. body issues the latest princess’s eyes are bigger than her wrists. 2. everything that is marketed with them really pushes consumer culture and the peripheral stories that are created to merchandise tend to be far less progressive than the feature length movies. 3.monarchy/aristocracy wealth as the prize — I mean really aren’t we beyond this yet? and pretty much all i said applies to Barbies too only perhaps even more so.

Yes you can play with disney princess material and Barbies in more progressive ways your Barbie can fix the car. But that is not what she is designed to do with her high heeled feet and ridiculous wardrobe. These thins are purposefully designed to encourage mass consumption and push uneahlthy gender and class issues — why give your child these things in the hope that they use them in a more progressive way.

I wouldn’t necessarily forbid my daughter from watching and playing with these items but I intend to shelter my child as long as possible from this garbage.