Wohlwend, K. (2009). Damsels in discourse: girls consuming and producing identity texts through Disney princess play. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(1), 57-83.
I was conflicted as I read this fascinating analysis of the discourse of young children enacting “Disney princess play.” A part of me was repelled by the allowing of corporate images at school. I’m well aware of the damaging feminine and ethnic stereotypes, and the heartless consumerism, that Disney represents. I also know how beloved these stories and the toys that represent them are to children. We can discount popular culture of all kinds as “foolishness” and ban it from school, but that won’t make it go away, and the act of banning it removes us from having any voice, as Wohlwend gently warns us.
Within the kindergarten classroom where the author observed, girls enacted Disney stories and themes, both with dolls and through plays they created on storyboards and presented with child actors. Wohlwend observed girls revising the familiar stories to fit a more active role for female characters. This might not have occurred had Disney play been forbidden entirely.
Although the article was fascinating in general, it is laden with the multisyllabic vocabulary of discourse analysis, which can be rough going.
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