Last week author Mary Hoffman wrote about "pink princess culture" in The Guardian.
"Young girls growing up today are offered an almost exclusive diet of synthetic, commercially exploitative pap," she said and I don't disagree. "Walk into any bookshop and you will find several walls of titles featuring princesses, fairies and other pink, glittery characters." Also true. "The Princess Diaries have made a lot of money for Meg Cabot - sales of five million and rising in 37 countries, plus two Disney films - and are based on the premise embraced by many girls, that they are secretly heirs to a throne." Nope, not arguing with that either.
But then Hoffman writes about her decision to write a princess book herself (Princess Grace). Her justification? "The idea is to beguile little girls into reading what looks like just another princess book - once inside, though, they will find that the central character, Grace, is highly dissatisfied by the conventional princess image."
As is, of course, Meg Cabot's princess heroine, Mia Thermopolis. So, first of all, I take exception to Mary Hoffman using the wonderful Princess Diaries series in her argument against princess books when she clearly hasn't bothered to read them (it also makes me wonder whether she's read the other books she talks about or has simply judged them on their covers).
And second of all, I wonder how you feel about princess books in general. Is Mary Hoffman right? Are they "vacuous and sickening" and do young girls deserve more adventurous heroes or are they just a bit of fun and something all little girls are fascinated by at a certain time in their lives?
So Princess books - Yay or Nay and Why?
[Don't forget it's Yay or Nay day at Hippyshopper, Bridalwave, Dollymix, Corrie Blog, Catwalk Queen, Kiss and Makeup, The Bag Lady, Shoewawa and Shiny Shiny, too!]
