Happy Birthday To Me

Let me start out by saying – Punky Brewster is NOT on Netflix! Sure enough – the little sassy woman captivated me and I got my hopes up that I may see more of her, but no, she’s not there. Now that that rant is over ….

I have to give some insight into the whole world of Disney that is encompassing our lives. I won’t lie and say that I despise Disney – I still like the movies, and maybe I’m just simple-minded, but I was never sucked into these sexualized ideals that exist in these films – I just liked watching cartoons? That being said, I’m not a college-aged princess either; I don’t wear tiaras on my birthday and I don’t collect princess backpacks and stickers. What’s ironic is – my birthday was this past weekend and I came home to a Little Mermaid themed birthday cake from Kroger and a Disney Princess coloring book with a brand new 96 box of crayons. You may be confused – I’m 20 years old, but if an alien was watching from afar, they may be confused about my age.

I am not a college-aged princess, but apparently my family, those who should know me best, assumes that I am still princess obsessed! What does this say about our culture? We don’t know enough about what our family members are interested in, but because she’s a girl (a 20 year old woman, in fact) she must be interested in princesses? Wow. At the very least, my family knows that I am an avid tennis player, but instead of a tennis cake, I get a Little Mermaid cake finished off with pink candles! What does this say about culture? It says that we not only assume that every girl wants to be and is interested in princesses, but also that we value youth enough to celebrate in such a way that it seemed as if I was turning 5 instead of 20.