Fantasy Magazine also published an article last month, The Princess is Dead, Long Live the Princess! by Helen Pilinovsky. Helen has been writing about fairy tales for years now and I always enjoy her work. She has also been co-editor of Cabinet des Fées.
Here's the first paragraph introduction to entice you:
Princess. These days, it’s practically an epithet, but when the fairy tale was at its zenith, there was a clear correlation between hereditary rank and innate worth. Somehow, despite the shift in our values, there’s a certain segment of the population that is still held by the spell of the fairy tale princess. It’s not the fans of fairy tale retellings—who tend to subvert the princess—but little girls and their mothers, a demographic targeted by Disney. Between the two extremes, the princess occupies an uneasy territory between traditional values, progress, and reclamation. From word-of-mouth storytelling to printed texts to cinematic adaptations, the princess has been defined and redefined in remarkable ways.
PS: I know an image of Shrek Princesses was an odd choice to illustrate this post, but when I used "princesses" in Google images for inspiration, this was one of the few images that wasn't of a Disney princess or princesses. How many people in our cultures now associate the term with Disney at first thought? The Shrek princesses made me happy after all that Disney overload...
Linking all princesses to Disney does happen, despite my best efforts otherwise. I asked my 9-year-old why she didn't like princesses, and she said it was because all they did was wear pink and stand around. She wanted someone more sporty. I mentioned princess hero tales (that I've even told her) but it seems the pink princess model is imprinted, sadly, already!
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