Gender: Disney catching up; will America follow?

Re: “Disney ruins classics with trigger warnings,” (TNT, 11/15).

Columnist Christine Flowers ends her piece by asking: Isn’t is possible for girls to watch dated Disney movies and “both sigh with delight, and one day grow up to be president?”

I wish it were that simple, but it’s yet to be seen whether a girl can break through long-held stereotypes and one day be president.

The reality is that men and women from varying political beliefs still get uncomfortable or viscerally angry if Cinderella does indeed decide to “buy her own darn pair of shoes,” or declare that she thinks she should run the kingdom instead of the prince.

I enjoy the classics, but applaud Disney for its efforts in recent years to portray girls as so much more than princesses who need saving. Hopefully one day we will not just pay lip service to the idea that a little girl can grow up to be president in America, but accept it as true.

This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Gender: Disney catching up; will America follow?."