RN&R Family Guide 2017

Kindred

Family Guide October 2017

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Family Guide October 2017

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elcome to our October 2017 edition of Family Guide, which I’m stoked to say is all about Halloween.

As a kid growing up in Nevada, Halloween always held a special place among holidays in my heart, second only to Christmas—maybe. I knew Halloween was also a day for celebrating Nevada’s statehood, and I felt a level of pride knowing my state had an association with this coolest of holidays. Of course, back then, I didn’t realize how few states even hold an annual shindig like Nevada’s statehood celebration. Not many do—but I’m certainly glad ours does.

The pomp and circumstance of parades pooled with the excitement of candy and costumes was, for me, a heady mix that constituted the finest day of the year. I’d like to think it’s the same for kids today. But let’s talk about what we’ve got in store for you in this guide.

If you’re looking for some frightening flicks to watch in the coming days, take a look at page 8, where you’ll find a story from our resident movie guy, Bob Grimm. He’s put together a list of recommendations for movies you can watch at home this Halloween.

When it comes to costuming, it’s safe to say that few places do it as well as Reno. From little kids to full grown adults, we’re a community that loves to dress up. In that spirit, we’ve got a few costume-related stories. Josie Glassberg’s piece, on page 10, examines princess culture and the hold it can have on little girls, especially around Halloween. And over on page 6, Matt Bieker has the scoop on grownup getups for the holiday.

For my part in this guide, I got to know a lovely family.

They’re the Kerrs, and for the last 12 years, it has been their joy in life to scare the hell out of people with their annual Slaughter House haunted attraction. You can read their story on page 4.

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Happy Halloween!

Jeri Chadwell RN&R Special Projects Editor

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Flesh and blood Reno’s Slaughter House haunt is a family affair Story and photoS by Jeri Chadwell

hen Eli Kerr founded Fright Fest Productions, which hosted its first haunted house attraction at the Silver Legacy in 2006, he pulled out

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all the stops.

“We had vendors in there and entertainment and fire performers and food,” he said. “We had a kids’ haunted house. We had an alien paintball shoot.”

Kerr, a professional magician who’s been entertaining audiences in Northern Nevada since his teen years in the early ’90s, actually owned all of the requisite parts for the haunted house before he’d ever decided to build it—set design materials, Halloween props for which he’d traded magic props and performance work, plus a warehouse space to store it all.

He also had his family.

“Eli, one day, said, ‘I’m going to build a haunted house,’” recalled his younger sister, Katie Kerr. “I said, ‘All right,’ and then we started building it. I was there, every day, with his drive and ambition—and long hours. We’ve just always been that way. We’re a really close family. He works so hard, and you can’t help but be working right next to him.”

Katie is Eli’s onstage assistant in his magic show.

They’ve been working together since high school and even went on the road together with a traveling stage show. With her background in production management, Eli said, he knew from the beginning that having her help was “just a no-brainer.”

Twelve years later, Katie is still involved. She handles most aspects of production for the haunted

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house—called Slaughter House and now in its fourth year at the baseball stadium—and oversees nightly operations, with help from a sizable crew.

And Katie isn’t the only member of the family who pitches in. The Kerr siblings’ parents often travel to Reno to help watch kids during the event’s annual, month-long run. And then there’s Heather Kerr, Eli’s wife. When the pair started seeing one another in 2012, she quickly found herself swept into the family—and the haunt.

“I think I was just here every day and jumped right in and started building,” she said. “I became part of the process—made sure he ate, got some sort of sleep.”

Heather also does the books for the business and manages the “the duffle bag of receipts and paperwork” Eli brings home.

Even the couple’s son Eli V—now 6-and-a-half (and the half is quite important to him)—likes to play a role. His most recent bit has been as a zombie.

“I scared everyone that came!” said the younger Kerr, who reckons his portrayals have been among the year’s more terrifying. (If you buy it—because the notion of tiny undead people is something you’d never considered but are now terrified of—you’re not alone.)

Last year, he made a few appearances as Chucky.

“He was all about—with his red hair—being Chucky, so we brought him a couple of nights to play around,” Eli said.

Reflecting on the last 12 Halloween seasons, Eli admitted that, for years, he wasn’t sure how

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long Slaughter House would last. Before finding a long-term home at the baseball stadium, then called Aces Ballpark, now Greater Nevada Field, the event jumped from venue to venue, including the Reno-Sparks Convention Center, several years at Meadowood Mall, and a stint inside an underground location at Second and Sierra streets.

“ it juSt keepS GoiNG, keepS GettiNG biGGeR.” eli Kerr owneR of fRight fest pRoductions

But when representatives from the ballpark reached out four years ago, it was with the offer of a multi-year partnership. The new home base—and the security of a contract—put the family business in a position to continue growing.

“It just keeps going, keeps getting bigger,” Eli said. “And more people keep showing up. Now, it’s just become this thing that I plan the rest of my year around, really, whereas, in the beginning, it was something, like, ‘Maybe we’ll do this next year, maybe not.’”

At the entrance to Slaugther House, Katie Kerr sits on the edge of a bathtub next to her nephew, Eli V, and his parents, Eli and Heather Kerr.

PHOTO/JERI CHADWELL

The family ThaT slays TogeTher It really isn’t hyperbole when Eli says he plans the rest of his year around Slaughter House. His first meetings for this year’s haunt took place in February.

It isn’t too surprising considering the event now relies on an average of 150 people, including security guards, set designers, builders, costumers, makeup artists and actors. Some of them—like makeup consultant Jeremy Trader, effects specialist Matt Petrovsky, and Katie’s right hand man in operations Richard Sloane—have been with Fright Fest since the beginning. They’re people the Kerrs say they think of as family—and, over the years, their numbers have grown.

“That’s the best part,” Eli said. “We start with a group of people who are just kids in high school and whatnot, looking for something fun to do, and then they just keep on coming back. They start contacting us in January and February, wondering about it, asking questions about—because they really look forward to the fellowship they have. … As they get a little older, their younger brothers and sisters become a part of it.”

Slaughter House has even served as the backdrop to a number of budding romances over the years.

“There have been a lot of marriages from people who have met and worked together here, and boyfriends and girlfriends,” Eli said. “Yeah, it’s quite the social experiment, really.”

And as the extended family continues to grow, so too does the haunt. By early October, the Kerrs had already packed and delivered eight semi-trucks worth of materials to the baseball field. Eli expects he’ll soon need to buy another semi just to keep up with the volume of props and set materials. It’s planning for the next season, really, but it’s already underway.

“We already have ideas for next year that we just can’t implement this year—time-wise or budget-wise,” Eli said. “We’re always trying to think of something different.”

In the meantime, there are still more Halloween-related details to attend to—both inside and out of the haunt.

“We make time to take little Eli trick-or-treating,” his father explained. “And he’s got a bunch of costumes, you’d imagine—dinosaur costumes, and he’s just got some many outfits.”

The younger Eli chimed in to say he’d like another new one this year. But his old ones will be of use, too. Eli V and his parents recently welcomed a new member to the family—Edison Avery Kerr, born Oct. 7. Ω

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f you were looking for an occasion for adults to dress up in fun and outrageous costumes in Reno, you’d have to be a little more specific. Between Burning Man and a yearly calendar of bar crawls and themed parties, Reno is a town that loves to dress up and go all out. Still, with Halloween fast approaching, those who haven’t kept up with Reno’s costume culture in years past or who want to dial up the effort for this year’s festivities might be at a loss.

Fortunately, there’s no shortage of experts in this town to help you get glammed—or ghouled—in time for the big night.

“Hands down, this town loves its costumes,” said Nichole Paul, manager at Junkee Clothing Exchange in midtown.

“It’s such a social activity here. People get together with their friends, and they all want to be different and look cool. And there’s a lot of costume contests here, and in order to win those, you’ve got to go over the top.”

From its racks of second-hand items and seasonal accessories, Junkee’s personal shoppers specialize in putting together specific costumes with a personal flair that can’t be found in generic Halloween store costumes.

“We try to find out exactly what they’re trying to do,” Paul said. “Are they trying to go scary, or are they trying to go sexy, or are they trying to do a cool couple’s costume?

And then we go from there and find out what they’re into.

You’ve just got to keep an open mind. That’s the one thing with Halloween, is that a lot of people get it in their mind that they have to look exactly like the character, but if you can get the general idea of the character and then accessorize it, everyone’s going to know who you are.”

Investing in and assembling individual elements means having pieces to build off of for future getups as well. A flimsy, premade costume may have all the right details—but would-be Wonder Women and Spider Men might well end up paying more for the studio licensing associated with their costumes, than for the quality with which they were made.

I

by Matt bieker

Cloaks and

daggers Costumers discuss Reno’s love affair with dressing up

“ ReNo has a maGiC to it, aNd CostumiNG is just aNotheR FoRm oF aRt.” esther Dunaway owneR of polyestheR’s

Alice Englelmore receives costume help from Junkee employee Christina Solis.

PHOTO/MATT BIEKER

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A speciAl supplement to Reno news & Review

Speaking of capitalizing on yearly trends, it’s fine to get specific about your chosen character, but being an adult on Halloween also means knowing where the line is when it comes to good taste.

“Last year, a bunch of people wanted to be Bill Cosby, and so they wanted to go in blackface and, of course, did not understand why that would probably not be encouraged,” Paul said. “It’s a huge problem. I would say I have to tell at least a dozen people a year, personally, not to do it, and they just don’t understand why. You can be anybody you want; don’t paint your face another color.”

The same sentiment can extend to ultra-realistic weaponry in public as well. Aside from creating some potentially stressful situations with your fellow partygoers, many bars and venues will probably stop John Rambo at the door.

“We’d highly, highly, highly recommend that any weaponry be obviously fake,” Paul said. “A lot of places are not allowing certain weaponry in, like faux guns and stuff, but you can still get away with like a scepter or the reaper scythe.”

Crawlers should also eschew masks for the same reasons, as many casinos will refuse entrance to people whose faces aren’t visible. Assuming you’re following all the rules and do make it into the club, however, don’t let bulky accessories weigh you down only to lose them later.

“If you’re going out, make sure you can attach all your accessories to your body, either with a strap or a hook or something, because you’re going to put it down,” Paul said.

Creature Comforts The logistical problems of finding a perfect, comfortable costume aren’t something the general public deals with regularly, and it can be too easy to overlook a detail that might ruin your night later. However, members of Reno’s robust cosplay and steampunk communities spend a decent amount of time in elaborate costumes throughout the year—and they have a few ideas on how to make them more comfortable.

Suzanne McMann became interested in Steampunk six years ago. Today, with the members of High Desert Steam, she designs and models her own retro/sci-fi garb in the tradition of Victorian era clothing—a period not exactly known for cozy clothing. The challenges presented by extravagant clothing should always be considered before the first few drinks of the night, however.

“For ladies, especially—and this I learned from my first big Steampunk event … keep in mind how difficult or easy it’s going to be to use the bathroom, McMann said. “You want to think, ‘Can I do this on my own?’”

Corsetry, codpieces and capes might be a fairly specific look for Halloween, but they definitely have their places in the classic

landscape of vampires, pirates and the odd Victorian spectre. And if things start to go awry, don’t be afraid to call in some support.

“Safety pins, carry lots of safety pins,” McMann said.

“Things kind of drift on a regular basis in costume, and if you have the time and the space to carry one, a little sewing kit is great.”

While Steampunk and cosplay are all about going the extra mile for the sake of the character, casual costumers might feel like the time—and financial—investment is beyond their means. However, small details done correctly can be just as effective in creating a specific look.

“One of the trends that I have seen over the past few years is that makeup is a huge detail that people are coming to recognize,” McMann said. “What you wear can be very simple, very basic, with just a few details on it. But forget about masks. If you can make up your face, that will make the character.”

Be on the makeup YouTube and Instagram are inundated with impossibly detailed makeup tutorials that can leave even seasoned costumers scratching their heads. But, since 2008, Reno’s niche costume culture has had a flagship in PolyEsther’s Costume Boutique in midtown, which caters to the many facets of a convincing getup.

“Reno has a magic to it, and costuming is just another form of art,” said Esther Dunaway, owner of PolyEsther’s. “It’s sort of limitless, and yet you have to temper it with reality and budget consciousness. I can’t make a magical pumpkin carriage, but I can make your gown.”

PolyEsther’s makes hundreds of custom costumes every year for everything from Burning Man to Mardi Gras but offers unique services for its Halloween clientele, including alteration services, a full-service wig bar, and personalized makeup classes using Ben Nye theatrical grade makeup.

“People like the group classes, but we’ve been offering solo classes for the same price, honestly,” Dunaway said.

“People want to know, and they want to learn, and YouTube has really inspired that makeup revolution.”

DIYers can also come to PolyEsther’s with loose materials for a custom collaboration, or to find a selection of new and upcycled costume pieces with rental options available for pricier purchases. But those looking for a quick option can also find bag costumes tailored to fit.

“When we get them, we steam them out, all the accessories, and we make them look like they look on the bag,” said Dunaway. “And we also offer alteration services between free and a couple bucks to make it fit you just right, and that’s something no one else does.”

A full list of PolyEsther’s services and Halloween makeup bookings is available online, and class schedules can be found on the shop’s Facebook page.

While there’s no shortage of local businesses and expertise to get you dressed in time for Halloween, the right costume really comes down to one final detail, said Dunaway, and you probably won’t find it in a store.

“Confidence,” she said. “Confidence and execution. Let’s get real. The ice has already been broken when you show up at a costume party, and you’ve all taken the risk to dress up.” Ω

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Screening

bloody murder Halloween horror flicks to watch with your brood by bob Grimm

o, it’s Halloween week and you want to engage in a little family activity, apart from filling your bellies with Nerds, Starbursts, chocolate and broccoli. (Parents always try to up the ante on the nutritional stuff around Halloween to counter the candy intake.)

Why not watch some scary movies with the whole clan?

I’ve put together a list of good, scary flicks that should be OK for the whole brood. Yes, there are a couple of controversial picks in there. (I explain why.) But we’re talking mostly PG, PG-13 and even that crazy G-rating.

Let’s face it, your kids will be sneaking R-rated horror movies soon, so you might as well get them trained on the hard PG stuff now to avoid running nightmare drills when they’re 11 and viewing A Nightmare on Elm Street on the sly.

The number of ghosts listed next to each movie is a scare factor rating, with (1) being the mildest and (5) indicating that you may have kids sleeping in your bed and kicking you through the night after watching it.

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SpielberG Alien Double FeAture

hAlloWeen/ChriStmAS Double FeAture

CloSe enCounterS oF the thirD KinD

GremlinS

WAr oF the WorlDS When I was a kid, I actually thought Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a little scary.

I saw it with my dad, and it was one of the first movies I saw that was, one, about aliens and, two, a father cracking up.

For a good Halloween double feature, go with Spielberg’s Close Encounters with friendly aliens but a weird dad, and follow it with War of the Worlds, with a flawed but determined father fighting bad aliens. It’ll be a strange but enriching family experience to watch one dad react to friendly aliens by building mountains out of mashed potatoes and throwing a bunch of dirt into his kitchen, and another dad become a superhero when aliens try to mulch him and his daughter.

When you're done, you can go for the Spielberg alien trifecta with E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (2). I’m just thinking three movies in a row with the family might be too much. Hey, your kids have some video games and phone apps to explore, right? They need some serious alone time for that shit.

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the niGhtmAre beFore ChriStmAS

These two always make the Halloween and Christmas lists—some scary elements, but probably not enough to cause serious trauma to your youngest kids. The Phoebe Cates “My dad died in the chimney dressed as Santa” monologue is reason enough to include Gremlins as Halloween fare.

beetlejuiCe

Yes, go ahead and show this to kids of all ages while sorting out the candy they just brought home from the neighborhood. (Throw out those apples from the smelly dude down the street.)

Michael Keaton’s wisecracking ghost and all of the comedic depictions of grisly death are a nice warmup for a real ghost story like The Conjuring. But I’d wait until everybody has crossed the 12-years-of-age barrier before The Conjuring. Make sure there’s some shaving going on with all parties before you set eyes on that one.

King Kong (The original 1933 film)

This is a good one for the family to sit down and watch. Not only does it include groundbreaking stop-motion animation, turning what is essentially a puppet into one of the all-time great monsters, but it also contains some rather racist and sexist old-timey Hollywood horrors. You can tackle questions about overgrown wildlife and how our ancestors were racist idiots all in one sitting.

PolTergeisT

The family message here would be “Don’t buy a house for your family that rests atop a sacred burial ground. They might regret it, and this could cause discord around the dinner table.” Take note: Even though it’s rated PG, a guy does claw his own face off in this one, so don’t show it to toddlers. Don’t show it to people who hate trees, either.

iT’s The greaT PumPKin, Charlie Brown

As long as there are devices playing videos, this will be an essential Halloween family watch, accompanied by a bowl of York Peppermint Patties.

Bonus points if the family pet is a beagle.

ghosTBusTers (The original)

The shining

If you want to give the kids nightmares and make them vomit, let them watch the crappy remake. If you want to show them a funny time with decent scares, show them the 1984 masterpiece. You might want to fast forward past the Aykroyd wet dream part, though.

harry PoTTer and The Prisoner of azKaBan

OK, this is one of the more controversial picks on the list and the lone R-rated choice, but I have my reasons.

Firstly, it’s a well-known fact that you might see cackling, old ghoul ladies in your bathtub and the ghosts of murdered children and cackling when riding your Big Wheels around an abandoned hotel. These things happen, and children need to be prepared.

Secondly, if your kids think you’re a jerk of a parent, just show them this movie. Heck, that time you grounded them for throwing dirty socks and bricks at you might’ve made them grouchy, but wait till they get a load of how sucky a dad Jack Nicholson is in this movie. The film also shows how alcohol and axes don’t mix, another nice life lesson for the whole crew.

And here’s a helpful hint: After the screening, put five six-packs of beer in the fridge and stumble around a bit like you’ve been drinking. Leave an axe prominently displayed on your front porch or in the bathroom. Calmly—but with a slight slur—ask your kids to rake the leaves. Not only will that lawn get raked before you finish the sentence asking them to do it, but they’ll probably trim the hedges and shine your shoes, too!

Wizards and witches wave their wand things and fight a nose-less Ralph Fiennes in what was certainly the best Potter movie—arguably the scariest, too.

Happy Halloween, and don’t buy candy for kids if you live in an apartment, unless you are OK with eating the whole damned bag yourself, because kids don’t trick or treat in apartment complexes anymore! Ω

monsTers, inC.

If your young ones think there are monsters in the closet, show them this Pixar gem. Then, when they try to go to bed all hopped up on candy, they will think Sully is the one bustling around in the wardrobe, which will account for your kids spending the whole night in their closets rather than their beds. On second thought, skip this one, or at least give your kids a stern talking to about not making friends with the monster in the closet, no matter how much it sounds like John Goodman. They’ve got school in the morning.

addams family Values

Hey, it says “Family” right there in the title. Plus, it’s good for developing a child’s macabre sense of humor and also qualifies as a nice Thanksgiving primer.

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Pink Pink

slip slip my one-sided, Halloween-themed feud with the disney princess franchise

by Josie GlassbeRG

hey say your children choose you—something about vibrational frequencies and karmic energy that you both need to work out in this lifetime. I have to remind myself of this every Halloween when my 5-year-old daughter’s love of Disney princesses goes from casual mentions to hourly updates about which princess she will be this year. The last two Halloweens it was Elsa, and as of today it is “Ariel the human, not Ariel the mermaid.”

Ouch.

In a perfect world, I have nothing against Ariel or any of the other 10 “princesses” that officially include Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, Belle, Pocahontas, Jasmine, Mulan, Rapunzel, Tiana and Merida. (FYI, the Frozen sisters and Moana are not considered princesses by Disney.) They all have their merits. They are kind, generous and brave. Some of them have real hobbies and talents outside of housework, and one of them doesn’t end up with a prince. They can even fill a very specific

T

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girl-shaped void that you may have experienced as the daughter of second-wave feminists. (Hi, Dad.) But the princesses do not exist in a vacuum. Besides taking up questionable space in their own movies—where, incidentally, women enjoy the smallest speaking parts—they also have big problems offscreen.

It’s a tale as old as time that begins with merchandising and ends with you and me.

Rich as Royalty Since 2000, Disney has promoted its $4-billion “princess” franchise as a way to market its female characters separately from the movies they star in. You’re no doubt familiar with the dolls and toys and have probably seen the faces of the “top five” princesses (Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle and Rapunzel) plastered over everything from stationery to fruit snacks to dancewear. And as much as you may detest the over-the-top pink frills and sparkly plastic everything, you have to admit, it’s genius.

Marketing exaggerated femininity is highly attractive to girls around the time they are forming their gender identities.

Developmentally, this makes sense.

According to research by developmental psychologist Eugene Subbotsky, preschool age children are still grasping the concept of permanence as it relates to abstract ideas.

Examples of this include death, moving away and even gender permanence. In her book, Pink Brain, Blue Brain, neurologist Lise Eliot expands on this magical thinking, pointing out that although 2- and 3-year-olds exhibit gender identity, gender constancy does not take hold for another few years. “According to 5-year-olds,” she writes, “You simply are male or female based on your choice of clothes, toys, hair length, and favorite color.”

Further complicating this gender proving-ground is the tendency for those in the “inflexible stage” of development to view boy-or-girl choices as black or white, blue or pink, right or wrong.

I remember the shock I felt two years ago when my then 3-year-old

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daughter came back from her new preschool with her first—but not her last—gender-related public service announcement.

C: “Only girls are allowed to wear pink, Mom.” Me: “Dad wears pink.”

C: “But he’s not allowed to.”

Coupled with a culture that validates and advertises these extremes, we’re left with a mess of commodified gender roles, adamantly enforced by the children who consume them.

The worst part? Even if the princess phase is “just a phase,” this does not mean it has no effect on what follows.

A 2016 study published in the journal Child Development by Brigham Young University professor Sarah M. Coyne found that the more girls engage with princess movies, toys and merchandise, the more they exhibit stereotypical feminine behavior. Girls who entered the study with a lower body image also tended to be more—not less—interested in princess culture one year later.

As far as long-term effects go, there are no studies that definitively confirm the negative impacts that princess culture has on the adult women who grow up with it.

How could there be? In a sea of gender messaging, Disney is just another nonpoint source of pollution—impossible to trace back because it’s not the only cause. Rather, it’s part of what Peggy Orenstein, author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter, calls the “cute-to-cool trajectory,” which, for girls, is another way of saying the “cute-to-hot trajectory.” It’s an escalator of girlhood that begins with Disney princesses, moves onto Disney Channel princesses, and ends up on the losing side of social media in a neverending performance of identity.

If that sounds bleak to you, I promise you it is not as bleak as the moment I realized my daughter is—without a doubt— riding that escalator.

Fork me A few weeks ago, my daughter and I were driving up to the mountains when we fell into a familiar conversation about princesses. We hit the usual beats—whether princesses are real or not, who is the current favorite princess and which one my daughter has decided to be for Halloween. (Again, it is Ariel the human, not Ariel the mermaid.) At one point, I had an opening to ask her a question I had been wondering about for awhile.

Me: “Babe, what is it that you like about Ariel and the other princesses?”

C: “They are just so beautiful.”

Me: (stabbed in the heart with a dinglehopper)

My daughter, the swimmer, enamored of a mermaid because of pretty—nice-looking, well-meaning, gateway-drug-to-low-selfesteemville pretty. At that point, it was all I could to do to stop myself from banning every escalator, enchanted spinning wheel and princess-plastered object I could get my hands on. But I didn’t …

Although the Princess-Industrial Complex trades in impossible standards of beauty and well-meaning but ultimately disappointing storylines, it has become so ubiquitous that it’s almost useful—at least as a machine to rage against, as a shared language for talking through the insidious bias and sexism hiding inside the stories we tell our children.

It also helps to remember that the Disney princess franchise is not evil. It does not manufacture weapons of war, terminator seeds or Agent Orange. Last year, it launched a charitable photography campaign called #DreamBig that promotes some very unprincess-y images of girls playing hard in their ball gowns while celebrities like Emma Watson say inspiring things in the background.

Progress? Maybe. Disney has always proven itself adaptable, but I can’t help getting the feeling that the fairytale is changing, too.

Princesses are spoiled. Parents are talking to their kids. People are buying Halloween costumes that are a better fit. As for me, I am gluing together a homemade Ariel dress, paying my karmic debt to Disney without giving them a dime. Ω

it’s aN escalatoR oF GiRlhood that beGiNs with disNey pRiNcesses, moves oNto disNey chaNNel pRiNcesses, aNd eNds up oN the losiNG side oF

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