Picture this: a grandmother, gently smiling, hands her granddaughter a Disney princess costume for her birthday. The mother, caught between nostalgia and practicality, shrugs. It’s harmless fun, she thinks. Meanwhile, the father sits in the corner, eyebrows raised, silently disapproving but unwilling to make a scene. He’s dismissed as the boring old man with too many rules. After all, what’s the harm in letting your daughter fall in love with Disney princesses?
Yes, what is the harm? Let’s consider that question carefully.
1. A View of the World as Liturgical and Sacramental
We live in a world steeped in symbolism. From the rising sun to the evening’s quiet, the natural rhythms of life cry out to us, teaching, forming, and shaping us in ways we often overlook. The world is not just a blank slate of material objects but a deeply liturgical and sacramental reality. Every movement, sound, and symbol embodies a deeper meaning.
Symbols do not merely point to external realities. They participate in those realities, embodying them and forming the way we understand the world. When a child plays dress-up as a Disney princess, they are not just playing; they are imbibing a vision of femininity, identity, and purpose. The question is, what kind of vision is it? And what does it cultivate in the child?
2. Attending to Your Liturgy, Not Just Your Thoughts
Most modern parents focus on guarding their children’s thoughts—teaching them to think critically, to discern right from wrong, to make good choices. But thoughts are downstream from practices, and practices are liturgical. The rhythms and rituals of life—from bedtime stories to holiday traditions—shape the heart long before the mind catches up.
In our visually saturated world, images and symbols serve as “liturgies of the eyes.” Children are constantly catechized by the stories they hear, the characters they admire, and the heroes they emulate. The question is not whether your child is being catechized but what kind of catechesis they are receiving.
3. Shouldn’t We Do This as Anglicans?
For those of us in the Anglican tradition, this perspective should feel deeply familiar. Anglicanism’s sacramental theology teaches us that the physical world is not merely a backdrop for spiritual life but a participant in it. Water in baptism, bread and wine in the Eucharist, oil in anointing—these elements do not merely symbolize God’s grace; they embody it.
If we believe the world is sacramental, how can we ignore the formative power of the symbols our children consume? As Anglicans, we should be the first to recognize the importance of curating those symbols with care.
4. The Disney Princess Dilemma: What’s Good and What’s Bad?
So, what about those Disney princesses? On the surface, they’re harmless. They sing, they dream, they overcome adversity. But dig a little deeper, and the picture becomes more complex.
The good: Many Disney stories emphasize courage, kindness, and perseverance. These are virtues worth celebrating. Cinderella’s humility, Belle’s love for learning, and Mulan’s bravery are admirable traits.
The bad: Disney princesses often embody an idealized vision of femininity that is overly individualistic and consumer-driven. They can become archetypes of self-fulfillment detached from any deeper communal or spiritual reality. When a child identifies too closely with these characters, they may begin to see them as ultimate representations of what it means to be a woman. This is where at least part of the danger lies.
5. Childhood Development and Spiritual Fast Food
Children are liturgical beings. They are shaped not just by what they know but by what they love. And what they love is often formed by what they repeatedly see and do. Just as a steady diet of junk food leads to physical malnourishment, a steady diet of shallow symbols leads to spiritual malnourishment.
Disney, for all its charm, is spiritual fast food. It may taste good in the moment, but it lacks the depth and substance needed to nourish a child’s soul. Left unchecked, it can create a hunger for more shallow, self-centered narratives that fail to point to the richness of God’s world.
6. A Good Liturgy for Childhood Development
What, then, is the alternative? A good liturgy for childhood development begins with a foundation of rich, meaningful symbols. It invites children to engage with stories, practices, and images that point to the fullness of reality.
Consider introducing your child to icons. Unlike Disney characters, icons are not entertainment; they are windows into the divine. An image of Mary, the mother of Jesus, embodies humility, faithfulness, and grace. It invites children to see femininity not as a pursuit of self-expression but as a vocation of self-giving love.
7. Your Child Is a Liturgical Being
When a father cautions against spending too much time with Disney princesses, he is not being overly moralistic or boring. He is recognizing that his child is a liturgical being who will be shaped by the symbols and stories she encounters. His caution is not about sheltering her from the world but about forming her to engage with it wisely and faithfully.
A child raised on rich liturgies will not be unprepared for the world. Quite the opposite: they will be deeply rooted, able to discern the good, the true, and the beautiful amid a sea of shallow imitations. They will have been shaped not by Moana or Elsa but by Mary, the saints, and ultimately by Christ himself.
Conclusion
So, to the grandparents, mothers, and even skeptical daughters reading this: consider not just what your child is thinking but what they are loving. Consider the liturgies they are living and the symbols they are consuming. And when Daddy raises an eyebrow, maybe he’s onto something. After all, isn’t it worth giving your daughter more of Mary and less of Moana?
—Joshua R. Farris, Rev. and Canon in Missio Mosaic, Evangelical Episcopal Communion with the Church of Tanzania. Author of The Creation of Self.
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