This 7-year-old wrote a book to prove black girls can be princesses, too
Todd Taylor’s nickname for his 7-year-old daughter Morgan was “Princess,” but one day she told him he couldn’t call her that anymore.
Morgan told Today that she explained to her father, “I love it when you call me a princess but I know I am not really a real one … Real princesses were vanilla and I can’t really be a princess.”
Almost all of the princesses in movies and books Morgan had seen were white. “I received the biggest wake-up call,” Taylor told Today.
So he and his daughter researched women leaders of color — and found that, actually, there are a lot of stories of black and brown princesses.
Morgan and her dad decided to write a book together, so other kids could learn about inspirational princesses of color.
Their book, Daddy’s Little Princess, is out now, and Morgan and her dad say the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
process. Inking on paper, then compositing layers of different colored papers and tones in photoshop. This was a commission for: http://saburwulf.tumblr.com/
What You Can Do [To Name The Problem Of Male Violence]
1. Replace the phrase “violence against women,” everywhere you or your feminist organizations currently use it, with the phrase “male violence against women” or possibly “male-pattern violence against women.”
2. Specifically name the most prevalent kind of domestic violence as “male-pattern violence in the home.”
3. When writing and speaking about male-pattern violence, actively name the perpetrator or at least the gender of the perpetrator: “A man raped a woman.” Do away with expressions such as “a woman was raped,” “her rapist” and every kind of wording that focuses on rape as a problem only for women.
4. Wherever possible, present statistics about violence in ways that clearly indicate the gender of the perpetrator, not just of the victim: Instead of “Every 15 minutes a woman is raped,” which makes rape seem like a female problem, try “Every 15 minutes, a man rapes a woman.” Or better: “Every 15 minutes, a man commits a rape.”
5. Call people on their defensiveness against acknowledging male violence. Watch for the classic defenses (see Ways People Deny Male Violence) and point them out.
6. Know the statistics and cite them often.
7. Talk about male-pattern violence openly and constantly. Make sure everyone you know is aware of this particularly masculine problem. Discuss it with your children. Discuss it with male friends. Discuss it with female friends. Discuss it in classrooms, in gossip sessions, and in bars.
8. Study the phenomenon. Examine how the construction of masculinity contributes to the commission of violence. Read what researchers such as James Gilligan are finding about why men become violent.
9. Encourage men to explore and question the cult of masculinity. If you are a man, call other men on their unexamined acceptance of mainstream masculinity.
