In James Poniewozik’s the “The Princess Paradox”, he presents an article on modern fairy tales providing strong feminist themes backed with evidence from recent films depicting these tails. While his point that women should be princess like, strong, as well as independent is clearly stated, his erratic sequence of evidence and casual tone takes away from his overall credibility. With unorganized evidence and a hard to read tone it is difficult to take the article seriously.
In the author’s article he presents the idea that girls should follow a more independent manner rather than the stereotype of princess who needs saving in modern films. With evidence from movies like Ella Enchanted where the princess is escaping the binds of having to marry her prince, rather than wait to be saved by her prince it is clear the author supports more feminist themes for modern fairytales.
Poniewozik’s article contains a legitimate claim along with the substance to prove it. While it is disorganized, the articles idea of strong femininity along with grace are present. Clear statements such as “You can have the girly dream of glass slippers and true love,” (Poniewozik, 324) make the purpose of the article very clear. The clear statements such as “she should be pretty in a class president way” (325) provide the reader with the idea that women should aspire to be beautiful and princess like, but in an independent fashion. Again, the author backs his point of being an independent woman, “The title character spends her freetime protesting the discriminatory anti elf and giant policies of the family of Prince Charmont,” but providing no feedback from a female standpoint. The author never mentions the degrading nature of the stereotypical princess theme leaving the reader with and unanswered question.
Along with his unanswered question, the author fails to present his evidence in any sort of an organized manner. The erratic nature of his evidence is easily jumbled and confused. The author is often caught jumping from one story to the next with no transitions making it difficult to truly understand the point the author is attempting to make. In paragraph 5 Poniewozik writes about how all fairy tales end happily and how this is not
always the case, but in paragraph 6 the author then goes on to elaborate on the writing styles of modern feminist authors. This leap in the author’s point makes it hard to draw conclusions on what the author is trying to prove.
As well as an unorganized sequence of evidence and a lack of urgency in regards to fairy tales does no favors to make his claim legitimate. The authors casual nature leaves the reader lacking a sense of importance in the article. With sentences like “(what, The Prince and I would have been too egghead-y)” (325) it is difficult to take the authors claim seriously even more so be persuaded by him. The author also delivers another statement “you find a new kind of Cinderella, one who would rather save Prince Charming, thank you, and who has learned the lessons of feminism- or at least learned to pay lip service to them,” (324). Once again, while this statement is valid and the authors bias is clearly stated, there is just difficult to be moved by the authors casual tone.
In Poniewozik’s article, he clearly states his points of women should be independent and princess like, but these statements while backed with modern examples, are placed in random spots throughout the article jumping place to place making his points hard to follow at times. Along with his unorganized nature in his article his casual tone and casual tone provide no pressure to the reader to change their views on modern fairytales.
