It had to happen sooner or later. With Barbie and now Hannah Montana merchandise dominating the tween to early teenage market in Malaysia, products for young Muslim women in hijab are starting to appear, particularly on the bookshelves. And they look very pink.
"Thank you, Puteriku" by Nora Isa
The increasing pinkness of girl’s books can be directly connected to the uninterrupted rise of a global consumerist culture that worships Hollywood celebrity culture in Malaysia; from businesses that name themselves after American cities for prestige to the local edition of Cosmopolitan magazine that represents the arbiter of modern Malaysian female sexuality. And by following the lead of Barbie and Hello Kitty manufacturers’ lucrative use of the color pink, local book publishers do the same to gain a monopoly on young female readers.
Of course pinkness would not be complete without princesses. I’d like to point out here that although princesses have long been present in Malaysia, both in reality and in legend, none looks strikingly similar to a Disney princess as the female protagonist in Azian Aiman’s Sayalah Puteri Raja! (I’m the Princess Here!). Causing the most concern for me is its depiction of princesses as celebrities and objects of female envy, as revealed on the back of the book:
Zara steps out of the car and waves to a crowd that screams her name.
“Princess Zara! Princess Zara!”
“Oh, how beautiful she is! How wonderful it would be to be just like you, your highness!”
“I want to be like Princess Zara!”A cacophony of screams fill the already chaotic air. Is she witnessing a mass hysteria? Zara cannot hide her excitement at being the object of worship.
Sayalah Puteri Raja! Or, "I'm the princess here!"
Now, I’m not the only one here who thinks that princesses make one of the worst kinds of role models. They’re expected to be beautiful, rescued by Prince Charming, and either acquire or inherit wealth and royal status patrilineally. But then, stories of princesses and other beautiful heroines make an obvious progression towards the Malay novel’s main theme: romance. The contemporary romance novel is pretty much the only form of Malay fiction writing one can read today. So pervasive is the Malay romance novel that it’s even taught in schools as ‘Malay literature’.
The stylish repackaging of the young adult novel is part and parcel of the mainstreaming of ‘Islamic culture’ aimed to reach out to younger Muslim Malaysians, but the appropriation of religious language in a narrative that celebrates fame and beauty needs to be seriously questioned especially when one is entitled, Saya Mahu Saiz S or “I want a Size S” by Ain Maisarah which is about, you guessed it, dieting and being thin. Also designed in pink, Saya Mahu Saiz S is written for a young readership and already it’s sending out narrow definitions of what is beautiful, acceptable, and feminine.
In Malaysia, there is no end to the litany of anti-Western sentiment aimed at the pop culture-loving Muslim youth. But none of this is directed at criticising the subtle and insidious world of Western-style consumerism that is slowly reshaping the definition of femininity. It’s not enough putting a hijab on a fair-skinned Disney princess-lookalike and say it’s uniquely Malaysian or even Islamic. This is something we’ve failed to be critical about. There is an unsettling undercurrent of hypocrisy and self-hatred that fuels the aspirations and consumption patterns in this country, and it’s high time that those are taken seriously.
Why is every little girl everywhere made to love princesses?? I recently read an interesting article about how Disney is successfully milking little girls’ love for princesses here in the US through its Disney Princess franchise. This is causing great concern among parents, because due to the economic recession they are unable to satisfy their little girls’ insatiable appetite for everything “princessy” (they were also worried about how they could satisfy their little boys’ appetite for everything super hero related). What I don’t understand is why parents even allow their kids to become avid consumers of material things at such a young age! I guess when materialist consumer culture is allowed to run rampant we saw its awful results upon everyone including our children. Malaysia seems to be turning into a materialist consumer culture too as this post attests. And the use of Islam to gloss over this fact doesn’t help things; if anything it dilutes Islam’s basic message, which is that we shouldn’t become too materialistically attached to the Dunya lest it makes us forget about the Akhirah.
Love it Alicia!
Barf. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a warrior or soldier. I would have liked to see a female brown GI Joe. I used to cut the hair of all my Barbie dolls and I would play torture with them, pretending to kill them in roadside bombs.
i’ve always resented pink and the word “princess.”
This is definitely consumerism. For one, the whole “tween” thing is nothing but an invention by the corporations to sell products to kids between the ages of 8 and 12. Getting kids to purchase products is happening earlier and earlier, to ensure they become consumers in the future.
It kind of makes me angry, to honest. And using consumerism to counter another form of consumerism? Ugh. I agree with RCHOUDH, I don’t understand why parents are allowing kids to become these consumers, especially so early in their lives.
And written by Cycads.
It would be alot better if Malay women were encouraged to emulate the wives and female companions of the Prophet Muhammad (saws). These women were intelligent, humble, brave and charitable not ditsy, materialistic and driven by jealousy as the ‘rolemodels’ described here.
I HATE THIS PRINCESS STUFF! Really, really, really hate it. I have two daughters and we can’t escape it. At the dentist that *@&$@! assistant tells my 3 year old “we’re gonna make your teeth nice and pretty. You want princess teeth? We’re going to give you princess teeth.”
WTF are princess teeth!?
I’ve had to talk and talk and talk until I’m blue in the face to help my girls (5 and 3) understand why princesses are NOT role models, especially not for two brown Muslim girls. And they know not to ask for that stuff in the store. I refuse to buy anything even hinting at princesses. I’ve given up on the pink though, they have a closet full of it. Pick your battles.
[...] 2 June, 2009 by cycads Update: An extended version of this post can be found at Muslimah Media Watch [...]
@ Saliha
LOL I’ve had to deal with the princess stuff too for awhile. My daughter who’s 7 always wants the Disney Princess whenever she sees ads for them at her grandparents house. I just tell her “We’ll see” whenever she asks for all that crap. I haven’t let her watch those Disney princess cartoons yet because I know it’s an opening towards sucking her into the vapid “princess” consumer lifestyle. It helps that we’re not living in the US and don’t own cable so she’s not as exposed to these stupid ads and movies now. Sometimes when we visit the bookstore, she wants different variations of the same story “Cinderella”, “Snow White”, and my husband always remind her that it’s a waste to buy different books telling the same stories over and over again so now she understands. But yeah it’s sometimes inescapable no matter how hard you try to shield these influences from them.
Well parents would have to ban their kids from watching tv, videos, all advertizing everywhere and ever meeting kids that have more stuff than they do. So I guess that’s an option.
Though I read a while back that(I think) Sweden bans advertizing on children’s programming, I wonder how that’s worked out for them.
I get tired of the princess stuff too.
@saliha and RCHOUDH: your examples give me hope. If I have children and especially daughters, I do not want them ever getting any princess merchandise or ever wanting to be princesses. But it is so hard. I work at an Islamic school and I see so many of the little with all types of princess gear. It really surprises because all the little girls are South Asian and Arab and the princess stuff does not seem reflective of who they are.
[...] from Muslimah Media Watch It had to happen sooner or later. With Barbie and now Hannah Montana merchandise dominating the [...]
Faith: ditto. I even see my high schoolers with princess stuff. Not just making shiny wire tiaras in class but sporting actual Disney princess gear.
Girls, please. If you have to emulate a princess, we have a perfectly good one right here in Thailand. She even visited our school last year. No pining for a prince, no glamorizing, no pink frippery — just helping the people. Think about that when you argue over who gets to wear the wire tiara.
One could lay a little blame on Puteri UMNO (UMNO Princesses?), the ruling party’s female “youth” wing, with its pink uniforms. Maybe pink rolls downhill, to borrow a phrase.
[...] crossposted from Muslimah Media Watch [...]
[...] by Guest Contributor Alicia, originally published at Muslimah Media Watch [...]