Should Kids Be Banned From Tanning Salons?

I think I may have missed the point too. I grew up with Disney princesses, Barbie, and easy bake ovens. I also grew up learning about women like Nellie McClung, Emily Murphy, Henrietta Edwards and the rest of the "the Famous Five" I watched Roberta Bondar go into space. I watched Kim Campbell become Prime Minister. I played princess and had tea parties, but I also took my same princess dolls and tormented my sister by destroying her Barbies. I blamed Cinderella when all the Barbie dolls had head transplants, and it was Snow White and GI Joe who launched Barbie into "space" with a bottle rocket and parachute.
My mom taught me what was real and what was fake, that to aspire to be anyone other than myself was to sell myself short, for even "real" hero's have flaws. As an adult I like sparkly things, make-up, getting my nails and hair done. I also like to advocate for those who are unable to do so themselves. I fight against social injustices and I fight for change. A Disney princess may have taught me dream, Margaret Thatcher taught me how to achieve. There is nothing wrong with looking "pretty" while kicking ass.

I've been following this on going argument/debate for a while now. I fail to see how a different drawing of Merida is destroying my daughter's ability to identify with what's healthy body type and a cartoon exaggeration. If this version of Merida is so wrong with her "rib removal", "boob job" and all the make up and sparkles... can some one please tell me what sort of doll my daughter should be playing with? Someone mentioned that women should be shown with "few warts, a zit or two and a pound extra". What dolls/toys represent that? What toys for girls are acceptable in your house?

It feels like there is no winning. Disney released an illustration that was horribly off model. I agree that the sparkles and make up are not what the character is about and that Disney screwed that part up. Just go to the Disney princess site and you'll see that they rarely draw their own characters properly. At this point any sort of Disney response will just be met with more anger and finger pointing. Should they have just drawn Merida as she is in the movie? Yes, but I also feel that the one they released isn't destroying little girls.

I also must admit that I'm a bit confused with all of this. Based on what I've been following, girls aren't allowed to be sparkly? They aren't supposed to play with the fantasy of being a princess or that there is a prince coming to take them to the ball. Because thats what I'm hearing. If they do pretend that, then they can't use Disney as a base for that, they must pretend within healthy body structures and not what the popular society and marketing says a princess is? Who says that's what they're doing? When my daughter pretended to play princess, I never stopped her and questioned her on it.

I feel like my daughter shouldn't have the things she enjoys (princesses and sparkles) and that Disney is evil to the core because others say so. I don't think that a poorly done, off character drawing is going to wreck my daughters idea of a healthy body image. I give my daughter credit that she understands the difference from real life and a drawing. She also plays Mario games and she doesn't think that Italian men are all fat nor does she feel we need a dog fighting ring in our back yard because she plays Pokemon.

Am I missing the point here? Do we really think that Disney is the bane of all evil for little girls?