Over the weekend, I was both amused and appalled by the recent news article about the 14-year-old girl who threatened American Airlines over Twitter. (For those of you that maybe didn't see this story, here's a quick recap: the girl tweeted at American Airlines that she was really a member of Al-Qaeda and that she would do something "big" on June 1st. American Airlines tweeted back that they reported her to the FBI and on Monday she was arrested.) The only logical explanation I could think of for such stupid, stupid behavior was that she just wanted the attention. Based on her tweets after the incident in which she essentially freaked out over the whole thing, I think my explanation fits.
It seems like a lot of younger girls today have become obsessed with this notion of getting attention and subsequently becoming famous. Famous for anything--it doesn't seem to matter how stupid the circumstance. I cannot help but think that this relates back to the idea of princess culture. After all, what is a princess if she is not famous? There are similar traits in both: the love of a mass of people, the riches, the glory. Maybe this push for fame is the modern incarnation of princess, as actual achievement of such status is impossible. Disney, the company that once pushed primarily the dream of the princess, now focuses more on gaining fame. (Hannah Montana being a prime example of this and no doubt has inspired young girls to aspire to be rock stars over being princesses.) I think it would be interesting to see any research done on this new evolution (or replacement, possibly) of the princess culture.
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