“She’s a Dream Come True…” Femininity and the Fantasy Princess in 20th Century Toy Advertisements 

The princess role is dominant among contemporary dolls, marketed almost entirely to girls. But have princesses always played such a central role in the world of dolls, and if not, what explains their emergence? Using an original content analysis of 7,366 toy advertisements from a sample of seven Sears catalogs, I analyze changes in the gender marketing and stereotyping of dolls over the course of the twentieth century, situating these changes within a broader social and cultural context. I find that the extent to which dolls have been marketed to girls – either explicitly or implicitly – and the social roles embedded into dolls have varied over time in ways that mirror larger cultural shifts related to gender. Dolls marketed to girls in the first half of the twentieth century revolved heavily around mothering and homemaking, and it was not until the last decades of the century that the fantasy princess doll made an appearance in catalog toy pages. From this analysis, I argue that dolls which emphasized traditional femininity waned during the second-wave feminist movement as gender stereotypes and social beliefs about gender difference were challenged.  The glittery pink princess doll emerged in the last decades of the century as the idea of essential gender difference regained cultural traction and enduring gender stereotypes were repurposed and repackaged into fantasy toys for children.