The Prince and the Dressmaker

Alexis Greenberg

The book The Prince and the Dressmaker contains affirming themes and plot points regarding gender identity, as well as relatively new elements to inclusivity in children’s literature. Specifically, the book shows a male protagonist in a fairy tale who expresses himself through traditionally feminine clothing and breaks society’s gender norms. Despite these steps forward, many of these progressive plot lines rely on stereotypes and secrecy of one’s true identity, and the main female character has to rely on men to reach her goals. One can point out many examples in this book where gender norms are still active and men have it easier than women. The question then arises if The Prince and the Dressmaker has enough positive portrayal and representation in comparison to other existing children’s literature to be considered progressive.

11 thoughts on “The Prince and the Dressmaker

  1. At first, I thought that this book was breaking gender roles and extremely progressive, but at a second glance and after hearing your thoughts Alexis I would agree that this book is not quite as progressive as it could be and the prince Marcel not receiving repercussions for his actions is still ridiculous and may give kids the wrong idea. Also, the fact that Frances’s career is only furthered by men isn’t progressive in the sense of women’s rights and equality.

    1. Hey Maya,

      Thanks so much for looking at my project :) I also thought the book was progressive at first but I was amazed looking into reasons it’s not, and I’m glad you learned something new!

  2. After hearing your presentation, I would agree that the book isn’t as progressive as it first came across. I think it had the right idea, but the execution wasn’t the best. The whole “outing someone and not having any repercussions” thing REALLY surprised me! That isn’t something we want kids to be reading since it won’t come off as wrong to them. I also agreed with the part about the cover. Realistically, authors have to worry about the market and if things will sell. It isn’t ideal, but it’s realistic. Great job!

    1. Thanks so much for looking at my project! I agree that the execution was where the book mainly lacked, and I’m glad you can agree with me that having no repercussions is a bad example for children. Yes, the marketability boundary is the sad reality of making progressive content :( I hope that in the future progressivism is more easily marketed as what it truly is!

  3. Before hearing what you had to say about this book, I definitely thought it was progressive. However, the points you made changed my mind. This graphic novel could have done more to represent the LGBTQIA+ community and move in a progressive direction. You made a great point when comparing this book with others that are being published. You said that Prince Sebastian was in this box he had to break out of, but in other recent children’s books, people were widely accepted and didn’t necessarily have to hide their identity at first. Well done Alexis!

  4. At first, I thought of this book as progressive. However, after hearing what you had to say about it, I would agree with you. This book could have done more to represent gender differences and break stereotypes. I also liked the comparison you made with newer children’s literature. You mentioned how Prince Sebastian felt like he was in a box he had to break out of, whereas in more recent children’s literature, people are widely accepted for who they are and don’t necessarily have to hide their identity. Well done Alexis!

  5. I think the points you made regarding The Prince and the Dressmaker’s progressive values were very astute! After reading it, I was rather impressed with its representation of non-binary characters, likely because we so rarely see them in other picture-oriented books. However, there are some slightly problematic areas of the plot and book design that you discussed in the video that are making me re-think the overall message of the book. For instance- the remarks you made about the book cover were spot on and I had been irked by the misrepresentation of the story as well. It presents itself as a modern-fairytale with almost no indication of Sebastian’s true identity, and while I can understand how marketability and progressive values do not always align, I, too, was disappointed by how vague and unassuming the cover art is. You did a wonderful job questioning the effect of The Prince and The Dressmaker and I agree with you in full! Thanks so much!

  6. I am a reader who tries to let the title of a book catch my attention and considering the title of this book I too would have had a misperception of the goal and direction of where this book was going. I would have thought this book’s intentions were to go in a progressive direction as you had discussed and ultimately it would have left me disappointed. It’s great that you still found it to be a good read in the end, but I am sure you had high hopes for it and others similar to you who pick it up at first glance would as well. Hopefully, as you said with books constantly being published there can be hope for better books in the future that are truly progressive and looking to be the change.

  7. I really liked your thoughts about The Prince and the Dressmaker, especially your detailed analysis of how it portrayed gender roles, and how it’s been marketed. I think that a lot of things in the book, including Prince Sebastian being outed, and Frances’s reliance on help from men, are both mainly products of the book being set in the past. But, because the rest of the book doesn’t feel like accurate historical fiction, I also agree that they don’t fit in quite right. I feel like the two main ways to tell a progressive, LGBT-friendly story are either to set it in a harsh environment where people have to fight to be accepted. Or instead, to set it in a more idealistic world where everyone gets to be their authentic self. And even though I like the Prince and the Dressmaker a lot, I think that it often went back and forth between these both these ideas, which made it feel slightly jarring. I think that if the book was slightly longer, the author-illustrator’s ideas about these topics could’ve been fleshed out more.
    I really liked watching your review of the Prince and the Dressmaker!

  8. I think your project is very interesting. However, I believe that the choice for cover is a conservarsal idea. Since you said that the book cover choice is not best to represent the story and the content of the book, but if the book’s cover is created to also market to people who do not support the LGBTQ community if they saw the content of this book, they would just return it, or not buy it at all, since most parents check children book content before buying. Thus, if the book’s cover ( which is what represents to content ) is changed for marketing’s sake, I believe this would backfire on the purpose of educating children on the matter of gender equality.

  9. While I’m all for breaking gender roles and stereotypes, I can definitely agree that the so-called progressive values of this book fall flat in the execution. I don’t usually enjoy idealistic books which completely take homophobia or bigotry out of the picture entirely, but I have qualms with the outing of somebody with no consequences or backlash at all especially in a children’s book. I can understand the power dynamics and the “need of a man” in terms of the setting and the gender roles that are already in the book for the main conflict, but it doesn’t add up with the supposed progressive story. With the cover, the market and what is deemed socially acceptable enough to the largest masses, will always prevent progressive story-telling for a while.

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