The Princesses of Detroit

Like a lot of little girls I suspect, Zoey has a little fascination with princesses. It started, I'm sure, with her story books. The old Disney books are the worst culprits of this wicked fairy tale gender stereotyping deal. It's awful. I'm not particularly sensitive about such things but I'm regularly flabberghasted by the over the top stereotyping. Every one of those books has a princess that needs kissing or rescuing from some chiseled jaw looking prince with bad hair. It's ridiculous. So it shouldn't have been surprising when I played this Supremes video at the kitchen table this morning and Zo asked if the girls were princesses. I suppose they look like it. I told her the first thing that popped into my head.

"Yes," I said confidently, "they are princesses. They're the Princesses of Detroit."

She seemed satisfied with that answer. Me too. They definitely were. My Mom remembers a year, 1967 or '68 she thinks, where absolutely every song on the radio was a Motown song...every one. The world's never seen that kind of a musical phenomenon before and never will again. Princesses of Detroit indeed.