The Bunny and the Princess, Yours for $45.98 Each

Ashton-Drake Galleries does it again -- another collectible "baby" doll, sure to put you into a sugar coma.

For $39.99 plus $5.99 shipping, you can have this 5.5"-tall resin doll (complete with "plush bunny hat"). Of course, this is actually just the first in a series of figures called "Hats Off to You!" and by requesting the bunny doll, you're asking to be signed up for the whole series ("You may cancel your subscription at any time").

What's next in the series? Why, it's "Princess in Training," of course!

What is this obsession that so many Americans have with calling little girls "Princess"? Last night at a restaurant, an extended family was seated next to me and I heard the grandmother ask the two-year-old girl if she was a princess in that voice adults use with young children. I don't think the kid was labeling herself that way; it was grandma's suggestion.

Nobody calls little boys "Prince" (except one family in Minneapolis). Princess is part of the way people assure themselves of a girl's femininity (interlaced with layers and layers of pink and purple). Prince, on the other hand, has a vaguely effeminate air to it.

Ashton-Drake Galleries is actually the Bradford Group, a $5.5 million, 80-employee, privately held marketing company based in Niles, Illinois (near O'Hare Airport). As I read on one site that described the business, Bradford's primary market is women over 35 years of age.

I don't mean to speak for my gender and age group, but geez, women, can't we get over this willingness to fork over cash for creepy plastic dolls?