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Sonia Sotomayor and Sesame Street (Part Deux): Be a Lawyer, Not a Princess!

Justice Sotomayor tells little girls that being a princess isn't a viable career option. But is being a lawyer a viable option these days?

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Back in February, we wrote briefly about Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s appearance on Sesame Street, where she settled a dispute between Goldilocks and one of the three bears. The justice recently made another appearance on the show, but instead of debating the apparent new meaning of “Tickle Me Elmo,” she instead decided to crush the hopes and dreams of little girls the world over when speaking about viable career options. Imagine how many of them started sobbing when Sotomayor announced that they wouldn’t be able to become princesses.

As a brief aside, perhaps this wouldn’t have been an issue if Mitt Romney had been elected president. If PBS didn’t exist, Supreme Court justices wouldn’t have free rein to make our children cry via basic cable.

So what does Justice Sotomayor advise when it comes to realistic career aspirations for little girls? Well, it may be time to throw away those pink tutus and bedazzled tiaras in favor of a dark robe and a doily….

Check out the clip from Sesame Street and see for yourself:

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In case you aren’t able to watch the video at work, Sotomayor tells Abby Cadabby that while “pretending to be a princess is fun,” it isn’t a career. The NewsFeed blog of TIME has the details on what happens next:

Sotomayor encourages Abby, letting her know she can go to school and train to eventually become a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, a scientist. Ultimately, though, Abby decides she wants to be a judge, just like Sotomayor.

And just like that, another generation of would-be lawyers was born.

According to Sotomayor, a career is “something that you train for, and prepare for, and plan on doing for a long time.” But in this day and age, no matter how hard you train or prepare, a degree in law in the United States isn’t exactly the golden ticket to a successful career that it once was.

Considering the fact that people keep applying to law school in droves despite all of the information that’s readily available against making such a decision — a decision that may turn out to be financially ruinous — good luck telling a kid that being a lawyer isn’t a good idea.

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In fact, since Sotomayor was all about serving up some Sesame Street realness in her career chat, perhaps it would’ve been more honest to mention that due to the dismal job market for entry-level attorneys, some recent law school graduates would be far more likely to find jobs as princesses.

It’s a bit depressing to think that an imaginary career could be more viable than a real one, isn’t it?

Sesame Street: Sonia Sotomayor and Abby – Career [YouTube]
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Sesame Street: ‘Princess’ Is Not a Career [NewsFeed / TIME]
Sotomayor Returns to Sesame Street with Career Advice that Includes Definition of the Word [ABA Journal]

Earlier: Non-Sequiturs: 02.08.12

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