The "Shrek" films are a popular worldwide and economic success. Drawing on an analysis of the film as well as responses from undergraduate students enrolled in a children's literature course, we analyze "Shrek 2" as a teaching machine in which normative discourses of gender and sexuality circulate under the guise of "girl power". We argue that while "Shrek 2" purports to offer viewers a more progressive curriculum about girlhood in relationship to other media texts such as Disney, it ultimately reifies heterosexual white femininity as the norm. (Contains 1 note.)