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Somehow I managed to raise 3 daughters with very few Barbies- those they did have were gifts- and without succumbing to Princess Culture. To Moms of girls---what do you think of this author and her ideas? I admit I'm a feminist and while my daughters love dress up I have bought them "boy shoes" cause that is what they wanted.
I think the biggest issue comes from essentially reinforcing to a daughter that those types of things are whats "appropriate" for them to play with and use. I'm fortunate in that my daughters have an older brother, so our house is full of "boy" toys and "girl" toys and they get equal exposure to Disney princesses and Star Wars. What I've found is that it is more about figuring out what your kid is into and supporting those choices. I think parents do a lot of harm when they pre-suppose certain things about their kid and only give them those options. My daughter loves shoes, dresses, the color pink, dolls and Barbies. She also loves Power Rangers, Star Wars, pirates and Mario. The key is letting her pick what she wants and not forcing her to only choose "girly" things. She is quite the sight decked out in her plastic Disney high heels, frilly Cinderella dress and her Pretty, Pretty Princess jewels playing Mario Sports on the Wii or having a lightsaber duel with her brother.
I think this issue is much ado about nothing for the most part. By the time the girls get a little older, say elementary school age, they're not so much into the princess stuff. At least that's what I saw with my own daughters and see with the girls in our pediatric practice.
I think that the author is acting like a girl's family has no affect on her at all. While I do not think that focusing entirely on appearance is healthy for girls, I do not think the vast majority of families raise their girls to think that all that matters is a girl's physical appearance.
Families have much more influence on a girl than Disney, or other outside influences. That is not to say that all this intensive focus on appearance is healthy, nor that outside influences do not affect girls. I just think that in families with healthy female role models kids will get the message that there is more than one way to be feminine.
After all, girls are doing better in school and better in the workforce than boys. Parents must be somehow counteracting the negative influences of the little girl princess culture.
I dont have a girl but i can say that acceptable culture makes it somewhat difficult to nurture your childs natural interest in all things. For a while my DS's favorite color was purple and we had a hell of a time finding purple boys clothes. He didnt want the pretty girl things, he just wanted purple.
I dont have a girl but i can say that acceptable culture makes it somewhat difficult to nurture your childs natural interest in all things. For a while my DS's favorite color was purple and we had a hell of a time finding purple boys clothes. He didnt want the pretty girl things, he just wanted purple.
Same here. My son doesnt want girly things at all, but he would like a purple or pink boy shirt every once in awhile. All the little boy clothes seem to come in only shades of red, blue or green unless you want boring black or white.
I am the only girl for three generations in my family. I have all boys (4) and my brothers and cousins all have boys. My husbands brothers all have boys. Needless to say, the toilet seat is NEVER down in this family. Being raised around so many boys, I tagged along and did just whatever the boys did. I also did the "girly" thing. My dad treated me like a little princess but also taught me that if I couldn't play with the boys and keep up, then I could stay home. I had tons of Barbies and dolls, a princess room and dresses. I also had a bb gun, boots and jeans, caught snakes and frogs, played in the mud and had a blast doing it. There is no set rule or law saying that a girl cannot have the best of both worlds. My brothers on the other hand say I was spoiled rotten because I not only got girly stuff, I got all the stuff they did too. I am now the Grandmother to the most beautiful little girl on earth. I have tea parties with her, play Barbies and have a blast shopping for cute frilly little dresses. I have no problem playing dolls then loading the granddaughter up and taking her hunting. She will know how to act like a lady yet be capable of harvesting a buck and dressing it out all on her own.
I'm convinced that a large number of the people who complain about the Disney princess culture are just mad they didn't buy stock before 2000 when the Disney consumer-products division turned the princesses it into a gold mine.
*eyeroll*
I never got this whole feminist rant about princesses and Barbies.
They're just toys and cartoons for chrissakes. If a little girl hates them and wants to play with the boys - great. If she loves them and wants everything around her to be pink and frilly - wonderful, nothing wrong with that whatsoever. While I prefer toys and shows for kids that are educational, most of which tend to be gender-neutral anyways, there's absolutely nothing wrong with gender-based role-playing for both girls and boys, be it princesses or action heroes or what have you. I find it absolutely ridiculous that there's this hippie trend to completely eliminate all gender division from kids' play. Newsflash: we have two genders! They can have different roles and interests (that's NOT to say they can't overlap, intersect, or in any way be restricted to one or the other), but men and women are different and that's normal and I see absolutely no reason to try and somehow make it a secret for kids that they're either a girl or a boy. I also see a complete bias, particularly among the feminist moms of daughters, against anything girly or feminine or - gasp! - pink, which is automatically deemed 'evil princess culture', while boys' toys, games, clothes are somehow considered preferable and the superior choice. I've heard so many moms proudly proclaim how they don't have a single pink item in their house and their daughters only ever wear boy clothes - not that there's anything wrong with that, but I don't see how that's somehow a point of pride? Like they think they're raising these strong, independent women - by completely eschewing anything feminine and idolizing masculinity? Sounds like an oxymoron to me but whatever. Meanwhile I don't see many of the same moms rushing to dress their sons in pink frilly clothing or buying them barbies and princess toys - so not buying the whole blab about 'gender equality'.
All I have to say is so what?
Who cares if as a little girl all she plays with is barbies and princesses..
I know as a little girl I played with barbies, I wasn't much into dress up but I had a barbie dream house with working elevator.
Around 8 or so I started to get really tomboyish.
And then about 11 I started evening out and played sports but loved make-up and loved to go shopping but at the same time I still played outside, I was into skateboarding, soccer etc.
My point being, no matter how princess obsessed they are at 2-6 or whatever....don't they all even out in the end, find new and different likes? Don't they eventually move on and change and grow out of it?
I don't see what a few years of princesses and crap is going to do because you know when they're 14 or so, barbie is not going to be even close on their mind....
If that's what they are into for a few years, why not let them play with what makes them happy because you know they'll grow out of it eventually.
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