she will end up buying into the Barbie/Bratz/Britney media spew and doubting her own self-image because she's not pretty enough or sexy enough or trendy enough.
We had the same concerns for our daughter, for this very reason. I didn't want to encourage my kid to buy into a media-distorted perception of what constitutes a desirable/proper female, and I sure as hell didn't want her to get the idea that a Barbie doll's figure or Britney's behavior was something to aspire to. All the same, she likes wearing dresses and pink and other "girly" things, and that's fine with me. Why go nuts to the opposite extreme and ban such things? It's possible to discriminate between those gender stereotypes that are harmless (liking pink, wearing dresses) and those that are destructive (unrealistic body expectations, downplaying female intelligence).
BTW, my wife HATES Bratz. Even now she refuses to consider them as a gift. Good thing the kid never really go tinto them. :P
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Date: 2007-03-09 09:25 pm (UTC)We had the same concerns for our daughter, for this very reason. I didn't want to encourage my kid to buy into a media-distorted perception of what constitutes a desirable/proper female, and I sure as hell didn't want her to get the idea that a Barbie doll's figure or Britney's behavior was something to aspire to. All the same, she likes wearing dresses and pink and other "girly" things, and that's fine with me. Why go nuts to the opposite extreme and ban such things? It's possible to discriminate between those gender stereotypes that are harmless (liking pink, wearing dresses) and those that are destructive (unrealistic body expectations, downplaying female intelligence).
BTW, my wife HATES Bratz. Even now she refuses to consider them as a gift. Good thing the kid never really go tinto them. :P