Both of my sisters had Barbies as did all of our girl cousins and none of them had body issues because of it. Any damn fool knows that girls catch body issues off other girls!
I had Star wars figures and when they first came out, I was allowed to have a Luke and a Han Solo, but NOT a Princess Leia, and this was made into a huge issue, and my small mind could not understand. Who were Luke and Han going to rescue? Of course this meant Luke and Han ended up usually rescuing each other AND WE ALL KNOW HOW THAT ENDED UP DONT WE MOTHER!!??
My friend Robbie had one Barbie and his father took it and threw it on the roof.Now Robbie is a grown man and with his inheritance bought thousands of barbies which look rather magnificent in glass cases all through his house. (He was also pen pals with Marlene Dietrich at the age of 10, I kid you not).
I was not allowed to watch Farrah Fawcett and so I became obsessed. So, you are right, by taking a "No, not for you!" approach, a parent turns something simple into a fetish that a child has to feel guilty about and may never resolve, dragging it into adult life long after they may have done if they had just been allowed to be a kid and play imaginatively which is completely normal.
I have one friend who was not allowed ANY toys, just cooking ingredients from the age of 3 and now he is undoubtedly a great cook but has absolutely no imagination or appreciation for the arts involved and thinks everyone who watches scifi is weird.
Si this is something that I am also pretty passionate about, let em play with it and they will maybe grow out of it. Playing with dolls or trucks or wearing pink or blue does not indicate whether a child will grow up gay and a parent only shows their complete ignorance by assuming it will.
It was mostly my responsibility as a child to entertain my younger sister, and we would build elaborate sets and act out long involved stories with our toys. One of the most popular storylines involved a Carrie Fisher doll and a Lindsay Wagner doll stealing Barbies car and taking off on a Thelma and Louise style rampage with farm animals. I wish I had it on video.
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I had Star wars figures and when they first came out, I was allowed to have a Luke and a Han Solo, but NOT a Princess Leia, and this was made into a huge issue, and my small mind could not understand. Who were Luke and Han going to rescue? Of course this meant Luke and Han ended up usually rescuing each other AND WE ALL KNOW HOW THAT ENDED UP DONT WE MOTHER!!??
My friend Robbie had one Barbie and his father took it and threw it on the roof.Now Robbie is a grown man and with his inheritance bought thousands of barbies which look rather magnificent in glass cases all through his house. (He was also pen pals with Marlene Dietrich at the age of 10, I kid you not).
I was not allowed to watch Farrah Fawcett and so I became obsessed. So, you are right, by taking a "No, not for you!" approach, a parent turns something simple into a fetish that a child has to feel guilty about and may never resolve, dragging it into adult life long after they may have done if they had just been allowed to be a kid and play imaginatively which is completely normal.
I have one friend who was not allowed ANY toys, just cooking ingredients from the age of 3 and now he is undoubtedly a great cook but has absolutely no imagination or appreciation for the arts involved and thinks everyone who watches scifi is weird.
Si this is something that I am also pretty passionate about, let em play with it and they will maybe grow out of it. Playing with dolls or trucks or wearing pink or blue does not indicate whether a child will grow up gay and a parent only shows their complete ignorance by assuming it will.
It was mostly my responsibility as a child to entertain my younger sister, and we would build elaborate sets and act out long involved stories with our toys. One of the most popular storylines involved a Carrie Fisher doll and a Lindsay Wagner doll stealing Barbies car and taking off on a Thelma and Louise style rampage with farm animals. I wish I had it on video.