Overheard at the playground today, "Finn, don't do that, girls don't like to play like that!" (He was tugging on a girl & running around).
Said (by someone other than me) to Olive yesterday, "Don't you look pretty?"
Olive is routinely assumed to be a boy because she isn't always dressed in a) flowers or b) pink.
Who decides how girls like to play? Why can't it be how individuals like to play? Why are girls who are physical, who enjoy a little rough-housing, referred to as tom-boys? Why do we continue to steal our daughter's power like that? It makes me crazy. I felt like calling out the mums in the playground today, pointing out their inherent sexism, but decided that my energy would probably be met with nothing but animosity. It bothers me everytime someone uses the term "pretty". Pretty. Pretty = docile, powerless, pleasant & god forbid, ladylike. My blood is boiling. When will we embrace women as women, however they may choose to present themselves? Feminine is whatever I as a woman choose. And if you want to get technical, there would be nothing more feminine than a woman with hairy armpits & legs, because it grows there naturally.
Must go & nurse my daughter. My fantastically individual daughter.
2 comments:
It always amazes me that we live in such a gendered culture. I always turn to the deodorant aisle as proof of this. Pink and pastels for ladies who want to smell like vanilla breeze or gardenia mist. Black and silver for guys who want to smell like "Arctic Rush" or "Sports Fever". Why? Why? Why? Can't people just be people and not be boxed in and contained by social expectations?
Of course there are plenty of differences between men and women, but pigeonholing people with gender expectations is just dumb.
Go Kristy! Go!
hmm, and was the woman implying that boys DO like to be draged around? because i know a few little boys who wouldnt like it a whole lot more than that poor little girl! funny what people say to kids sometimes, i find myself at times in disageance at whats just come out of my own mouth for the simple fact of being forced to think of an indepth explination for why behaviour is or isnt ok in a matter of seconds before the kids moved on or hurt someone
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