Girls versus Boys

Oh no, is it happening? Are we really going to have to go through the princess phase in our household?

Carolyn loves all things girly right now. She will tell us, repeatedly, each day, that her favorite color is pink. She thinks she is a ballerina, especially when she wears her silver ballet shoes. She loves wearing dresses, and would pick a pink dress to wear everyday if I let her. (Recently, I had to tell her that her favorite dress is a "jammy dress" so that she would wear it to bed, rather than insist on wearing it everyday.)

Interestingly, the other day I was listening to a radio show that talked about toddler girls, and how at this age, children learn the difference between girls and boys and want to assert their gender identity. This fits Carolyn to a T. In addition to all things girly, she asks a lot of questions about which friends are girls and which are boys. She always asks to see the girl bathroom and the boy bathroom, so she can point out that the girls on the sign wear dresses, while the boy on the sign wears pants. (the gender-neutral person in a wheelchair confuses her a bit).

Anyway, given this phase in a child's development where the concept of gender becomes salient in their rapidly expanding minds and imaginations, Disney should be commended (or perhaps condemmed is the better word). They are very savvy - marketing geniuses! The princesses are complete plays on this phase in a child's development. I really wish we could avoid it, and I am going to try hard to limit Carolyn's exposure to the princesses, but I doubt I will be able to avoid it altogether. If you ask me, the depiction of those princesses whose waists are the same size as their necks, who rarely have friends to support them, and who have to find a man to live happily ever after, are a poor representation of what it means to be a girl in today's society. While I will not completely shelter her from the world of the princesses, I do hope that we are able to teach and show Carolyn other more constructive examples of what it means to be a girl during this formative stage of development and throughout her life. She deserves to be exposed to diversity, no matter what the form, and hopefully, she will assert herself as an strong individual who can make her own path in life. That is my wish for my child, no matter if she were a girl or boy.

All that said, here she is playing with her friend, Elise.