C'est La Vie

I have been meaning to write on this topic for a while and I’m not going to write this all “professionally” just fyi so don’t mind the swear words and asterisks. Boys, you should read this because eventually you might have a little girl one day (and then you’re going to freak out and try to raise her to be the opposite of every girl you’re trying to hook up with right now). Girls you should read this because you’re my homies.
If I was a mom, I don’t know what the best way would be to raise a daughter. This issue is close to me because I often know where my parents are coming from in the decisions they make to raise me (even though they don’t know that I know this), and I have often said to myself “I wouldn’t do the same thing to my children” but would I? I’m not so sure. I was brought up

• watching Disney movies
• wearing cute party frocks
• being in baby beauty contests

but I was also brought up playing with my sister’s hand me down toys and other awesome toys that I chose myself such as

• a train set which would emit real steam
• Lego sets
• board games and other cool toys.

I only had ONE Barbie doll and other than a 30 second hair brushing every other day she did not get played with very much. I think I grew up to be quite an awesome person.

I hate Princesses. I hate the word princess. I hate the Princess collection that Disney has relatively recently put out. I hate how girls seem to have limited choices of toys to play and that companies have brainwashed people into thinking that everything needs to be pink now for a girl to like it. I know my font colour is pink and there’s nothing wrong with the colour itself but I just hate seeing a little girl dressed head to toe in pink, playing baseball with her pink baseball bat and mitt. I hate it because THAT’S NOT ALL THERE IS OUT THERE. I’m not saying giving a girl a pink bat is eventually going to turn her into this girl:

or this girl:

BUT SHE MIGHT. I’m just saying, your little Lady might turn into a little Tramp if you’re not careful and it’s scary how unknowingly we can be priming girls for earlier and earlier sexualisation
There is this perception by toy companies that a female would only want to play a sport if she has her pretty little version of the equipment. Little girls that prefer playing sports and getting dirty are considered tomboys rather than just…athletic girls. It’s ridiculous. Sorry toy companies but I don’t need a “girl version” of Lego where everything is in pink to want to build things.

LEGO® bricks in beautiful colors!
Build a house, a pony, or anything else you can imagine with this special box filled with LEGO® bricks in colors you love and elements like fences, windows, doors and flowers!

Yeah because that’s all girls love to build; ponies, houses, and flowers and only boys can build hospitals, spaceships and helicopters.
Why do boys get the rest of the colours and girls get stuck with pink? (side note: did you know that pink was actually meant for boys because it was a pale red, and blue for girls as it was the colour associated with Virgin Mary? That’s why early cartoons such as Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella wear pale blue.) I can’t believe PARENTS ACTUALLY BUY THEIR DAUGHTERS STUFF LIKE THIS:

Designers edition Scrabble, in the colour pink with the letters spelling the word “Fashion”. Cute. I wonder who their target market is even though this doesn’t specifically say “for girls”? Why does the pink version of Scrabble need to spell Fashion???!?!?!?!?! Why can’t it spell SCIENCE? OR MATH? OR BUSINESS? A**holes.

Designers Scrabble is nothing compared to Boutique Monopoly.

Pretty in Pink – Just for You, Girl! Buy Boutiques and malls, go on a shopping spree, pay your cell phone bill and get Text and Instant Messages. You and your friends will adore the funky tokens, cool buildings and cute illustrations.

I didn’t realize that normal Monopoly was for boys only. Does this mean I should not use my trusted Rover as a game piece and switch to a Chihuahua in purse game piece instead? Instead of picking up CHANCE or OPPORTUNITY I have to make do with getting an instant text message? Oh em gee that like totally sucks. Instead of buying houses and hotels I am supposed to be interested in boutiques and malls? I’m surprised Jail is still Jail and not a spa day! Why do people think that beauty and fashion are all girls care about? Even if they (toy companies) do think that then why do we allow this to go on? Why do we allow people to perpetuate this stereotypical behaviour?
Honestly.. I would rather have this Monopoly set:
Now that’s freaking legit.
Throughout my life I’ve noticed a few things and I want to ask why. Why do people at checkout counters say “why hello princess” to little girls and then proceed to comment on how CUTE they look (focusing on their looks),why are there “princess meals”, why do hairdressers tell little girls to sit in the special princess throne so they can get their princess hair cut? Why do skate rinks promote Daddy daughter skate day as “Daddies bring your little princesses on Monday for a special daddy daughter skate day”. WT EFF IS UP WITH ALL THIS PRINCESS SH*T?! If the same skate company had said “Daddies bring your lil champs to skate today” would you still think they meant for you to bring your daughter? It's funny how the world "champ" short for "champion" is typically used to describe little boys.
Most grown women I know would be offended to be called a princess. Being called a princess means that you are likely high maintenance, live in a dream world, and you’re probably also snobby and condescending. So why in the world would we want to encourage our daughters to grow up thinking being a princess is a magical and special way to be? Why would we want them to grow up wanting to be princesses? Most princesses in Disney movies are weak people from broken or dysfunctional families that eventually get saved by a male. Of course, the prince who saves them falls in love with them because of their good looks and not much else. Cinderella’s hubby didn’t see her dressed in scrubs and cleaning the toilet and THEN proceed to fall in love with her - she needed a fairy godmother and a stunning ball gown to get her man. Princesses also don’t have very strong female relationships or role models and they seem to only be able to communicate with tea cups and saucers, mice or fish. That’s not exactly something I would want for a little girl. Which leads me to play time.
As a boy, you have so many more options during play time at home. You can play sports with friends, you can play act to be a superhero or a frog or a monkey or a knight and be really active and imaginative.

Little girls on the other hand sit indoors playing tea time or pretending to cook on their kitchen set BY THEMSELVES or with other inanimate objects.

It’s no wonder females find it so difficult to get along when they’re older and every other girl becomes a “bitch”. They never learnt how to interact with each other from the beginning.
Why does this have to be so? I also think that playing “princess” primes them for early sexualisation. Girls as young as 4 have become fixated on their appearance and directly relate how they feel to how they look. (read my post on Feeling Fat). It's unhealthy to say the least. Everyone in this world is more than their appearance, more than their sex, more than just a body.
Dora the Explorer was a pretty cool cartoon I thought. She had normal un-princess like clothing, simple features and she actually had something to do. She explored. She taught a language. She was the antithesis of everything princess. Until this.

Magic Hair Fairytale Dora. Play with Dora’s hair girls! Instead of wanting to be adventurers and go out in the world and explore things why don’t you just sit inside and grow Dora’s hair magically? Isn’t that all you really should be caring about anyway?
What do you think? Do you think I’m taking this all way too seriously? Do you think it’s ok that the toy aisle that’s full of pink toys is the girl’s aisle? Do you think that the world is pigeonholing girls more and more as time goes on? Of course there are multiple things that are wrong with this world and I could write more and more about this topic and other topics, but I just wanted to get it out there and keep it as short as possible so that the message would come across. I’m beyond mad but I hope that reading this has made you a little mad too and hopefully it will open a few eyes and make you be a little more critical.