An article about feminism and princesses and toddlerhood...

[conuly]

Good read. Taken from sff_corgi (whom I just shamelessly linked to instead of linking to the article proper).

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I avoid pink when dressing Ana in the morning. It's so... bland. Plus, it makes her easy to lose in the crowd, and how I can do *that* in a room full of white kids (SICM. Lovely place, but the toddler programs are lacking some needed variety in their customers), I *don't* know.

Anyway, her favorite color seems to be orange. She asks for it a lot, if I give her a choice.

Comments

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

I'm sickened by this.

We live in a culture that trains girls to be prim and propper and simultaneously totes the phrase "boys will be boys" and we like to call it sexual equality.

This is just one more reason why I'm not comfortable with the idea of having children. The world is a mad and screwed up place.

[conuly]

You said it....

Ana's got a four-year-old friend, Deniz. And Deniz is in that phase where she loves pink and purple. We've all been there. Deniz has a friend her age, Jonathon. Jonathon and Deniz love playing pirates, and superheroes, and suchlike.

Great, right?

Except that Deniz will come up to her mom, or my mom, or me (or Ana!) and announce that we can't be superheroes or pirates, because we're girls. (The fact that she's a girl completely seems to escape her in these moments, a small miracle.)

[conuly]

Deniz, incidentally, is a Turkish name, not a misspelling of Denise.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

I was going to guess it originated from one of the former Soviet Union countries, so I suppose that I wasn't far off geographically at least.

I can't help but wonder how it's pronounced, though.

[conuly]

Den. Eez. Like Denise, but with an eez instead of an eece.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

upon which sylable is the accent placed?

[conuly]

Second. Same as in Denise. And, I suppose, Denephew :) Unless I'm tragically mispronouncing her name all this time, but then her mother'd have to be too, and her father, and they both speak Turkish, so I find that hard to believe.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the lesson here is that people ought to be able to choose their own gender rather than have it chosen for them arbitrarily at birth.

[conuly]

Agreed on the point, but not sure that's the lesson I take from this.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

Yes, I suppose it is a little non sequitur (sp?). What lesson would you take from it, then?

[conuly]

At the moment, I don't have one. It's just a story with no moral. It's an immoral story!

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

lol

Better not let Ana read it, then. Who knows what kind of base and vulgar thoughts it could put in her head!

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

I'm sickened by this.

We live in a culture that trains girls to be prim and propper and simultaneously totes the phrase "boys will be boys" and we like to call it sexual equality.

This is just one more reason why I'm not comfortable with the idea of having children. The world is a mad and screwed up place.

[conuly]

You said it....

Ana's got a four-year-old friend, Deniz. And Deniz is in that phase where she loves pink and purple. We've all been there. Deniz has a friend her age, Jonathon. Jonathon and Deniz love playing pirates, and superheroes, and suchlike.

Great, right?

Except that Deniz will come up to her mom, or my mom, or me (or Ana!) and announce that we can't be superheroes or pirates, because we're girls. (The fact that she's a girl completely seems to escape her in these moments, a small miracle.)

[conuly]

Deniz, incidentally, is a Turkish name, not a misspelling of Denise.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

I was going to guess it originated from one of the former Soviet Union countries, so I suppose that I wasn't far off geographically at least.

I can't help but wonder how it's pronounced, though.

[conuly]

Den. Eez. Like Denise, but with an eez instead of an eece.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

upon which sylable is the accent placed?

[conuly]

Second. Same as in Denise. And, I suppose, Denephew :) Unless I'm tragically mispronouncing her name all this time, but then her mother'd have to be too, and her father, and they both speak Turkish, so I find that hard to believe.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the lesson here is that people ought to be able to choose their own gender rather than have it chosen for them arbitrarily at birth.

[conuly]

Agreed on the point, but not sure that's the lesson I take from this.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

Yes, I suppose it is a little non sequitur (sp?). What lesson would you take from it, then?

[conuly]

At the moment, I don't have one. It's just a story with no moral. It's an immoral story!

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

lol

Better not let Ana read it, then. Who knows what kind of base and vulgar thoughts it could put in her head!