Little Helpers
I had to buy a baby gift today for a colleague of my husband's. The child was a boy. In searching through the kiddie section at Target, I had no trouble distinguishing the boys' clothes from the girls' apparel. The boys' attire had sports themes, trucks, hammers and wrenches on them. The girls' clothes were mostly pink and yellow, adorned with flowers, butterflies, dancers, and the like.
You'd think that times would have changed by now, but there is still a sexist, stereotypical attitude among most retailers. Even though there are lots of girls who play basketball, soccer, baseball, etc., you don't find those emblems on their clothes. If flowers and butterflies are the images we impose on girls, how can we expect them to be anything other than demure, pretty little things with nothing to worry about other than their looks? Couple that with the non-stop barrage of thin, gorgeous women in magazines and TV, and you have a generation of dumb, anorexic females.
As the mother of two girls--one a preteen and one a teen--I already see our culture's impact on them. My older daughter constantly complains that she's "fat," even coming home from school last week to ask me if she could go on the Atkins diet. This comes from a girl whose household has always been filled with fresh, nutritious food, low on sweets and fat. She's played soccer since she was six, loves to bike, play volleyball, and swim. But because she's not as thin as some of her friends, or anorexic like the images on TV, she thinks she has to diet.
This attitude is now starting to rub off on my preteen. Even thinner than her older sister, the younger one has started asking me if she's "fat." This child walks a mile to school each day, plays on a soccer team, and lives in perpetual motion. She knows when to stop eating, often declining a dessert because she's full.
So how do we change these images? How do we let girls know that they should focus on being healthy and active, not trying to live up to some cardboard caricature on TV? How do we help them to value diversity and the worth of each person outside of their looks? How do we teach them that they can build something with their own two hands, not just paint their nails? What can we do to encourage and inspire them to be all they can be, not what someone on Madison Avenue thinks they ought to be?
Listen up, retailers, ad execs, and media moguls! Give our kids good role models. Help us help them develop their talents and interests whether it's sewing, carpentry, or scientific research! Give our girls and boys choices and let them decide for themselves if they want to wear blue or pink. Offer them opportunities on the sports fields and in the boardroom. Our future depends on it, and on them.
You'd think that times would have changed by now, but there is still a sexist, stereotypical attitude among most retailers. Even though there are lots of girls who play basketball, soccer, baseball, etc., you don't find those emblems on their clothes. If flowers and butterflies are the images we impose on girls, how can we expect them to be anything other than demure, pretty little things with nothing to worry about other than their looks? Couple that with the non-stop barrage of thin, gorgeous women in magazines and TV, and you have a generation of dumb, anorexic females.
As the mother of two girls--one a preteen and one a teen--I already see our culture's impact on them. My older daughter constantly complains that she's "fat," even coming home from school last week to ask me if she could go on the Atkins diet. This comes from a girl whose household has always been filled with fresh, nutritious food, low on sweets and fat. She's played soccer since she was six, loves to bike, play volleyball, and swim. But because she's not as thin as some of her friends, or anorexic like the images on TV, she thinks she has to diet.
This attitude is now starting to rub off on my preteen. Even thinner than her older sister, the younger one has started asking me if she's "fat." This child walks a mile to school each day, plays on a soccer team, and lives in perpetual motion. She knows when to stop eating, often declining a dessert because she's full.
So how do we change these images? How do we let girls know that they should focus on being healthy and active, not trying to live up to some cardboard caricature on TV? How do we help them to value diversity and the worth of each person outside of their looks? How do we teach them that they can build something with their own two hands, not just paint their nails? What can we do to encourage and inspire them to be all they can be, not what someone on Madison Avenue thinks they ought to be?
Listen up, retailers, ad execs, and media moguls! Give our kids good role models. Help us help them develop their talents and interests whether it's sewing, carpentry, or scientific research! Give our girls and boys choices and let them decide for themselves if they want to wear blue or pink. Offer them opportunities on the sports fields and in the boardroom. Our future depends on it, and on them.
posted by Tif at 9:38 PM
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