I Enjoy Being a Girl

I was over on “Want Not” (great site for great deals BTW, Mir is my hero and she’s pretty, and not just cause she finds me great deals on stuff) and one of the deal’s she posted had to do with a “globe for girls.” It’s Pink and it comes with a cookbook, because geography alone won’t interest girls.

Ummm, I have a lot to say on this subject. I’ll do my best to keep it sort
of short, but you know how that goes with me so make sure you have something to
drink & get comfortable.

The comments section of her post evolved into an I hate “Bratz” discussion. Which, I am totally down with; I too loathe the Bratz.

I have a general philosophy about most of the things my kids play with;
everything in moderation. My experience is that kids covet what they can’t
have, so you don’t let them have it that’s what they want most. If you let
them have it in small doses then it loses it’s allure & they move on.

I feel that way about most things except Bratz. I think Bratz are awful because their main motivation is dressing cool (aka—slutty) and having attitude.

Dude, I am your mother & I have years of attitude on you (oh, no she dint,
Oh, Yes, she did, snap!)

If you’re going to have an attitude than have at least some smarts to back it up with, in which case you’ll probably figure out that, that kind of attitude isn’t helping you get so far in life. Something to ponder...
Someone commented that while they hated Bratz, but as a kid they played with Barbie so they supposed that made them a hypocrite. Hey, I played with Barbie, and while her clothing choices weren’t making her any girlfriends, at least she was career minded, right? So I went to the Barbie website to mention all the cool jobs Barbie had & found that I stand corrected.

I remember that Barbie was a pilot, a veterinarian, a pediatrician, a teacher, etc… very noble professions. Upon looking at the site I became totally disillusioned. I know there was “US President Barbie” when I was growing up, I know there was, damit!!! But when I went to the website to see if there was “computer programmer” Barbie or “NASA Engineer Barbie” I found that they were all “Fairies”, “Top Models” and “Fashion Fever” dolls….WTF? I guess Barbie is over the career thing now.

She thought she wanted a career, turns out she just wanted a job. Hey someone’s got to heat that dreamhouse.

So then, I clicked over to the “collectors” site thinking I’d find those career minded girls there. I found that they are mostly “Designer inspired” and “Hollywood” themed. There were a few “retro” style ones of which “career girl” from the 60’s is dressed nicely but I believe she’s off to be a receptionist. I’m not dis’in anyone who’s a receptionist, (I’ve been one myself at times) but I was kind of hoping for “financial advisor/CPA Barbie” or “Public Relations Barbie”. Maybe even “Graphic Designer Barbie” or “Venture Capitalist Barbie”. Something!

We hear all this marketing about “girl power” and empowering our girls; “go far in life”, “break down boundaries’ and glass ceilings”, but for all our talk we sure don’t seem to give them much that’s tangible. We PC “Take Your Daughter’s To Work Day” by hybridizing it into “Take your Child to Work Day”; the point was to give girls’ female role models, enlighten them to jobs they may not have been aware of previously and give them a sense of being special for being a girl. Hybridizing it takes that away, but that’s a soapbox for another day. We give them playthings that are only focused on fashion and beauty defining for them that their worth is really in their looks and when we do give them playthings of substance, (yes, I’m bringing it back to the globes, surprisingly this rant does have a point,) we imply that they can learn this stuff (geography) but “make sure you stick the basics girls’ learn to cook so you can keep your man happy.” Yeah, I’m being a bit sarcastic, I know, moi?, but the whole thing frustrates me.

I have two daughters and I want them to know they can do whatever they want education-wise, and therefore career-wise. It is only their mind and imagination that will hold them back, not money and definitely not gender. Both my girls are very big pretend players, especially with dolls. Right now it’s mostly princesses and mommy play, but soon it will be other things and I certainly don’t want the toys they play with to limit them, so maybe you can understand why this gets me a bit riled up. I am all about being a girl, I love the color pink and I love getting all dolled up in a girly sort of way. But being girly and being smart, strong & self-sufficient are not mutually exclusive and it’s time the media started to remember that.