Recently, I read an article dealing with gender roles and how all too often girls are pegged into the "play mommy," "be a princess," or "play with barbies" categories. The article went on to further say that these gender roles are dangerous to the developing child and their perception of what it means to be a girl (or a boy.) It also said that only gender neutral ideas should be placed in child's head an that both types of gender toys should be included as a default, no matter what the child may show interest in. In my experience, I find this to be bull. I think gender roles have a certain cred. to them. I also don't think they have to be forced to be applicable. I don't recall my mom or dad EVER telling me I had to like pink, wear dresses (except to church because that's how church was back then,) or play princess. I liked pink when I was little, but later, my favorite color was green. It was green for well into early high school years when it morphed into purple, hot pink, black, and white. To this day, I love purple and hot pink.
I rarely played princess growing up. I always wanted to be queen. Heh. We actually used to play what my sister, Hannah, refers to as "Amelia." I was around 12 or so. My sister, Kristin, was 11. Hannah was around 3. I was the queen, Kristin was the princess, and Hannah was the servant girl. Now, don't be alarmed about what I'm going to say next. Hannah, always played the part of Amelia, the servant girl...naked. She was the kid who would shed her clothes shortly after we put them on her. We have a video of her naked with her butt in the air digging in the garden and playing with the hose. No lie. She's 16 now and probably LOVES that I'm sharing this with you, but nonetheless, it happened! Anyway, so Hannah always was Amelia, the naked servant girl. She sometimes wore an apron, if I could convince her to do so. We all loved this game! Hannah loved getting us drinks, "sweeping," fanning us, etc. SHE would ask to play this game, and being such good big sisters, Kristin and I were always willing. :-D That's about as close to playing princess as Kristin and I really got.
Kristin and I played Barbies like it was our job. We also played school quite often. We loved our American Girl dolls (I have Samantha, Kristin has Kirsten and Hannah has Kit.) We liked going on adventures in the woods down by the creek. We rode our horse. We had picnics. We played sports (I was a softball and basketball gal. Kristin was a cheerleader and soccer player. Hannah is a swimmer and soccer player.) Kristin and I went through a power ranger and teenage mutant ninja turtles phase. We loved Batman, Gargoyles is still, to this day, one of my favorite cartoons. We also loved Carebears, Polly Pockets, and Lizzie McGuire. We are all girls. We all liked girly and non-girly things.
Today, my sister Kristin, is 24 and a crunchy hippy. Ha. Ok. Not exactly...but close. She loves hiking, camping, music festivals, etc. and she's still very feminine. Hannah is 16 and is a HUGE flirt. She loves color guard, tutus, and really crappy music. (She doesn't think it's crappy, though.) She can get down and dirty working in the garden and doesn't bat an eye. I am a 25 year old wife who adores her husband. I love sparkles, babies, and crafting/sewing. I hate being sweaty/dirty, but if it's serving others or improving my life, I am more than willing. We all were raised the same way, in the same house, by the same parents, with the same values, and with pretty much the same toys. We are not defined by our gender, but we all seem to embrace being female, while not being over the top girly girls. (As I discussed this post with the hubs and Hannah, we came to the conclusion that at this stage in life, I am by far the most girly girl out of the three sisters.)
What do you think of traditional gender roles? Do you feel like the psychological community is putting too much emphasis on not defining gender roles or not enough? Do you feel like society forces us into gender roles? Remember, no opinion is better than another, just don't expect me to agree with you, if our opinions differ! ;-)
