Today In our Kleeneze catalogue, we found a dressing up box for children. The ad lookes like this:
The page on the right (Page 33) advertises a product called
"Dress Up Trunk" which sounds like a good idea; A dressing up box for
little children with 5 readymade outfits. You even have a boys or girls option.
But.... all the boy’s
clothes are adventure characters like a pirate, a Native American, a cowboy and
a knight. There is also a fireman outfit which is a career character as well.
The girls outfits on the other hand are all about looking pretty; a model, a movie
star, a princess, a bride and a Ballerina. Although the movie star, the model
and the ballerina, (even the princess at a push) are all careers, every one of
these characters is pretty, pink, and they all have something to do with looking
beautiful. The bride character usually relies on a boy to be groom as well. It
is sexist and demeaning, as it implies that being pretty and getting married is
all a girl should do, and being active and strong is all boys should do. Why can’t
girls be pirates, fire fighters, Native Americans, cowgirls or knights. And why
can’ t boys dress up as Grooms, Princes,
Movie stars, Models and Ballet dancers too. There are so many things to pretend to
be, yet the girls can only be pretty and the boys can only be action heroes.
I dressed up as a
strong action characters when I was little, and I know boys who dressed up as
weaker more dressed up characters, when they played pretend. Why is being a
strong girl or a pretty boy so unusual? Boys can be ballet dancers and girls
can be fire fighters so why can’t they pretend to be these people when they are
small? This is just one example of the way people are made to feel they have to
be a certain way ‘because’ they are male/female. This tells small children that
they must be a pretty and glamorous girl or a strong and adventurous boy; otherwise
they won’t be a proper girl/boy because they are wearing the wrong dressing up
clothes for their gender.
Maybe they should start selling pirate clothes for girls and
ballet clothes for boys. Restricting the character choices is like saying. You’re
a girl so you can’t be a pirate/fire fighter etc. Or you’re a boy so you can’t
be a Ballet dancer/ model etc. Would you tell a child that they can’t be what
they want to be because they are a boy/girl?
I hope that people start to sell dressing up clothes for
children that allows them to be whatever they want. Or maybe they could do
historical characters like black beard, Florence Nightingale, Shakespeare and
Joan of Arc.
This might seem like a small thing but this happens all the
time and people grow up to believe that being a girl restricts you to just
being pretty and sweet all the time and being a boy means you have to be active
and strong.
Links:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VqsbvG40Ww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZn_lJoN6PI
Have a nice day
Bye!
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