Recently, we had some guests over who hadn’t seen our girls for awhile. With them they had a gift for Miss 3 – it was a fairy costume. We smiled – oh, how sweet. Inside we were shouting: “Enough with the fairy costumes already”. When you have three girls you have enough fairy costumes to keep a small country of fairies clothed for a year. Miss 3 pushed it aside and went for the chocolate instead.
Miss 4, jumped at the chance for some attention and put it on, along with a silver crown and some plastic high heels. “Quick, get photos of her,” the people squealed. “Oh, look how pretty she is. Smile, smile, stand there, no over there, smile again. How sweet.”
Miss 4 paraded for the photos and then, when bored, she ripped the costume off and went in search of some sucker to push her on the swing.
Later, Miss 4 returned, this time dressed in a vet outfit. She waited for the obligatory “ooohhs” and “aaahhs” but she got no response. She left and returned in a doctors outfit. Still nothing. In fact, there was an eye roll exchanged. I explained how Miss 4 had expressed interest in wanting to be a “pet doctor” and how excited we were when we found the costume. Silence.
Miss 4 went off to fix her pet menagerie – they had all fallen ill with a mysterious illness. I wonder if it was a case of stereotypis. You know, when girls are only worthy when they are being pretty and are seen as obnoxious when they have ambition for more than just damn fairy costumes.
Do you encounter stereotypis in your house?
* For more stories of stereotypis visit my cousin’s blog 4 Kids, 20 Suitcases and a Beagle here and Mrs Woogs blog here.
Hi, I'm Bianca Wordley, I write about life.
My inlaws were horrified when we gave my 2yo son a handbag (he loved to go through mine so he had his own with old used gift cards, comb, toy wallet & keys etc) but all we saw was a little boy who wanted to play.
That is so interesting. I am really sad for her. x
That’s really horrible, and actually makes me angry. You go Miss 4 – you will be the best pet doctor there is!
That’s pretty disgusting. I do my best to show equal enthusiasm for tinkerbell, cinderella, astronauts and the recent batman/superman hybrid that she is sporting
Oh yes. Daughter has always and apparently will always be a daggy tomboy. No interest in hairstyles or makeup. Respectable interest in clothes, as long as its jeans or shorts, and passable interest in jewellery, as long as its not girly. She is almost 17 and it has finally sunk in with certain family members, I hope, to not give her pink fluffy things and makeup as gifts. You cannot force her to be ‘girly’.
Give the makeup to me instead, I need it.
WTF?!! Oh people. Great way to encourage kids eh? Just be pretty and grow up to be a model. Ugh.
I’m gobsmacked by the eye roll. Who does that? Halloween for us this year has involved all home made dress ups. The boys are wizards and cowboys (boring) but the girls are fantastic. Annie is Michael Jackson, Lizzie is headless which involves having your head stick through your shirt to look like you’re carrying it in your hands. I think a healthy mix of everything, princesses, vets, cowboys. But the eye roll??? I just don’t get it.
wow that’s interesting!
Just to throw a spanner in the works, do you think it may also have been because ‘they’ bought the outfit? However they did choose to buy a pink fairy outfit over anything else too I guess lol!
This might have gone better if they’d checked with you first about buying the fairy outfit. you could have suggested something else, saying that with three girls you already had enough fairy outfits in the house. Now, *I* would have photographed all the costumes Miss 4 put on.
I have noticed though, that many, many little girls come shopping with their mums and they’re all fairies, mostly pink. Do the kids choose this or is it the mums? Or maybe they’re all going to a Fairies Show at the local concert hall?
Not cool at all. Why do people have to be so darn obvious with stuff like this?? FTR, my daughter used to be one of those fairies at the shops and it was SHE who chose the outfits – certainly not me!! The phase has passed all too soon and I’m sad in a way but glad in others because I know that it was *her* thing, not mine. To answer your q, no we’ve not encountered this with our daughter (yet). Something for which I have to say I’m quite relieved.
Ugh. See I would have thought the Doctor/Vet outfits were way cuter and squeal worthy. Fairies…not so much, bit over the fairy thing 🙂
We do encounter a lot of stereotypis in our lives, I have a 10 year old who insists on wearing his hair long (getting a lot of “girly” comments) loves my little ponies, used to insist I buy pyjamas from the girls section and preferred his pink my little pony singlet to wear under his school uniform every day…as well as loving sports, wrestling, and beyblades. I call him well rounded. Others seem to take issue.
The “pretty girl” issue really bothers me even though I dont have a girl. Why is it always the first thing anyone says about a girl? “Arent you PRETTY” … Last time I checked all the little girls I know have a great many more attributes than just being pretty…..
I got asked once if we had Ninja and Doctors costumes so when boy visitors came over they had something to play with :: sigh :: nope.