Girls will be girls...

Lately the talk around our house, ahem, castle, has been, "Mummy, you be the Queen, and I'll be a princess."

"What about Daddy," June will ask Zoey.

"He's just Daddy," she'll happily blurt, and off she goes, skipping around the house, with crown and scepter/magic wand...sometimes in a tutu. It's such a natural phenomenon all this princess talk, and subtle gender association nonsense...it's in the books Zo reads, it's on the television programs and movies that she watches...it's everywhere. Now it's in our living room.

It's difficult to raise a daughter and not have her find those images, and I'm sure it's of less consequence than many people will have you believe. Not every little girl that reads Cinderella is going to grow up with a complex, in fact, it seems quite ridiculous, but it amazes me how quickly gender association happens. Sure, Zo will have tools to play with, and yeah, she likes getting dirty, and has no aversion to bugs whatsoever, but she sure likes to play princess.

That's cool, but I'm drawing the line at ballet.