To be honest, since I've become a mom I've really wondered how far we have come. We being women. Now we are not only expected to keep a tidy house, raise good children, feed the family, and be a general family manager, but now we MUST significantly contribute financially as well. It can be a bit overwhelming. Often a lot overwhelming, at least for me.
Yet all these thoughts flew out the window when I was at the park last week with my son. First of all I was aggravated because even in the year 2013 people still light up cigarettes around children. It doesn't make a difference if it's open air or not! Get that thing away from me and my family!!
My son is a bit of a daredevil when it comes to play and I'm the kind of parent who believes in letting him try out what he wants to do (within reason). Of course J is not satisfied with the 4 and under playground, so we headed over to the big kids playground. He led the way onto the "ship." It's a neat playground near the river. The equipment was just replaced from what was there when I was a kid. The new one is made to resemble a pirate ship, you know, if pirate ships had slides to exit and rock climbing style ladders to board.
And now we're to the point where I get really upset. We go to the park later in the afternoon so it's not too crowded, so only J and I (I do insist on following fairly closely when he fancies himself to be a big boy) and a group of 5 children around age 8 to 11. A little girl is the ring leader and sets the stage for the play game. Naturally they're pirates. The ring leading girl begins a story telling a younger boy she will need to be saved as she is helplessly drowning at sea...
Why couldn't she swim?
Why in this day and age do girls still think they need to be saved by boys?
Why couldn't she be heroic? or brave? or at least fight for her life?
Why couldn't one of the boys be the floundering victim?
Why are women still painting ourselves as helpless?
Why are helpless women put on a pedestal?
I really wanted to scream at this little girl, but I realized it's not her fault she thinks this way. This has be replaying in my mind for weeks and it still bothers me. Hopefully, this post will help me put it to rest.
Thoughts?
I agree with your thoughts, but she probably watched Disney movies growing up. The prince always has to save the princess. A lot of cartoons and stories tell us this as we grow, so it takes a stronger mother figure to change the dynamic. I love that J goes on the big kid playground. Miles loves those playgrounds over the other smaller ones. He's always getting into trouble!
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping in. Sounds like Miles and Joshua are into a lot of the same things :)
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