When did being a girl become so girly?

                I’ve complained to pretty much anyone who is willing to listen about how annoying it is that I can’t find any Wonder Woman t-shirts and whatnot for Nora and have resorted to doing a bad job with iron-ons. If I want to find any superhero stuff at all, I have to go to the boys’ section, and don’t think for a second that they’ll have any female superheroes over there. Even when I find JLA things, they only include the male members. But I’ve been thinking about it and I think this is bigger than merely a lack of comic book characters. 

                Back when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, there was a fair share of things considered to be boy toys and TV shows and girl toys and TV shows, but there was also a lot more common ground. Sure every girl I knew had Barbies, but we had Star Wars toys, too. Boys and girls all watched the Justice League. We all had our Underoos with our favorite heroes. 

                And that’s what bugs me about then versus now. We had good, strong female heroes to choose from. We had Wonder Woman, She-Ra, Princess Leia, and I will even include Jem and Miss Piggy. These were women who were feminine, but they could kick butt and had strong personalities. What do girls today have?

                Seriously, what do girls today have? Nora’s only two and she’s only really had exposure to Sesame Street in terms of TV viewing, so I don’t know if I’m missing something that is actually out there. 

However, based on clothing items and toys for toddler girls, here’s what I see as the cultural phenomonon. Disney Princesses. And that’s it. Disney has created this massive marketing scheme and boy is it working. They are everywhere, and I absolutely loathe it. Nothing against any of those movies, I do like them, but the Princesses are not exactly strong female role models. I mean, Sleeping Beauty is my favorite Disney movie, but it’s not because I think Aurora is spectacular. I love it because it’s dark and has the best named villain ever, but the princess sleeps through all the action. A case could be made for Cinderella’s rebellious actions, but that’s not what the Disney Princess collective seems to be going for. It’s all about being girly and sweet. The one warrior princess they have, Mulan, doesn’t seem to make the marketing cut. I’m seeing a bit of Tinkerbell out there lately, and that could be good since she’s got some sass, but I’m withholding my judgment since I haven’t seen what they’ve done to her in their Tinkerbell DVDs. 

So here’s my question. When did this happen to our girls? When did they take our role models away? How has the equality we were at least somewhat achieving when we were kids 30 years ago completely disappeared? 

And why is everything pink, for crying out loud? It’s not just Disney on this one. Even Fisher Price has versions of their standard toys, like the corn popper and the Little People bus and plane, which come in pink. Why? What in the world is the point of that? Why can’t girls like other colors?

One side note about pink, by the way, that does actually have a point in the end. The adoption agency I do contract work for has started doing international adoptions, including with Haiti. As we were being trained on the new programs, it came up that what the color shirts the kids wear depends on what school they go to, and there was a picture of a boy in a pink shirt. The speaker pointed out that pink is not considered to be a color for girls there. It’s just a color. 

My point to that story is that we as a society in this country have created these categories of what is girl and what is boy. There is no biological basis for pink or blue being a preference. Just like there’s no reason why girls and boys both can’t like fairies and dragons and princesses and robots and superheroes. It’s all based on crappy marketing strategies and I’m not falling for it. 

But most of all, I know that kids need those imaginary role models, and I want Nora to have some strong ones. I know I can show her my role models on DVD, but it would be helpful if the current trends, that all her friends will be into and she’ll be exposed to whether I like it or not, fit the bill, too. In the end, I think it would be better for all our girls. I’m sad to see that we’ve gone so far downhill since I was a kid.

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And for the record, it's not that I hate pink, I just don't prefer it.  It's fine in its place.  Like as an accent to a good Zeppelin t-shirt.