Did Cinderella Eat Your Daughter, the name implies tones of a woman being rescued for most of society, I always think of the hard life poor Cinderelly had cleaning up after her step sisters and her mean stepmother, and the dingy room she was given to sleep in compared to the rest of the household.
Peggy Orenstein writes in her new paperback release which is on the, New York Times Best Seller List, about the "pink girlie" culture that prevails for girls in the consumer market and how society sees the whole girlie thing in general. You may know Orenstein from another best seller she wrote, Schoolgirls,Young Women Self-Esteem and the Confidence Gap, which was written as a warning to parents about the all-girl culture that is prevailing, and to be aware of the underground stigma that comes with being a "pink" girl.
As the mother of a new daughter Orenstein says she was blindsided byt the bombardment of "be a girl" messages that come from the whole of society on a daily basis, the messages are every where you look. "How many times can you say no, when your daughter keeps asking for a pint-sized wedding gown?"
Is this early sexualization, we all know the "pageant moms" scream no it is not. But to those of us that are able to take three giant steps backward, and actually see the real picture, how can it not be. Are our young boys running out asking for pint-sized wedding tuxes?
And if this same "girlie" culture were applied to young boys, the men would not have it. "we will not have our boys that will grow up to be men bombarded with pink and shown how to be "paly the insignificant role." They don't want their boys turning into prissy pants, then why is it O.K. for our girls to take on that type of role?
Is the Disney-princess retro feminine culture of dieting, pluckin and painting, and never being satisfied with what is left.
When I was growing up during the days of activist Gloria Steinem, new mothers were actually naming their new born girl children with boy names to give them an equal leg up in the world. So the teacher in calling out the name on the first day would not call the child's name out in a different sugary sweet voice than she did for the boys. Just upon seeing the name others would not know was it a boy or a girl and would treat her "equal-y" and no lump her off into the girl line.
We thought we had come a long way, but now we wonder.
Orenstein talks to historians, marketers, psychologists, nueroscientists, parents and even the children in this book designed to make you think about the roles these "feminine games" play in the lives of our daughters. For all of you parents that swear you raise your boys and girls alike, with no gender differences, this book will open your eyes.
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