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RSS FeedI can’t get this new study on preschoolers and outdoor play out of my mind. Initially brought to my attention by KJ Dell’Antonia at Motherlode, it found that roughly half of parents of preschoolers did not take their children outside to play regularly–suggesting that those children are not getting the level of physical activity they need (see KJ’s post for important caveats). But here’s the kicker: parents were 16% more likely to take preschool boys outside than preschool girls. Why? Researchers theorized it was ingrained (and probably unconscious) stereotypes about how much exercise girls need. This sets the stage for sedentariness in adolescence and beyond. Which, I’m guessing, plays into distorted body image and unhealthy dieting. Great for the 60.9 billion dollar diet industry (with its 95% failure rate); not so great for girls.
So you know I’m going to loop this back to the Princess Industrial Complex, right? Girls don’t seem to “need”–or even want– to play outside when they’re flouncing around in their princess dresses. What’s more, you can’t run, jump and get dirty when you’re wearing your miniature high heels (or even your sparkly flats) or worried about chipping your nail polish.
Think that’s a stretch? Melissa Wardy over at Pigtail Pals recently wrote about an exchange that she overheard between her daughter Amelia, and a friend:
“Your shoes are ugly,” said Amelia’s kindergarten classmate.
“No they are not,” replied the 6yo Original Pigtail Pal, Amelia.
“They are. Look how pretty mine are,” the classmate taps her toes for emphasis.
“They are the same pair of shoes. Like the exact same,” explains Amelia.
“They aren’t the same. Mine still have all of the pretty sparkles. I didn’t get them messed up,” boasted the girl.
“Listen, who cares about pretty? All I care about is playing,” retorts Amelia.
“…Amelia, you should care a little bit about being pretty or you won’t get a boyfriend,” says the classmate.
On her girls’ studies blog Rebecca Hains broadened the lens of that exchange with pictures from her local Stride Rite store. You remember Stride Rite, don’t you? They used to sell cute, sturdy footwear for little ones? Like these saddle shoes (which I had and loved ever so much) from an ad in the 1970s?
No more. Rebecca reports that girls are now instructed to “Sparkle with Every Step”….. like Cinderella, whose glass-slipper shod likeness graces the display.
As for boys? They get …Spiderman!
Rebecca went to Stride Rite’s web site and found more of the same: “Girls are meant to be looked at, so their play shoes are a route to prettiness, while boys are meant to be active, so their play shoes are made for play.” Her excerpts from Stride Rite’s gallery below:
Cinderella sneakers “transport your little princess to a world of fantasy”
Hello Kitty Keds are “the cutest sneakers on the block”
Glitzy Pets sneakers help girls “to really shine and steal the show”
Spiderman sneakers offer “light-up powers,” “no matter what kind of web he spins”
Star Wars sneakers with “lighted technology” are good for “your little adventurer’s feet”
Lightning McQueen sneakers, also with “lighted technology,” let boys “be as fast as the legendary Cars Lightning McQueen on-and-off the track”
Rebecca connects this to Colette Dowling’s Frailty Myth which holds:
Boys learn “to use their bodies in skilled ways, and this gives them a good sense of their physical capacities and limits…. Girls hold themselves back from full, complete movement, Although it’s usually something girls are unaware of, they actually learn to hamper their movements, developing a ‘body timidity that increases with age.’”
So. we may not be stunting our girls’ piggies’ by wrapping them in cloth bandages, but we seem to be binding their feet–or binding them through their feet–all the same.
My personal blow against the Princess footwear industry (which, mark my words is priming girls for a lifetime of painful, sky-high—in both price and scale– heels that will leave them be-bunioned and miserable) was to allow Daisy to pick out a pair of classic Van’s slip-ons. Her choice of flame skater shoes became her “trademark” from preschool through first grade, one that her classmates, male and female, admired and even copied. Remember my fight-fun-with-fun philosophy? There it is in practice. D got to wear fabulous shoes that were comfortable, cool, and broadened her notion of femininity. She also got a tacit lesson in the benefits of individuality over following the crowd. Beat that Cinderella.
As a culture (based on box office receipts) we are currently obsessed with one of the most radical and self-determining female characters ever to appear on screen: The Hunger Games‘ Katinss Everdeen. Check out her shoes.
“Exceptional” girls and women like Katniss crop up periodically in the culture, female warriors who transcend stereotypes and gender norms. Ripley of the Alien franchise is one. The girls in Mirror, Mirror, as well as the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman and Pixar’s Brave appear to be as well. And, of course, there was Buffy, who took a glorious stand against the “chosen” girl in the series’ last episode with this speech:
From now on, every girl in the world who might be a Slayer, will be a Slayer. Every girl who could have the power, will have the power. Can stand up, will stand up. Slayers, every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?
I recalled those lines as I read the end of Pigtail Pal’s sparkle-shoes post:
Amelia tells her friend: “You should care less about being pretty and more about playing with us. My mom says there’s lots of different ways to be a girl,”
“I don’t want to mess up my shoes,” says the classmate, which is met by an audible sigh from Amelia, who sprints off to play in her busted up not-so-sparkly-anymore shoes.
RUNNER UP (signed copy of CAMD): Product that Only the Parents of an ACTUAL Princess Could Afford: 
