Casual sexism of the sort I thought was long since past...

[bookwormsarah]

I stopped in Sainsbury's last night to pick up a couple of bits on my way home (note to self: their own brand meat-free kievs are a bit...weird. Don't get them again). On the end of an aisle there was a rack of children's fancy dress costumes. Thinking 'Awww' I stopped to look at them, and was utterly horrified to see that the 'doctor' costume

Comments

[ladyofastolat]

Popping by after wellinghall linked us both to each other's posts. Hope you don't mind!

I'm a children's librarian, and one of the books I often read in pre-schools involves looking for a monster who might be hiding behind flaps. Lifting the flaps reveals no monster at all, only various children who are dressing up as pirates, astronauts, princesses etc. etc. One picture shows a girl dressed as a nurse, but children often identify her as being a doctor. (I don't correct them if they do this. Some children identify her as a vet. There seems to be some confusion about medical iconography all round.) However, I have several times had a boy sternly say, "No, it's a nurse, because it's a girl. Boys are doctors." Usually several other children chime in to agree.

They also tend to be adamant that the children of intedeterminate gender who are dressing up as pirates and astronauts must be boys. I always stress that it could just as easily be a girl, "because girls can dress up as pirates, too," but children have often corrected me. "Girls dress up as princesses," they tell me. So all these things - the dressing up clothes, the pink toys in all the shops, the images in children's books - are making a real difference to the way young children see gender roles.

Sorry for the long reply. I rant periodically about things like this, so it's one of my pet subjects. :-)

[bookwormsarah]

Rant away, I get so wound up about these things and then wonder whether it is just me. Do we seem to be going backwards with this? Or was my feminist mother just wonderful at keeping me convinced that I could do absolutely anything? I do remember other girls in the class wanting to be nurses, but I was very definite that I wanted to be a doctor. I know we didn't have nearly so much *pink* in the eighties...

[ladyofastolat]

Oh, we're definitely going backwards in this. I see it in the realms of books, and I'm sure it's even worse elsewhere. I've been a children's librarian for 15 years now (15 years! *whimpers*) and when I started, there were a load of books for the 5 to 8 year old market that were just books, appealing to both sexes. Now the 5 - 8s section is dominated with pink - very few books in there that boys want to read, which is another problem all by itself - and I'm constantly hearing children express the opinion that there are "girls' books" and "boys' books", and never the twain shall meet.

Someone's just linked me to the Pink Stinks campaign, which I thought had some very good stuff on it.

[bookwormsarah]

When I was six or seven I went through the Argos catalogue crossing out 'Boy's Toys' and 'Girl's Toys' replacing them with 'Children's Toys' (it took forever). The only pink item of clothing I owned was a second hand Minnie Mouse sweatshirt and a pair of pixie boots (which I adored). Apart from that I was pink free, and it was easy! One of my LJ friends had problems finding a non-pink bike for her eight year old girl - I can't remember pink bikes (I had a red and then a blue). Aggh!

[lizarfau]

They do pink recorders for girls now!

I refuse to buy anything pink or girly for little girls, and am thankful that I have a boy so I don't get challenged about why I won't buy pink/Barbies/princessy-type stuff.

[bookwormsarah]

*blinks*

Do the recorders have sparkles?

[ladyofastolat]

Good for you! I grumble every Christmas about the "For him" and "For her" sections in High Street catalogues. It's more dangerous when it's applied to children's things, I think, since it helps create life-long attitudes, but it's still pretty annoying when applied to adult gifts.

[lizarfau]

The problem is that the majority of girls these days *do* dress up as princesses or fairies (which are marginally better, I guess) and are completely obsessed with pink. Not all of them, but for every little eight-year-old girl who's playing pirates and wearing a different colour, you'll find twenty wearing pink and being princesses. I loathe it. It was all so different when I was a kid, despite the fact that girls' choices were so much more limited then (in the late 60s/early 70s).

I hate the way classic girls' stories now have pink colours, but the booksellers/publishers say today's girls are more likely to buy them if pink ...

The nurse/doctor thing is appalling though, especially the doctor bit.

[ladyofastolat]

Indeed. It's all a vicious circle. The shops are full of pink clothes and toys for little girls, so little girls come to think that pink is a desirable thing, so the shops get even more dominated by pink, so the little girls get even more attached to it, and there's no way out.

I also hate the way that any classic story that involves the remotest bit of adventure is now packaged as "for boys." I was particularly cross about a recent "stories for boys" anthology that contained retellings of lots of my favourite childhood books. Though at least girls can get away with reading the "for boys" stuff. Woe betide the boy who wants to read the "for girls" books.

[wellinghall]

I am pleased to have introduced you two to each other :-)