It’s fancy dress week at my daughter’s preschool. So what should she go as? The question I should have asked my daughter was “What fancy dress would you like to wear?”. However, what we actually asked was “Would you like to wear your Darth Vader costume?” I just couldn’t let this opportunity to enlighten her peers slip by.
A local mum recently made a good point to me that I had never considered. Many of the children my daughter goes to preschool with will be at the same primary school, in the same year, maybe even the same class. They may continue to be her closest peers until adulthood. The same goes for lots of the children we see at playgroup, at the local park, soft play, the library, or even just the high street. What these children think, how they perceive the world, how they treat my daughter, will have a massively influential impact on the woman she becomes.
Part of my approach to parenting is to constantly refer back to my memories of growing up, and use that to positively inform my approach. The fantastical worlds of comic books and Star Wars loom large in my childhood (and adulthood too). They fired my imagination, but perhaps more importantly provided both escapism and inspiration to make sense of the world in the darkest times of my youth.
I want my daughter to have access to all of this too. Luckily, superheroes and Star Wars are still very much in vogue. Raising a Star Wars girl isn’t an anachronism.
It’s also fair to say that I’m not a fan of Disney Princesses, and pinkification in general. So as well as simply sharing my enthusiasm for Star Wars with my daughter (she has all my old toys), this is also about me offering her an alternative to girly girl culture before she heads into the school system, and peer group pressure becomes a driving force in her development.
So far, my daughter is a real Star Wars girl and enjoys it all. So do all the little girls who come over for playdates – they always love to play with our Star Wars and superhero toys.
However, so far it seems very clear that to the likes of Hasbro and Disney (who own Marvel and Star Wars) these brands are just for boys. That’s another battle being fought by myself and others, but in the meantime, here in the trenches, our kids are forming opinions on what is and isn’t for boys or girls, based on the way these brands are marketed.
As our Star Wars girl grows older, I worry she might be singled out for displaying an interest in this geek stuff, simply because she’s a girl. I don’t want her to be perceived as ‘weird’ because she’s a geek. Perhaps even teased, ostracised, or bullied.
This mentality starts young. One time, a little boy saw me with my daughter, looked unsure, then asked me: “Is she a boy or a girl?”. When I confirmed ‘she’ was in fact a girl, he countered “Then why is she wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt?”. “Because she likes Spider-Man.” I replied. The boy’s older sister then chimed in, “Yeah, girls can like Spider-Man too y’know!”. The boy went away with a new concept to contemplate, while hopefully this exchange supported his sister’s seemingly healthy outlook on gender.
It also exists in adults who should know better. A friend who recently became a dad asked me ‘Why are you trying to make your daughter into a boy?’. Grasping for a calm answer, I replied ‘I’m not. There’s nothing inherently male about any of this stuff. I think whatever she wears are girl’s clothes, her toys are girl’s toys, her books are girl’s books. Because she’s a girl.’ After mulling it for a moment, he agreed with me. I think this had never occurred to him before, but now it makes sense.
My daughter & I get so many positive comments from parents when we’re out and about. I often then hear them telling their son or daughter how cool my daughter looks. So perhaps we are influencing some parents too.
I am confident I am doing right by my daughter, that these things are a positive influence on her developing personality. But in order for her to not be socially excluded because of it, I also need her peers and their parents to accept girls can be just as engaged with these things as boys.
So I feel that each time she runs around with a cape, carries her cuddly Spidey to the playground, wears her beloved Batgirl dress yet again, or goes out dressed as Darth Vader, she is doing her part to challenge (some) people’s idea of what it is to be a girl.
My hope is that by the time she gets to school, and her attire will switch from geek chic to school uniform, her fellow pupils will be so used to the idea that girls can like this stuff too, that it won’t be weird at all.
And while Darth Vader didn’t wear pink – he does have a pink lightsaber…
I grew up as an only child but my parents always got me toys/books/costumes that were either branded as boy or as girl stuff. That’s why I loved my medieval sets of Playmobil, my science fiction Lego stuff as much as my Barbie dolls (I used to retell Star Wars with them, including characters from the EU and casted some of my dolls for this or that role in SW). I still have the custom made Puss in boots costume my father sewed for me when I was 5. And I think that I fell in love with pink as a color to wear when I was in my late twenties.
Being able to go beyond the stereotypes that still take over industries and mentalities is very important. Thank you for your posts which are always inspiring!
As an only child, also, I played with Playmobil, Lego and Train Sets as a child, as well as climbing trees and making things – both in the kitchen and in the garden shed. I was never teased or bullied about my interests in these things, partially because not having to conform to stereotypes made me more confident in myself than a lot of others.
As a grown up feel girl, I applaud you. Some may still view her as weird but by bringing her up to be enthusiastic about her passions and interests, you’re giving her the strength to rise above. My dad stood up at our wedding and mock-apologised for it being Sci Fi themed. Mum and Dad bought me up in the ways of the force / prime directive / and more 🙂
I think we’re lucky in that no one views her as weird, and as it’s been established so young hopefully her peers and other parents are used to it.