Citat
lipnja 17, 2013
"When Sylvia was first born, John and I took great pains to be gender neutral, without drawing too much attention to these pains, and for a while, it seemed to be working. Her favorite toys were a wooden toolbox and some baby approximation of whack-a-mole, and she had no qualms about tumbling in the dirt, building fortresses with Legos, or picking up dead bees on the playground - all those ridiculously stereotypical categories we have for "boy" things. Then, somewhere around age four, the Pink Princess Phase snuck upon us, and it was all pink and all princesses all the time. "Mommy, who's your favourite princess?" she would ask me with the utmost seriousness. After discovering that there was really no avoiding the question, I finally gave in. "Belle," I answered, "because she loves to read." Whenever possible, I tried to inject my own helpfully subversive comments, but it was like doggy paddling against a tsunami - a powerful pink tidal wave of commercialism.
"I kind of like Maleficent," I said cheerily after watching Sleeping Beauty for about hundredth time. "At least she has personality, you know? And that black cape and that headdress with the horns? Very cool."
Sitting on the other couch, John tried not to laugh too hard.
"Mommy," Sylvia said, sighing, as if dealing with a dimwitted child, "she's the Mistress of All Evil."
"Yeah, she's evil, Steph," John said, enjoying every minute of this exchange. "Get with the program."
"Hey, John," I shot back with fake sweetness. "Weren't you saying you wanted to play a game of Pretty, Pretty Princess after the movie?"
Sylvia clapped her hands in glee at the prospect of dressing her daddy up like a princess, then snuggled up next to me and rewound to her favourite scene: Prince Charming coming across the long-haired, funnel-waisted Aurora singing in the forest with all the cute, furry animals.
"Well, maybe Maleficent is just misunderstood," I mumbled, in vain. "She was the only fairy not invited to Sleeping Beauty's coronation - her feelings were hurt!" This is what I have been reduced to, defending a villain in a Disney movie and making my poor husband play princess games. But what else was a feminist mother to do?"
Stephanie Staal: Reading Women. How the great books of feminism changed my life. 224-225.
"I kind of like Maleficent," I said cheerily after watching Sleeping Beauty for about hundredth time. "At least she has personality, you know? And that black cape and that headdress with the horns? Very cool."
Sitting on the other couch, John tried not to laugh too hard.
"Mommy," Sylvia said, sighing, as if dealing with a dimwitted child, "she's the Mistress of All Evil."
"Yeah, she's evil, Steph," John said, enjoying every minute of this exchange. "Get with the program."
"Hey, John," I shot back with fake sweetness. "Weren't you saying you wanted to play a game of Pretty, Pretty Princess after the movie?"
Sylvia clapped her hands in glee at the prospect of dressing her daddy up like a princess, then snuggled up next to me and rewound to her favourite scene: Prince Charming coming across the long-haired, funnel-waisted Aurora singing in the forest with all the cute, furry animals.
"Well, maybe Maleficent is just misunderstood," I mumbled, in vain. "She was the only fairy not invited to Sleeping Beauty's coronation - her feelings were hurt!" This is what I have been reduced to, defending a villain in a Disney movie and making my poor husband play princess games. But what else was a feminist mother to do?"
Stephanie Staal: Reading Women. How the great books of feminism changed my life. 224-225.
0 komentari