For instance, here's one word: Disturbing.

More from the description:

The characteristics focused on in this Bible storybook will help your little girl blossom into the princess she was created to be. Virtues to create beauty such as compassion, sharing, and truth are highlighted in fun and engaging ways. The perfect format for girls to learn about their destiny as a daughter of their King.

The princess meme has become so dominant and saturated every aspect of pop culture that it's now being used to teach religion. A gender-neutral bible is not good enough; little girls need a one with pink accents and a tiny tiara. In addition, you can argue that boys "long to be loved and adored" just as much as girls do, only we live in a society that places more emphasis on girls being pretty and popular. (Of course, you can also argue that some girls do not long to be loved and adored, but would prefer to be left alone and not fussed over.) As for giving their hearts to their heroes? That's not something inherent to girls, either. Boys "give their heart" to baseball players, rock stars and other notable figures, it's just not coated with the sugary, dreamy language stereotypically used on girls.

One Amazon.com customer writes, "What little girl doesn't want to be a princess?" The answer: Plenty. Some want to be gymnasts, scientists, actresses, soldiers, librarians. Furthermore, regardless of the religious message, teaching a girl to be a "daughter of a King" is troubling as it means that the little girl's identity is fully linked with that of someone else. In this case, the King is God, but all princesses have this problem: A princess is a daughter, a wife or an heir — not an individual. She defines herself by who she in relation to another. Plus, while a warrior goes out on adventures and experiences the world, a princess usually stays in her castle — a point driven home in the New Super Mario Bros. game for Wii (which we mentioned earlier) in which Princess Peach has been kidnapped and must be rescued. Again.

In contrast, the version of this book for boys, God's Mighty Warrior Devotional Bible, sends a very different message:

Just like God created little girls in a special way, He created little boys to be mighty warriors… even when they feel small. Now with this new devotional Bible in storybook format, boys can learn how to be strong, honorable, courageous and true. Selections of Bible text from the International Children's Bible are combined with delightful articles to help a budding warrior earn his armor.

Do girls not need to learn to be strong, honorable and true? Are a little girls not allowed to be budding warriors? Are there compassion and sharing lessons for boys, or is that just girl stuff?

These books further the notion that girls are delicate, fragile, dreamy creatures in need of protection — or at least Purity Balls. Unlike "warrior" boys, strength and independence are not something for girls to focus on — instead, "beauty" and caring are highlighted.

Luckily, Amazon notes of God's Little Princess Devotional Bible: "This is a bargain book and quantities are limited." Hopefully, most girls out there won't get the message.

I Have No Words And I Must Scream [Shakesville]
The Princess Is In Another Freakin' Castle? [Techland]
God's Little Princess Devotional Bible: Bible Storybook, God's Mighty Warrior Devotional Bible [Amazon]

Related:
Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
Purity Balls: Ruining Young Girls One White Rose At A Time

Josiah Neufeld (yes, that's his married name) took his wife's because...well, I'll let him explain.

I did it because I love Mona - because I wanted her to know that I didn't expect her to become anyone other than herself. It mattered to me that we shared a name, so I reasoned I should be the one to offer mine up. And a combination name like Neufeld-Thiessen would only solve the dilemma temporarily. Eventually a child of ours would bring this unwieldy last name to his or her own marriage - most likely to another hyphenee...I did it because any form of power comes with duties. I'm obliged to take responsibility for my power, to learn its effects - even unintentional ones - to see what it does to others when I'm not watching, to use it in the best way possible. Sometimes to relinquish it.

Obviously, of all the highly personal choices people make when marrying, the changing or retention or invention of their name is one of the most so. It's public, it's declaratory and, whether it's perceived as a reverent nod to tradition, a declaration of revolution, or a compromise, it's always making some kind of statement. Neufeld's family isn't completely cool with it; to some of them it seems weird, to others confusing, and probably to a few, hurtful. I remember my dad telling me years ago that he'd be shocked and hurt if I ever changed my name, which surprised me; I wouldn't have thought he'd care much about a word probably tacked on only a century or so ago by some high-handed Polish official. My mother, like many women of her generation, retained her maiden name and would have considered anything else a betrayal of principles. But I know many younger women don't take that view; to them, taking their husband's name is more about creating a single family identity than surrendering her own. Most people I know have hyphenated; my high-school reunion's attendance list was noticeably double-barreled. (Those who already had hyphenates - a sizable number in my progressive school - had retained their names.) I know a few cases in which all members of the family - husband, wife, kids - have taken on a hyphenate. I don't personally know of anyone who's committed to the invention of a brand-new combo name, but one hears tell of such wondrous things.

What's funny is - although I had no intention, had I thought of it, of giving up my native-born alliteration - I sort of resented my dad's saying that. It seemed to me it should be my choice, which was as much the point as retaining a maiden name (which, as many will declare, it's still a man's name in the end.) I get the impulse to unite under a single name - in a sense, maybe it's nice for kids, too; it's a kind of commitment. But I wouldn't expect my husband to take mine, as that would feel - to me - as arbitrary as the reverse (although I get the argument to the contrary.) As I say, it's personal; in the author's case, he was making a statement - but a gentle one. He loved her, he wanted to wield his patriarchal potency responsibly, and, at the end of the day, it seems like his wife was simply more attached to her name than he. It should be said, in case you wonder, that yes, Mr. Neufeld seems to be pretty sensitive all-around. ("I wear my new name as proudly as I wear the tiny woman with braided hair I carved from a piece of antler and hung around my neck as a wedding ring. Mona wears a miniature man. Both come from the same bone. I can't remember which I carved first, but I think the woman is the more beautiful of the two.") So I don't see this practice necessarily becoming de rigeur. But I do think we'll get to a point where such a choice doesn't require explanation; after all, as cultures increasingly intermingle, the relative importance and transience and significance of names will only become even more complex. The question is whether some families will ever cease to take it personally - and whether they should.

I Took My Wife's Last Name [Globe And Mail]

Lera Boroditsky, an assistant psychology professor at Stanford University, has found that the language we speak may fundamentally change the way we see objects. If your first language is one with masculine and feminine nouns, then you very well may ascribe certain gender characteristics to inanimate things. Spanish speakers, for whom bridge is a masculine noun, are more likely to deem bridges "strong," "powerful," or "towering," while German speakers tend to call bridges "elegant," "slender," or even "fragile."

Boroditsky observed the same phenomenon with the work "key," which is masculine in German and feminine in Spanish. German speakers were more likely to call the key "hard," "heavy," "jagged," "metal," "serrated" and "useful." Spanish speakers came up with the adjectives "golden," "intricate," "little," "lovely," "shiny" and "tiny."

To test whether or not this would work on speakers of gender-neutral English, Boroditsky created her own language, called "Gumbuzi." She assigned various nouns with the prefix "oos" (masculine) or "soos" (feminine). Boroditsky taught a group of students — who spoke only English — her language for a single day. At the end of the day, she found that the students had already begun to internalize the grammar of her fake language. They started to attribute stereotypically feminine traits to the feminine nouns, and masculine attributes to the masculine things.

And this all happens without our knowing it. "You have no idea this is happening to you. You just think you are learning a way of talking, but really you are learning a whole way of seeing the world," Boroditsky said.

Shakespeare Had Roses All Wrong [NPR]

Thirty years ago, a similar case was brought against Southwest Airlines, which resulted in the company being forced to hire male flight attendants. While the Southwest Airlines case sounds sensible, you have to wonder why a group of men would want to work at Hooters, a chain that objectifies its employees, controls virtually every aspect of their appearance, and generally treats them like crap. Oh wait, they don’t really want to work at Hooters, they are just looking for some big corporate payoff. As TMZ charmingly reports: “The guys are asking the court for emotional damages—but we thought you had to have those before getting a job at Hooters!” [TMZ]

Both Bradley and Jonah are under the care of psychiatric professionals — Dr. Ken Zucker and Dr. Diane Ehrensaft, respectively. Zucker and Ehrensaft have conflicting theories on how best to deal with a transgender child. Zucker, based in Toronto, believes that boys like Bradley should be socialized as boys, even if they see themselves as girls. He reasons, "Suppose you were a clinician and a 4-year-old black kid came into your office and said he wanted to be white. Would you go with that? ... I don't think we would." Eherensaft, who works out of the Bay Area, sees Jonah's condition as clear cut case of transgender identity. "If we allow people to unfold and give them the freedom to be who they really are, we engender health. And if we try and constrict it, or bend the twig, we engender poor mental health," she tells NPR.

I know both sets of parents are just trying to do right by their children, but it's incredibly difficult to defend Zucker's point of view when you hear how unhappy Bradley is. Since his parents took away all his "girly" stuff, his mom says, Bradley "really struggles with the color pink. He really struggles with the color pink. He can't even really look at pink...He's like an addict. He's like, 'Mommy, don't take me there! Close my eyes! Cover my eyes! I can't see that stuff; it's all pink!'" Meanwhile, Jonah — now Jona — is thriving. According to her teacher, "Jonah is one of the most popular kids. Kids love her, they want to play with her, she's fun, and it's because she's so comfortable with herself that she makes other people comfortable."

Two Families Grapple with Sons' Gender Preferences [NPR]
Q&A Therapists On Gender Identity Issues In Kids [NPR]

The dubiousness of this "study" is obvious from the get-go, since it was performed by the British equivalent of Spike TV and only polled 2,000 people, but I'd also argue that women don't want what the survey called "waxed and coiffed metrosexuals," despite the fact that men think they do. My concept of being a "real man" is fulfilling responsibilities (though I suppose that goes across gender — that's my concept of being a real woman, too), and just because those responsibilities are shifting towards domesticity doesn't have any bearing on their "manhood."

The same survey says that "63 percent of women recognize that men are struggling to meet the demands made of them," and to that I say, so fucking what? Women have been struggling to meet the demands of work and home life forever, so it's good that men are bearing some of the load of that difficult balance. Maybe the British men in this survey would feel more manly if they stopped being such pussies and stepped up to the same set of issues women have been dealing with for at least thirty years.

Modern Men Feel Emasculated, Study Claims [Telegraph]

Argues Kat Stark, women's officer at the National Union of Students: "Women are taking longer than men to pay off their student loans because they are paid less, not because they are taking time off to have children. Within three years of graduating, over 40% of men are earning over £25,000, compared to just over a quarter of women." In addition, aren't young women entering the workforce expected to spend more money on work-appropriate clothes and grooming than young men? Don't we get set up for post-collegiate debt early on? And are you done paying your school loans? Yeah, neither are we.

Women Take Longer To Repay Student Loans [Guardian]