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Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?

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MargaretMoony
11/10/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
True fact: I used to babysit this little boy who loved to get dressed up in princess garb and play witches or Sailor Moon. Super cute kid and his parents just let him go for it. I've always wondered what happen to him... #lilyskids
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GoldenRatioφ (aka -girl11)
11/10/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
Sigh. I wonder if I can get a copy of this magazine to prove to my (soon to be) in laws that my (soon to be) niece can play soccer and still cook and bake and clean and be pink. So far, they will only let her be a cheerleader and dance while her brothers play football, baseball AND soccer. #lilyskids
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pesematology
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
Don't feel bad Dodai, I wanted to be a maid when I was like 5, because of Cinderella. My parents (doctor and lawyer) were mortified. #lilyskids
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DinosaurDanceParty
11/09/09

@pesematology: I like to think it's because kids don't have a lot of understanding of professions. When I worked in a preschool I would ask the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up sometimes and I got answers from "farmer" (we lived in San Francisco), "hippie," "cartoon fox," "bob the builder," "robot," "nurse," (by a boy!!!!) and "psychologist." For realsies #lilyskids
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lalie (apologetic mess)
11/10/09

@DinosaurDanceParty: When I was a camp counselor, one of my third graders told me he wanted to be a frog, and would hop down the hall to me every day. He later on decided that he wanted to be a snake. Then he wanted to be both a frog AND a snake, something he christened "a frake". #lilyskids
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pesematology
11/10/09

@lalie (apologetic mess): Woah, I'm going to encourage my kids, when I have them, to do well in school so they can turn into a frake. #lilyskids
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Snowbunny
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
Is that massive croquet? Because yes. Croquet is for girls. And boys. And dogs. #lilyskids
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Snowbunny
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
To be fair, if a boy wanted to be a pretty princess, he would technically be a pretty prince...unless he was pretending to be a girl. I am not against experimenting with gender identity, but I do believe the proper noun should be used with royalty. #lilyskids
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pesematology
11/09/09

@Snowbunny: Royalty, though, is one case where you can say "their" instead of "his" or "her" and still be correct. Because if there's a Royal We there must be a Royal Them, no? #lilyskids
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Snowbunny
11/09/09

@pesematology: Yes, so maybe all young royal should be Princes, which is either plural Prince or a lazy person writing out Princess, but a good intermediate all the same. #lilyskids
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sableized (just like starting over)
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
This has ALWAYS been true in this catalog. I used to go through it and write my name in pen over all the boy stuff, and then show my mom and be like, SO THERE.

I still got a pink towel with a ballet slipper on it, though. #lilyskids
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Benevolent_Dictatrix (patently absurd)
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
My mom got into a huge fight with these people when I was a kid. She wanted two towels with my and my sister's names on them. Our bathroom was blue. Hence, she ordered the blue towel with a sneaker design and the names "Jenny" and "Katie". The woman on the phone was like, oh so you want the pink towel with the ballet shoes? My mom: No, I want the blue towels. Lady: But you said Jenny and Katie. Those are girl names. You want the pink towel. Mom: No, I want the blue towel. It was like a gender-fail Who's on First. #lilyskids
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Elaken
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
Did anybody ever like playing with those things, such as the fake grill and fake kitchen? I always found them so tedious, you flip a fake food and that is about the extent of play. Just give me some dinosaurs - that's all I needed for hours of fun. #lilyskids
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
11/09/09

@Elaken: I was a weird child in that I didn't so much use my toys for imaginative play as I loved putting them together. I would basically assemble my dream world. I would then disassemble it and build it again. Barbies weren't used for cooperative "you be Ken and I'll be Barbie!" play as for putting on my own little silent films and also for designing clothes.

I have NO IDEA what this says about me as a person. #lilyskids
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sableized (just like starting over)
11/09/09

@Zombie Ms. Skittles: Me too! My mother has taught kindergarten and first grade for thirty years, and when I came along, she was really perplexed by the fact that I didn't "play" - I just set everything up the way I wanted it, and walked away.

Actually, that kind of explains a lot about me. :) #lilyskids
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TheFormerJuneBronson
11/09/09

@Zombie Ms. Skittles: Oh, I was like that! Wow, I didn't know there were two of us. I loved putting things together, generally by following elaborate instructions. I was not so much a creative child, but I could be precise and careful. I just knew I should have gone to trade school. #lilyskids
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anya629
11/09/09

@Elaken: ha! I never played with fake food; I played with real food. I had a Fisherprice kitchen, with cupboards. I took a package of hamburger meat that I found thawing in our real kitchen, and put the meat in my Fisherprice kitchen cupboard. My mom found the meat 3 days later. #lilyskids
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Elaken
11/09/09

@anya629: Well that made me laugh out loud. Your poor mom. #lilyskids
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Dancingfrog
11/10/09

@Elaken: Yes. My friends and I would make up elaborate stories - it was a lot more than "flipping fake food". We'd also make up elaborate stories with dinosaur toys. And blocks. I'm kind of saddened by all the people who are applying adult logic to child's play, or who are applying their own experience to all other children. Some kids do find flipping fake food without a story to go along with it loads of fun. Kids are all different, like adults. For instance, some adults find grilling fun. Others find it tedious, And all sorts of feelings in between. #lilyskids
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Elaken
11/10/09

@Dancingfrog: Well that is kind of why I was asking. I think sometimes toys for children are created and bought by adult minds without really appealing to children. I was wondering if people had enjoyed them and in what way - such as learning apparently several people liked to just assemble everything when a child. #lilyskids
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
Oh Dodai! My brother was convinced he wanted to be a garbage man when he was about 4 because he thought the garbage truck was the coolest thing ever. He used to wake up early on garbage day to sit out on the porch and wave at the trash collectors. #lilyskids
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Kivrin
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
God, that Disney Princess crap is AWFUL. And I say this as someone who spent 2 summers at the pool trying to be the Little Mermaid (i.e., swimming with my legs together). I'm glad this overly pink stuff wasn't around when I was a kid. It's hideous. #lilyskids
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joannabobanna
11/09/09

@Kivrin: Oh my god, you did that too?! I was obsessed with The Little Mermaid. I'm kind of ashamed of myself for it now, though. #lilyskids
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ihatebutterflies
11/09/09

@Kivrin: Lord I did too. I used to submerge myself and try to look up at the surface while singing Part of Your World also. #lilyskids
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rodmanstreet
11/09/09

@Kivrin: @joannabobanna: I did it, too! We also practiced making our hair look mermaid princessy underwater. All in all, I would have fucking nailed last week's underwater photoshoot on ANTM #lilyskids
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Kivrin
11/09/09

@ihatebutterflies: Hee hee hee, I'm glad I wasn't the only dork! #lilyskids
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booter26
11/09/09

@joannabobanna: Did either of you do the in-the-pool arching your back thing while pushing your hands up on a rock/cement stone pretending your long gleaming wet red hair was flowing down your back while busting out the mournful last words, "Wish I could be....Paaaarrrtttt of their world!" Anyone? Um, in that case, me either.
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Kivrin promoted this comment Edited by booter26 at 11/09/09 5:25 PM booter26 was starred booter26 was unstarred

Erda
11/09/09

@Kivrin: I did that at the pool too!

Then again, after seeing Lion King at age 4, I also kept trying to arrange my hair so it looked like a lion's mane. I was an impressionable and quite imaginative little kid.
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Kivrin promoted this comment Edited by Erda at 11/09/09 5:26 PM Erda was starred Erda was unstarred

Kitty
11/09/09

@Kivrin: I found that putting one of those colored toss rings around my ankles really gave the impression that I had a tail, especially when I looked down at my shadow at the bottom of the pool.

I too hate these pitiful excuse for princess dresses. When I was four my great aunt actually took the time to make me a Sleeping Beauty dress (blue of course) for Halloween. It was basically an exact replica of Aurora's dress right down to the cut and color. Ever since then I have looked on at such frilly replicas with a very undesirable eye... just because the dress has a picture of the princess on it doesn't make it her dress. #lilyskids
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boxspelunker
11/09/09

@booter26: Well... when I was in the bathtub, yeah. We splashed water all over the floor and my mom got so mad, but we were mermaids, so you couldn't stop us. #lilyskids
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bumblebeetuna.is.new.tie.wearing
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
And according to the catalog, only white kids can do all these things! Except for be a trucker. That's for black males. #lilyskids
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sableized (just like starting over)
11/09/09

@bumblebeetuna.is.new.tie.wearing: Yeah, and Asians and Hispanics and all the other ethnicities just have to subsist on welfare, or something. #lilyskids
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rodmanstreet
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
A Disney Princess Blender? If Belle is spending "happily ever after" making protein shakes for the Beast, I'll eat my hat. #lilyskids
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casi nadie (loves MCC forever)
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
One Christmas I was staying at my grandparents' house, and (so the family legend goes) I told my grandmother that I wanted a toy truck for christmas. She said "No granddaughter of mine is getting a truck!" and gave me disney princesses instead. My parents heard and went out and bought me three trucks.

I love my parents. #lilyskids
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Sputnik_Sweetheart
11/09/09

@casi nadie (loves MCC forever): Funny, my grandmother was quite the tomboy as a child and preferred to play with toy trucks. I think she is part of the reason I ended up the person I am today. #lilyskids
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Tippi Hedren
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
I don't know what this fake vacuum business is all about. My mom had me cleaning "for realsies" when I was younger than that kid. #lilyskids
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SomeAuthorGirl
11/09/09

@Tippi Hedren: Mine clears the table and folds laundry. It's a hard-knock, unpersonalized life for the ShortAuthorGirl. #lilyskids
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Tippi Hedren
11/09/09

@SomeAuthorGirl: Oh great. There you go reinforcing gender stereotypes.

You probably make her wear pink clothes, too. #lilyskids
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SomeAuthorGirl
11/09/09

@Tippi Hedren: If there were a ShortAuthorBoy instead, he'd be doing the same thing. It's just her'n me. :) #lilyskids
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Tippi Hedren
11/09/09

@SomeAuthorGirl: I was just teasing. I know how folks like to get outraged over silly things :) #lilyskids
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Cesybabe or Nirvanah Crane
11/09/09

In reply to Lilly's Kids: What's Christmas Without Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
Having just spent two days doing the end of year clean of my flat, most of that re-doing what my male flatmates had attempted to do, I plead with parents- please teach both sexes equally how to clean a house. If I have to show a 21 year old male one more time how to empty the vacuum cleaner, I may cry.

(Yes this is my cleaning is not just for girls argument. As I sit here smelling of Ajax and with a years worth of dust in my hair, I feel I'm entitled to make it!)
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Edited by Cesybabe or Nirvanah Crane at 11/09/09 5:07 PM

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