Gender Programming

Arvin and I went to shop at Costco this morning. (Remind me not to do that the Sunday before Fourth of July.) I had to photograph this huge pile of clothes by the company called "Little Me." Honestly I felt a bit queasy looking at this display. First of all, I have a bit of a problem with bubble gum pink. So many of the little girl clothes are that color these days. (Though I admit the ones behind in multi-colors looked even more disturbing.) And then there were all of those tulle skirts. Girly to excess for me. I think I expected things to change away from the gender programming of my youth, where girls had girl clothes and girl toys and boys had boy clothes and boy toys. But no. It is just as it was only it seems even more separate. And the model of a woman's figure has gotten even gaunter and skinnier that it was when I was young.

When I was little I was overweight and wore clothes called (are you ready for this?) "Chubettes." Really. I'm not kidding. And I was extremely embarrassed to go shopping for clothes. I am okay now but it took years. Now the women and young teens you see in magazines look anorexic. It is really quite scary that girls are given this as the way they ought to look. In my case, I thought I was not good looking at all. When I look back at pictures of me I am appalled that I thought this. I actually looked just fine thank you. But I didn't think I did. And young girls with normal bodies must feel pressure to think of themselves as not looking good even more than I did. What a weird world we live in. 

Funny how these dresses kicked off all these old and new feelings about cultural pressures on girls and women. I know men have them too. Today I am quite happy to dress just how I like and to be as "masculine" as I may be while being 100% a woman. But I know how hard it is for young gals to be free of the influences of a strange culture that seems to make dolls and children out of its view of the perfect looking woman.