Saturday, March 22, 2008

Girl Stuff?

In the past day and a half I have gone on incompleted shopping sprees online. Yesterday I "spent" $47 on soap making supplies. Never completed checkout. Today it was $46 on crib sheets for Livvie. Again, never finished. I eased my spending need by purchasing on eBay a Women of Marvel poster for Livvie's room. Currently she only has Wonder Woman (in fact, that's her actual poster to the left), Spider-Man, Batman, and then Superman sheets. She needs more female role models.

Rich thinks she should have "girl stuff" in her room. I reminded him that I am a girl and that I am a comic book geek. We got into a slight discussion of how I'd rather she have role models that stand for something rather than get by on their looks like Disney Princesses. I mean honestly. Not right now anyway. If she gets to a point later where she really wants princesses in her room she is more than welcome to have them. But for now the nursery decor is more for us to look at than her, so dammit, it's super heroes.

What's the big deal anyway? I bought 2 Batman the Animated Series production cels when I was working at the Warner Brothers Store in my early 20s. I worked there specifically for the DC Comics stuff they had. Is it so freaking strange that a chick is interested in comic books etc? I just don't get it.

Look at that pic again and then check this out. Which would you rather see in a kid's room? 

This pic is titled "Disney Princess Wedding Gowns." I swear to God. I'm sorry, but I never wore a wedding gown in my life. I know it's great for some people, but it just wasn't for me. When I was a kid one of my best friends used to buy the wedding gown magazines and circle the ones she would want. I'm talking 12 years old here folks. She never aspired to be anything else but to have a wedding. Granted, right now my job is wife and mother, but dammit I LIVED for years before settling down for that. I'm not sure I want Livvie thinking being married (actually no, not even being married, simply having a wedding) is really what it's all about.

So yeah though, if she does fall in love with the Princesses and Barbies we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But for right now she's being watched over by the eyes of truly amazing characters. And Rich will just have to deal with it.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonder Woman is FIERCE! Every young girl should grow up knowing that she has the power, too!

My little girl was named after Leeja Clane, the heroine of a 60's comic series, "Magnus Robot Fighter". I still have all the issues & color photocopies of Leeja's best moments pasted in her baby book.

Rock on, ladies of power!

jennyquarx said...

Well you know how I feel about that. I think it's good for her to have all of those tough chicks as role models. I hope she never gets into a princess phase. Ick. And LOTS of girls are comic book geeks. Cool girls.

And Safeena, hang onto those. Magnus Robot Fighter is worth a TON right now. :)

Cyn said...

I grew up with barbies but not a lot of Disney. When I was 10 I looked in my closet and realized two things. Practically all my clothes were pink. I hate the color pink. My barbies were not getting married either, they were having sex. Course there was only one ken doll and three chicks so he was a busy man. In retrospect I wonder if that was what all little girls did? Also I would climb trees and play with them up there. Anyway like you said, she is too young to care so go for the Wonder Woman.

PS- I bought French mint today and a cute little red pot for it.

Michele said...

OH, definitely keep the Wonder Woman and leave the princesses in the store. I wish I had been exposed to more superhero women when I was young. I remember Wonder Woman, Catwoman and Isis. and another show that for the life of me I can't remember her name...

Anyway, I didn't know about comic books for a very long time, and by then I was too square to ask for one. I didn't start reading them till I was an adult, and I didn't read DC or Marvel because I couldn't read back issues to "catch up". So I started with indies so I could start with stories that I could catch up on.

I grew up with barbies, but I also had the barbie airplane and my girls were the pilots while Ken sat in the back. My girls were like my mom... workers, because that's what I knew women did, they had jobs.

Kelly said...

That rocks! Much better than princess stuff. I hope Maggie skips the princess stage, but I'll indulge it (a little) if she goes there. Barbies I'm not worried about. I used to play with Barbies, when I wasn't playing with GI Joe.

Anonymous said...

Rock on Julie! :-).

Em said...

I think superheros is a great idea! I love it.

My daughter is really into the princesses. . .there is no way around it!