“But girls want to be superheroes too!”

Watch this video of a 4 years old girl in a toy store in New York talking about the unfair separation of “pink princesses and blue superheroes” in the children world created by marketers.

No doubt she’s referring to her parent’s discussion on the topic, but this shows in itself the power of parental mediation: girls may be surrounded but a whole system pushing them towards beauty and appearance, but the words, discussion, even casual comments they get from their family will always form their frame of reference to evaluate whatever they see around: this aspect -the power of parental mediation – has also emerged very clearly from my empirical research on young girls’ response to adverts (www.TheGirlsProject.co.uk), and it’s indeed a positive thing which should make parents feel optimistic about their role, especially at this earlier stage of the development (before the adolescence phase, where rebellion towards parents becomes normative, representing for children a way to assert their independence)

This second video is uncut while the first is her video announced by ABCNews

So what do you think? Isn’t this video showing the remarkable power of parental mediation? 😉

9 thoughts on ““But girls want to be superheroes too!”

  1. Thank you for this post! I’m planning my 8 year old DAUGHTER’s bday party and she wants a superhero theme! It’s been a struggle to find anything for her. It’s sad and ridiculous that our only option right now is to shop in the boys section and make DIY things.

    • Still, it’s an awesome theme for your daughter’s party. Good on you for making it happen mom!

    • I hope you gave her an awesome party!! My son had a superhero party recently and all his friends came – boys and girls. I made them each a cape of their own with their initial on the back – the girls loved them as much as the boys and a funny anti-stereotype thing happened when the girls were hogging a remote control Iron Man car and the boys playing at having a tea party. I really hope all the children had a good time 🙂 xx

  2. This reminds me of the youtube video that posted a while back. It was of a little girl that tells her father that it’s not fair to divide toy stores with pink for girls and all the other colors for boys and that it wasn’t fair that girls don’t get any superheroes. Not only should girls be encouraged to have and show their support of superheros, superheros that happen to be female should come in a range of different body types, not just a comically sexualized version of females.

  3. Well done you little opinionated one! It is not fair, they are right… let the kids be, let them discouver who they are and what makes them happy, with that their life won’t be a struggle. I wish I was told to follow my bliss at the early age, it’s the only thing that will save our children from what is called normal, working hard till you die, we need more sites like this, empowering young boys and girls to be what they want to be, free from all these absurd limitations!!

    • I love how she brilliantly expressed her opinions. Imagine how that young mind can say such things! It means that kids today are more aware with their surroundings.
      My girls love to play with cars so I buy toys that they want. I let them choose what kinds of toys they want without pushing them to dolls. Children have the right to explore their abilities even if it comes from the inspiration that they get from toys.

  4. This is very commendable. It is not easy to go against the grain when society expects you to be a certain way because of your gender. I think this should be a topic in schools, how boys and girls feel about the ways in which they are presented with toys and clothing. There should be groups with only girls so that girls can feel more free to speak out about the unfairness of some gender stereotypes in stores and from parents and the same thing with boy-only discussion groups. I hate going to clothing stores and seeing on boys clothing words like “super cool” and “strong” and other positive words, and on girls clothing negative phrases like “little drama queen.” So wrong.

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