Oh fuck off... Superheroes for CIN

WHy would they boys be pirates instead of princes? The exact male equivalent. Why should the girls not be allowed to be pirates?

Let's not froth over that, eh? It was a simple example ... nothing more. Pardon me for not choosing "prince" to suit your sensibilities.

Pffffft. My 5yo ds would be quite happy to dress up as a princess. He does quite frequently with the various dress up play stuff we have. He has asked for (and is getting, although he doesn't know it yet obviously) Frozen dolls for Christmas. (and yes, stbx will probably lose grip on reality that ds2 is getting dolls as a gift, but I don't really care - it's what he asked for) But he's also asked for superhero action figures. (I suspect there's going to be an Elsa vs Spiderman showdown, the way I'm seeing it! )

My dd is 29 now, but as a child she hated pink (still does actually). She was quite happy to dress up as a princess, but in blue thank you very much. Then she went outside and played in the mud with her trucks and fire engines and was hanging upside from the trees in the garden. Not the most princess-like behaviour I suppose, but there you go.

Personally, I think people sometimes get so hung up on gender stereo typing being offensive that they read far too much into every little thing. Nobody is saying the girls HAVE to be a princess. Nobody is saying the boys CANNOT be a princess. FFS get a grip.

I am not bothered if my dcs want to wear fancy dress as princesses, cowboys, superheroes, nurses, doctors, firemen, princes, pirates... whatever! (although I certainly don't want to shell out a fortune for all those costumes!!)

But why so frothy? What if your dd WANTS to be a princess? Are you going to let her? Or steer her to something that's YOUR idea of appropriate? isn't the whole point to allow them to make their own choices, even if what they choose isn't what you would choose or what you want them to choose?

Girls don't HAVE to be princesses... but there's nothing wrong if they WANT to be one either.

Basically since this seems to be very difficult for some of you..

You do "princes/princesses and pirates"

You do not do Pirate and princess. This is because boys know they are not supposed to be princesses. As princesses are sex specific. It is also obvious to the girls which ones they are supposed to be (because it is sex specific. )

You do not give lazy gender stereotyping options to the children. That's all. It's not hard to not be sexist. Some of you act like people are trying to ban you dressing your daughters as giant pink fluffy fucking nightmares. No one is stopping you. Some of us just want our children to not be forced fed lazy stupid stereotypes by those who can't spare enough creativity to think a girl might want to be a super hero or a boy might want to be a prince.

If it was dress up as a princess day or as a fairy day and they said children or boys can just go as pirates if they want to, would you get upset over that as well?

WHy would they boys be pirates instead of princes? The exact male equivalent. Why should the girls not be allowed to be pirates?

ARGH

Why aren't the little boys given the option of dressing as princes?

Do you think it would be OK to give black children a "special costume option". If so why not?

Don't flame me , I'm just interested, but what do you do if your dd wants to go as a princess?

As I've said before here, I want my DD to know that she can be whatever she wants without society deciding, assuming or even dictating that she should be anything because she's a girl.

For me, that's what this is about.

And if she wants to be a princess, will you allow her to do that?

Just picked up DD from CM and have been told it's superhero day for children in need 'but the girls can just go as princesses'.

It doesn't sound like they're saying girls MUST go as princesses... just giving another option. If it was dress up as a princess day or as a fairy day and they said children or boys can just go as pirates if they want to, would you get upset over that as well?

Perhaps a few girls that went through before you specifically stated that they didn't want to be a superhero.. or specifically asked if they could dress up as a princess instead... is it REALLY so offensive??

Sorry, I've got a daughter, and I just don't see the issue. I'd simply say "these are the options, what do you want to choose?" and leave it at that.

My eldest is going to be Threenage Super-Ninja Lola. Guess who is making a Cape tonight....

My Dd went as lava girl, she's a pink super hero Tallulah!

lava girl

She also went as cat girl, anything girl and sparkle green girl, these ones she made up herself (her pre-school have had the theme all week).

Dear Children In Need. This week I have spent £10 fashioning myself a super hero costume to wear to work tomorrow. I will also donate a small a mount to your charity. I would have donated more, but can't afford it after sorting out my costume, so I can fit in at work.

Mt daughters school are sensibly having a non uniform day. Because I don't have to buy her a super hero outfit or a new onsie I can donate more money to your charity. I applaud the school for taking this decision, and hope there is no Christmas Jumper day. I'd much rather put the £10 I'd spend on a Christmas jumper straight into the charities coffers.

Thank you, thank you, thank you OP for starting this thread.

DS theme is superheros tomorrow, too. We have no outfits so thought it wasn't going to happen and was considering sending him in his normal clothes! However, I am inspired and will spend the night improvising and making DS a spectacular super hero costume! Wish me luck! :)

DD (4) is going as Elsa, much to my disappointment. We've known about this for weeks and I offered to make/buy anything she could imagine, but she was worried (at 4 years old!!) of being laughed at?!?!

Anyway, like another poster said, DD is convinced that 'ice powers' make Elsa a superhero.

Interestingly DS (6) insisted on wearing a tutu and bunchies for some school dress up thing 2 years ago (no one challenged him).

Or have them all dress up in the same regardless of sex? That woudl be too fucking difficult though wouldn't it?

Maybe they can give a special costume option to the black kids too. Because they might not want to be super heroes either

It does kind of seem that no matter what they say, people are going to complain. Perhaps CiN should simply label it "dress up in whatever the fuck you want to" day. Would every one be happy then?

No it really doesn't Roxy. It's the beginning of gender discrimination for people.

It discriminates against girls because the implication is that they don't want to do anything or save anything. They want to be the people who are stereotypically pretty and wait around to be saved.

Princesses "Jobs" historically were to be breeding stock and get a good husband. Funny I hope for more for my daughter.

Why don't we sell useless "prince" costumes and stories to boys?

The whole problem last year (where we are anyway) was that it was spotty dress up. Girls had spotty clothes, boys didn't. So it actually "discriminated" against boys (I can't really think of it as discrimination, it's ludicrous to accuse innocent fundraising efforts of this sort of thing). So they've included superheroes in an effort to give more options. At our school, it's superheroes, spots or any home clothes. I can't see the issue.

To try to suggest someone is guilty of gender discrimination here (I don't actually know which gender would be the one discriminated against) really fucks things up for sorting out real gender discrimination issues.

such "a" thing. sigh. typo.

To be fair, ds1's school sign says "heroes" whereas ds2's says "superheroes". I imagine there's some leeway there. I think sometimes it's important to choose your battles, and there's such as thing as getting overly invested in it.

I can't imagine that they would kick off if a boy went as a princess (and trust me, my 5yo probably would if the option was available to him ).

There are tons of girl superheroes or heroes. Sometimes I think people get far too overly invested in the whole "gender stereotype" thing. Sometimes a girl might actually want to be a princess instead of a superhero. Sometimes they may rather be a superhero. So what?

Ask your dd what she wants to be and just let her choose.

Obviously they are not super heroes as such and more in the way of your normal hero.