'Princess on Board' and 'Child on board'

[Ormirian]

Seen this morning on rear window of car parked outside school. Two stickers with Disney characters on. One pink and festooned with various princess-types. The other blue with Buzz Lightyear and the like.

The pink one said 'Princess on board'.

The blue on said 'Child on board'

So assuming that the blue one was for a boy, why does the girl get to be a princess and the boy merely a 'child'. Is that because the girl is more precious or is it because they couldn't bring themselves to call the boy a 'prince' or similar because it's not 'manly' enough? Or is a 'girl' not good enough unless you promote her to something better?

Just wondering what you think.

i think you're over analyzing

Maybe, but doesn't it strike you as odd.

Hmm, see what you mean. The Buzz Lightyear one could have said "Hero on Board" or something instead of just child

You've thought far too hard about it. They're pointless, harmless signs in a stranger's car.

Yes I am sure they are harmless but that isn't the point! I want to know what makes people do things like that.

They are so naff!

And I get your point, Orm.

it would have struck me as outrageous when i was 15 and reading andrea dworkin, yes, but 25 years later i really think if you go looking for offence everywhere you're going to find it.

i agree they're naff though

I am not offended. I am just curious.

And please don't be so patronising mrsr.

if you really want to worry about it, you could worry that the boy is only a child, not important enough to be called anything else, whereas the girl is elevated to the status of princess, and consider it to be a troubling indicator of the decline of respect for masculinity

i wasn't being patronising at all, i just think there are real things to be bothered about, not just the fact that someone chooses to call their daughter a princess

Yes, I thought I had said that in my op - "does the girl get to be a princess and the boy merely a 'child'".

I think that there are no 'unimportant' things when it comes to feminism. And the way parents view and bring up their different sex children is even less unimportant than most.

I agree with you Ormirian, I think it's obvious really. Male= the original human prototype = child. Female= The Other, the Negative, the princess, the One that Must be DIfferentiated= Princess

I thought people just put them on their cars to prove they had sex at least once. It surely doesn't stop accidents-oh look they have a child in their car I would have run into them but now I won't !!

mrsravelstein, there has never been a point in history were women haven't been elevated onto pedastols. Being treated as human beings, though? now that's a different kettle of fish.

Do you genuinely think that all the women who buy 'princess on board' stickers are repressing their daughers and/or other women?

"oh look they have a child in their car I would have run into them but now I won't !!"

yes I am always looking for cars I can kill myself driving into! It's only the presence of this wanky stickers that has saved me so far.

I think the men who sat around the boardroom and thunked this up have very little understanding of female oppression, or maybe they do. Maybe they're sexist shits

'repressing' no. Feeding into unhealthy and restrictive pigeon-holing of women, yes.

Erm, on a practical level it could be that the boy was older, so they bought the "child on board" one for him, then they bought/someone gave them (and surely this is exactly the kind of shite that well-meaning relatives give you) the "princess of board" one when they had their DD. So in that sense it maybe wasn't a conscious decision to label the children so differently.

What I find weird is that all little girls are "princesses" when being a princess is such a wet thing to be, in general (although perhaps if more could emulate Khutulun - scroll down - that would be great).

On a slightly related note, I don't know whether it's just a south west thing, but old people where I come from sometimes use the word "child" to mean girl specifically. As in, when someone has a baby, "is it a boy or a cheeld?". So, really Orm, those parents are wrong :o

i doubt very much that men in a boardroom thought up a princess on board sticker, it's not the kind of thing company directors generally get involved with.