'The issue of girls buying into girl culture is that it may limit girl's expectations of what they can do to a set of specific feminine roles and behaviours. Obviously I would rather they thought they can do anything.'
And what about all girls' schools? Or do they sometimes succeed because the families who can afford them tend to be the sort of families whose children succeed academically anyway? The whole point of all-girls' schools, one of their biggest selling points, is that they do not limit girls academically and that the boy-free environment contributes to a more supportive and encouraging atmosphere.
'Math, you've seen one baby boy in pink. It hardly makes for an unsexist unstereotyped world does it'. I've seen one baby who I knew was a boy in pink. I've seen lots of babies in pink but I hesitate to believe they were all girls because of my experience with DS, who was mistaken for a girl until he was about 6 no matter what he wore. (He had soft pudgy cheeks, floppy brown hair, huge blue eyes and extra long lashes, which he batted shamelessly at anyone who paid him the slightest interest.) Apparently you can fool all of the people all of the time. I don't know what it was about his manner that made little old ladies mistake him for a girl.
Admittedly, I live in a very right on sort of place though, where it's never safe to assume anything.
'Every little girl I've seen on a bike in the park is on a pink one. Often with bizarre tassly sparkly pom pom things coming off them. Same with cycle helmets - bright pink. The boys on the other hand are on something non-descript but they still seem to having a good time riding a bike. Becuase it's the cycling that's important, not the pinkness. '
Are you assuming the girls are not having a good time on their bikes? Do tassels really cause so much wind resistance that they spoil the fun of biking? Reading this, you seem to imply that the boys are the only ones having fun on their bikes.
How about this sentence:
'Every little boy I've seen on a bike in the park is on a non-descript one. Often with bizarre superhero logos painted onto the crossbar and on the handlebars. Same with cycle helmets - non-descript. The girls on the other hand are on something pink but they seem to be having a good time riding a bike. Because it's the cycling that's important, not the non-descriptness'
My DDs rode miles every day on their pink bikes, which they adored even when the tassels fell off. The baskets were handy for all kinds of stuff that was important to them. They thought they were the coolest things ever and their bikes the best. Girls can enjoy riding their pink bikes. If anyone had told them there was something inherently flawed about their bikes they would have thumped them.