From: Monica
I
asked young Dakota “what’s you’re favorite thing to play in here?” she
excitedly runs up the red stairs and threw her arms out and says: “I like to
play castle and Morgan plays the dog!” A funny one she is, but she is playing a
role most common in young girls. A child’s imagination has no limits, but seem
to have boundaries regarding to their gender. This playhouse could have been
anything: a ship, a hotel, a fort, etc. However Dakota chooses to take on this
empty canvas and paints it as a castle where she can be the princess and Morgan
is the dog. Why is that? Most likely this is taught by either her parents, the
media, her fellow peers—little girls want to be the pretty princess up in her
castle with pretty hair and a pink dress.
However
I see something different; I see a box with a girl trapped inside. Potential is just above her, however she
remains at her knees—prisoner to this role that is drilled into children’s
minds. She can escape with her slide right beside her, but she is content.
Dakota is having fun playing this role, as most young girls do, who wouldn’t
want to be a pretty pink princess in her castle? But it’s fascinating to see that with so many
options, we often stick to what we know and don’t stray away.
1 comment:
Even though it can be empowering for little girls to feel like princesses and pretend to be them, I like it is very sad that that's all they can think of to be. As you say in your post, "This playhouse could have been anything: a ship, a hotel, a fort, etc." yet in this case, and a lot of cases, it is a castle. It can stifle imagination in children if they are always playing the game of princesses and castles and fairy tales. It can also make girls feel like they need to be saved sometimes, especially when they are trapped in a "box" like this.
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