First, a few pictures of our family of spooks:

We took the kids to one of the best streets for Trick-Or-Treating that I have ever had the pleasure to go to. It was great. We all had a great time. M was into which kinds of candy he was getting. J was into the lollipops. I particularly loved looking at all the houses with their amazing decorations. If only I had the money to invest in that kind of festivity!

On the way home, what was on the minds of Arp and I was how many little girls were costumed as princesses, brides, or other sorts of “girly stuff”. Of the thousand people we saw (this was a happening place!), I only saw two girls in non-girly attire: My J, in her Creature From the Black Lagoon outfit, and a two-year-old in a fantastically accurate police outfit (which I complimented, of course). From the point of view of a feminist, I’m finding this fact more than a little troublesome.

Why are so many young girls dressed as princesses? Frankly, I’m repulsed by it. I’m guessing the reasoning is two-fold. Either the girls actually really wanted to be princesses, or their parents pushed them toward the choice. Actually, in both cases, I’d wager the parents pushed it. Even if you have a child who wants to be a princess, I’m guessing it’s likely because you have chosen to fill your house with those sorts of items – princess videos, princess-themed toys, etc.  Or in the other option, I’m guessing the parents direct their daughters toward the “girl aisle” of the local costume store.

What do parents do this?  Do parents really want to push their girls into the role of princess?  What the heck are we trying to say to our young women?  Do parents really want their girls to sit around waiting for a rich man to rescue them and provide a life of “happiness” in a castle away from the masses?  Having seen the “girl aisle” for costumes in Target, I quickly found most of them to be uninteresting.  Some items were actually rather whorish.  I swear, you could actually change up the size on a few of them, put them on a woman on 42nd street, and have someone propositioning her within 2 minutes.  Gotta love that for Halloween.  “Hey Honey!  Look!  Want to be a prostitute for Halloween this year?”

Let me go on record as saying that I don’t ban princesses from my home.  We have a few Disney movies, such as Beauty and the Beast.  But we don’t give them undue emphasis either.  If my daughter wanted a CD player, for instance, I wouldn’t pick the pink princess-themed one just because she’s a girl, or some other such idiocy.  But yet I’ve been to people’s houses that have 2 or 3 year old girls and a house filled with princess-themed merchandise.  You can’t tell me that a two-year-old drove her parents to buy all that princess crap.  The parents have to be taking the lead.  It’s time we stop doing it, don’t you think?

Here’s one more pic of me and my girl.