It turns out that it's a translated book, so I can forgive some of the awkwardness and lack of flow.
But as I was sitting and listening to my husband read it to her, the thought came to me: This isn't a book for little boys.
And that sexist thought made me pause.
Why would I think that? What's wrong with a little boy having a book starring a little girl?
And that made me look at the rest of the books in my daughter's library...
- Spot's Christmas- about a little male puppy
- Corduroy books- about a little male bear
- Paddington's- about a little bear
- Clifford- about a large red, male dog
- The Giving Tree- the life of a boy
- Curious George- about a male monkey
- Barney- annoyingly creepy male dinosaur
- Dr. Suess books (like Big Dog, Little Dog or Mr. Brown Can Moo)- about men and males.
- Sesame Street books- Oscar, Elmo, Big Bird, Kermit...all little male monsters.
All starring boys except two: Emily's Balloon and Baby Bob's Book of Counting (which I'm not sure counts because she's a spin-off character from Barney- not a leading character in her own right).
I expanded my thinking to include children shows:
- Timmy Time- about a little, male lamb
- Shaun the Sheep- about a whole herd of sheep that is led by the clever Shaun
- Dora the Explorer- about a little Mexican girl who has only male companions.
- Muppets- all little male monsters except the questionable-gendered guitar player in the band and Miss Piggy.
What is this really telling our children? It seems pretty obvious when you look at it:
Women don't have leading roles unless they have all male-friends.
and
Women (like Miss Piggy) are shallow, obsessed with love, and high-maintenance.
It seems to give a lot of credence to the new feminist rating system for movies. And it made me really sad that there isn't a better example of females than Disney Princesses where women are constantly being saved by a man in power.
Because we all know, that's NOT how it happens.
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