I've been meaning to blog about this, and when better than on a snowy day (classes got cancelled! Yay!) with more snow coming across the plains from Texas tonight, according to the Weather Channel Blog.
You'll recall the Kid went to the Spa Party.
You'll recall she was dubious about the whole patriarchy-opressed nature of the event.
You'll recall she went anyway, since the child whose party it was was her friend and such, and anyway there might be purple nail polish and purple is her favorite color?
Well.
What did I find when I returned after two hours to pick her up but a small child with glitter in her hair, running barefoot through the church community room -- barefoot because of course she had polish on her little toenails, too, silver polish -- spangly bracelets around her wrists, purple polish and stick-on pearls on her fingers, AND she had had an apricot masque I will have you know?
She has just run past on her way through the living room. "Don't tell them I am patriarchy-oppressed!" she cries. "Don't!"
Well, I won't. But she does want to wear nail polish now.
And who has bought her a tidy bag of mixed colors, all sorts? That traitor, Mouse.
5 hours ago
7 comments:
It is horrible, of course. But nail polish can signify all kinds of things other than "receptacle in training." Even if she goes through a "Screw you, Mom, I'm gonna be lovely" phase, it will pass. You're a good influence on her.
The kids I worry about are the ones in my neighborhood whose moms take them to the spa at 8 and 9 for mani/pedi day. The point seems to be that Mommy wants a mani/pedi and Kid is tired of being bored during this process, so Mommy invites kid to "become a woman" and pay a brown person to enlovelify her extremities.
I know, of course, because I'm there, paying a brown person to enlovelify my feet, but I do it out of shame and self-loathing, so it's okay. (Just kidding, of course; it's not okay.)
Its just paint, and I ain't making you wear it. Matter o fact, I ain't even gonna make you teach her to put it on. AND, AND I didn't buy her whore colors :)
I'm only messing, Mouse. The kid almost made me email you last night and beg you to bring it over, btw. She WANTS that polish.
I like your argument about how if she was a boy we'd let her wear it -- I ain't passing it on to her though and you can't make me.
AWB -- That's one reason we took her out of the public school system here, the kids like those. There was an entire little gangette of them that wouldn't play with her because she didn't join their dance club in the public school kindergarden -- some dance club all the five-year-olds whose mothers drove them to school in their Hummers got put into. That and the whole Sunday school issue.
Well, i suppose, in retribution (sp?) for getting the polish, I'll keep the argument about her being a boy and yada yada to myself. There's no reason to arm her at such a young age with reasonable argument skills...anymore than she has.
Pick a day and we'll do polish.
You didn't know that was going to happen? I would have put money on it. All other arguments aside, the activities are a lot of fun, and girls that age--no matter what their politics are--tend to really like doing them in a group.
The nail polish won't hurt her. Let her play and hopefully, when she is old, like my age, she won't feel the need to run out and have nails put on and baked on and painted bright red. Geeze, I'm glad that part is over with. Those things hurt.
Post a Comment