Shopping Rant (28.09.06)
I met up with a friend in Meadowhall for a cuppa and a browse round - didn’t need anything much but window shopping can be fun. In a corner there is the most incredibly pink and sparkly shop - The Little Fairy Shop. That’s bad enough but next door they have - The Little Dudes Shop.
These are shops aimed at children. The fairy one has dresses, wands, wings, stationary, dolls.
This is a magical haven for little girlsHuh? Just girls? The message is insidious. Girls like pink and wear dresses. None of that fighting or standing up for yourself. Play nice and quietly, be a caring good fairy…… Can I vomit?
The dudes one had dinosaurs, monster feet, vampire cloaks, lego - much more interesting stuff.
Feed your little dude’s imaginationSo my little girl has no imagination? My daughter can’t ride a skateboard or play knights with her brother? She shouldn’t want to go into space or hunt for treasure? My son won’t want to cuddle anything soft or show his sensitive side either.
How the hell can anything change when this crap is shoved at our kids from such a young age? I was fuming. The shops themselves were bad enough but juxtaposed like that made it worse somehow, highlighted it for me.
These delightful emporia were almost directly opposite an establishment selling t-shirts with slogans on. I know Hallowe’en is coming - but "Witch Bitch" opposite the pink and sparkly fairy shop? There were others, worse, more offensive but I think you get the idea and I can’t remember the wording now. The underlying theme of - I am a woman hence also either available for shagging or a frigid bitch was just plain not funny.
I enjoyed my cuppa and natter, I had a nice wander round and we did pick up some stuff as well. But I fumed and muttered under my breath all the way home.
quite handy to have a little fairy shop - useful things yer little fairies. why are those men with bushy moustaches lurking around and periodically removing their nice leather hats to scratch their heads?
Comment by simplywondered — October 5, 2006 @ 8:49 pm