# Small children and gender roles **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 1, 2009, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-children-and-gender-roles/487856 "2009-03-01T05:56:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-children-and-gender-roles/487856/41 "2009-03-03T13:16:18Z")
> [@JR\_Brown](#): > > But Bugs, Mickey and Casper are all actually male. Dora is a female character with top billing in her own show; how many female cartoon characters of the 40’s-50’s had that? Heck, how many female cartoon characters before the 1960’s can you even name? Olive Oyl, Minnie, Daisy, Petunia, Granny, “Mammy”, Betty Boop, Red Hot Riding Hood; mostly SO’s/foils/caretakers of male characters. Was Little Lulu ever on TV? Its one of the things that drives me nuts - for ages girls were expected to identify with male characters as the drivers of stories. Then we started giving them very girly archetypes to identify with (Cinderella). Now there are tons of active female characters (including Dora) and even the more recent Disney princesses are less passive - which is great for girls, but boys aren’t being encouraged to identify with them, even though young boys easily will, and older boys will if they aren’t discouraged (my ten year old son thinks Kim Possible rocks). Part of it is merchandising. There isn’t boy Dora underwear or girl Diego stuff. But part of it is us forcing gender identification on kids. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-children-and-gender-roles/487856/42 "2009-03-03T13:59:18Z")
My wife ended up in her older brother’s hand-me-downs, so our daughter tends to be dressed in a symphony of pink. I’m already cultivating her inner geek so hopefully that will balance out the girly side 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-children-and-gender-roles/487856/43 "2009-03-03T21:22:40Z")
> [@SHAKES](#): > > I wouldn’t let my son do that at that age. Once he hits the teenage years and wants to do those things fine. But not that young. It feels to much to me like you’re teaching him to be intrinsically effeminate. I’m genuinely curious in your explanation of this - if the Dora blanket is the one HE chooses, how are we teaching him to be effeminate? If anything, since it was his choice and his idea, why wouldn’t it just mean that he hasn’t made the distinction between what’s considered ‘boy’ and ‘girl’? And for those who are interested - we went to school this morning with his blankie, and apparently, he’s not the only little boy with a Dora blanket 😃 . ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-children-and-gender-roles/487856/44 "2009-03-03T21:35:50Z")
> [@Elza\_B](#): > > I’m genuinely curious in your explanation of this - if the Dora blanket is the one HE chooses, how are we teaching him to be effeminate? If anything, since it was his choice and his idea, why wouldn’t it just mean that he hasn’t made the distinction between what’s considered ‘boy’ and ‘girl’? > > And for those who are interested - we went to school this morning with his blankie, and apparently, he’s not the only little boy with a Dora blanket 😃 . I’m curious, too. It’s not like you’re buying him a Dora blanket and trying to teach him that boys can play with dolls and girls can play with trucks. You’re just buying him what he requested. Glad everything went well for you, **Elza**! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-children-and-gender-roles/487856.md?page=2)