Boys are bunnies, girls are snowflakes: why is it time to stop imposing stereotypical images on children

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Masquerade is not just dressing up, but the opportunity to try on different roles.

New Year's party is a traditionally fancy-dress holiday. The choice of outfits is now huge: they are sold both in online stores and in nearby hypermarkets. Finally, there is always the option to make the costume yourself.

But with all the variety of outfits, most often for the New Year, children are dressed up with bunnies and snowflakes. And in many kindergartens, these roles are imposed by force.

Disputes about costumes for matinees have been going on for a long time, so they have become a kind of New Year's Eve tradition. The problem continues to be discussed annually, but a rare author in his comments dispenses with obscenities, which can be understood, but cannot be published as an example.

Let's figure out what is wrong with these typical roles and why it's time to stop being limited to them.

They impose certain behavioral strategies

The bunnies and snowflakes themselves, of course, were not guilty of anything. Especially if the child himself wanted to try on this role. However, as a rule, we are talking about kindergarten pupils, whose opinion is not really taken into account. The child can always be forced, in the end, let it not interfere with the adults to make him a holiday.

But if you think about it, bunnies and snowflakes appeared for a reason. This leveling makes life easier for both educators and parents.

Teachers take a duty script, which has been used with minor alterations since the days of the USSR. And instead of adapting it for their pupils, they are trying to remake the pupils for it.

It's easier for parents too, of course. To turn your daughter into a snowflake, you can put on a white or blue, or just any elegant dress and wrap it with tinsel. The bunny, in comparison with other boyish costumes, is also made quite quickly: a ponytail, ears and - in a luxury version - a fur vest. And if it's easier, then you can put pressure on the baby, what's the difference to him.

The “white and fluffy” bunny outfit has become not just a suit, but a symbol of obedience and infantilism - the ideal image of a child, according to adults. And the outfit of a snowflake gives the girl the opportunity to feel like the personification of beauty and tenderness.

Inna Veselova, associate professor of St. Petersburg State University in the comments to TASS

A comfortable child who always listens to the opinion of parents is a pleasure to deal with. But there is a risk that he will turn into a comfortable adult - a person without his own opinion, who is easy to manipulate. Of course, one can argue: "There is no need to dramatize, this is just the New Year." But if the child's desire does not mean anything even on New Year's, then in other situations more attention is hardly paid to him.

They contribute to the imposition of gender scenarios

If sex is a collection of biological characteristics, then gender is a social concept. This is a set of qualities that society considers acceptable for a particular gender. At matinees, girls usually get feminine roles: a snowflake, a princess, a berry. And for boys - masculine: a wolf, a bear, a dwarf and others. Their distribution is stereotyped. Children are given images that are expected and approved based on their gender.

And although matinees are just a drop in the ocean, they are a consequence of the general strategy of action, which deprives the child of the opportunity to follow an individual educational trajectory in order to form a unique personality. In other words, children are taught to be stereotypical boys and girls, not themselves.

All the girls dressed up as princesses and snowflakes, and I - some devil with horns, and someone would try to prevent me. At home there was such a large Soviet encyclopedia of household, and in it a picture with examples of New Year's costumes. In life, my mother had both soul and hands to “muddle” something like that. So while it was necessary, I was provided with exclusives.

Mom always really disliked herding in any of its manifestations and never "sharpened" me under a stereotypical girl. Therefore, I had a much more interesting childhood. And even with my mother's moral support, I perfectly learned to spit on someone else's uninvited opinion about myself and calmly shove in the way that I like.

They contradict the purpose of the masquerade

Attempts to add didactic notes to a cheerful festive dressing up deprive it of its original meaning.

In the old days, mummers always tried to become unrecognizable, and for this it was most effective to change the age and gender role. Today, children rarely use this technique. Roles in children's New Year's parties correspond to gender scenarios. It is their development that is one of the hidden goals of the New Year's masquerade.

Inna Veselova, associate professor of St. Petersburg State University in the comments to TASS

The point of any carnival is to try on the role of who you want to be. And even if you never really can. Where else, if not at a costume party, can you express yourself, even if you are three, seven, fifty years old? The possibility of reincarnation, for example, is one of the reasons for the interest in Halloween in countries for which this holiday is not traditional.

Children are often told that they can become whoever they want when they grow up. Why put it off for years and limit them in choosing a suit? Children's masquerade is a great way to establish contact with a child, find out what he is interested in, give him the opportunity to fulfill his dream and now be whoever he wants. If this is not a New Year's miracle, then at least a great way to have fun.