Friday, December 10, 2010

May the force be with you girls

As you all know, I am a geek. I feel no shame in admitting, as a girl, that I love Star Wars, Star Trek, and especially Lord of the Rings. Not that long ago the writer of a blog I read posted about a 1st grade girl who'd been teased for taking her Star Wars water bottle to school because Star Wars is for boys, not girls. Well, screw that I say. What's not for girls? Princess Leia kicks just as much, if not more, butt than anyone else thank you very much. Here is a link to the CNN story about Katie, and a link to the Facebook event page:

CNN Story (video/text)

Facebook Event

Anyhow, in honor of the Wear it/Share it, the rugrat wanted to wear her Princess Leia costume to school. That's who she chose to be for Halloween this year. Instead we picked up a Star Wars Lego shirt that she's had her eye on for some time. I figure it's a good reason. Especially because she was so upset on behalf of Katie. I explained what had happened and she felt bad. She knows how it feels because she's been teased before for having a "boy haircut"... by no less than the woman cutting her hair at the time. Yeah, I was not happy and told her so. We no longer go there. She always says that it bothers her, but that she's not going to stop wearing the clothes she likes, watching the shows she likes, and liking the toys she likes. She said it was stupid to say things were for boys and other things were for girls. Anybody should be able to like anything that they want.

I don't know how I managed to impart this sense of self and comfort with being who she is so well, but I like to think it's because I like myself and she has that example. I just hope it lasts when she hits those teen years. I hope she gets enough years in that it becomes habit and she doesn't lose it, but I'm certainly going to continue backing her no matter what.

This morning I took a picture as I was dropping her off at daycare. She told me that with her short hair and the shirt everyone would probably say she looked like a boy, but that was okay because she likes her hair and the shirt and she'd be able to use that to tell people about the girl that got teased and maybe then they could learn something too. Oh man, I love this kid!!!