My sixteen year old daughter, who will be playing "homecoming Barbie" tomorrow night, recently had an interesting conversation with a male friend. He was telling her about a boy who "likes her" and said this boy might feel more comfortable talking to her if she weren't so smart.

PLEASE!!!!!
She is a straight A student, has been a cheerleader for the past five years, runs track, and is a great artist and writer. By the way, cheerleading is a real sport these days. It is not just girls jumping up and down and clapping.
This is her second year to be in the basketball homecoming royalty. She is sweet and beautiful inside and out. The idea of someone telling her to 'play dumb' to attract a man makes me livid.

I just shared this story with some women online who responded to my "Total Woman" blog. We were reflecting on the way the world treats men and women so differently.  Recent politics come immediately to mind.

There's Marilyn Monroe, one of our most famous sexual icons, who was quoted:

"I say, let it be a man's world, as long as I can be a woman in it."

I only know this, I can't help but want a little more for my daughters. There was a book years ago called The Cinderella Complex.  It was about the ideas and expectations from the 1950's: how if a girl was sweet and pretty enough, some nice man would marry her and take care of her.  Most women want more than that.  Instead of going to college to meet and marry a doctor, the book suggested we raise our daughters to be a doctor.

I still have all my Barbie Dolls and Cinderella is one of my favorite fairy tales.  I love happy endings.  But, at the end of the day, I want my daughters to be complete in themselves, the women God created them to be.  That's a happy beginning, that I can encourage and nurture.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Karen