Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
In this short post, a mother reflects on why the Barbie doll cannot impact on her daughter anymore!
I used to be scared of Barbie.
Then I became a mommy to the most wonderful, impressionable and sensitive little girl. She is seven now and loves to play with dolls. Barbie with her hyper-sexualized body parts and emphasis on appearance, was making me highly uncomfortable. She represents the trap of ideas that a woman is only of use if she is pretty.
Until I grew up. Until I looked at how my daughter looks up to me . Until I realized that I have the edge here, because I am and always will be her primary role model. I will be the operating system she will download and the point of reference she will always internalize.
Barbie doesn’t stand a chance because with this in mind, I try.
I have run two half marathons in two years. I am a physician and I regularly bring my daughter to my hospital to show her where and why Mom occasionally gets delayed. I write and I have even started my own website . My home is an equal opportunities area – my husband is a wonderful partner to me (who plays badminton and occasionally quills with his daughter). My daughter and I bake, walk and most importantly, talk about everything . She knew what a period was at the age of 3 and she is very comfortable with (and proud) of the fact that she was breast fed until 5 years of age.
Most importantly, though, I am raising her to be the best version of herself – she has no need to be a wife or a mother unless she chooses to.
Barbie can’t hold a candle to me, because in everyday life I try very hard to impress on my seven year old the value and joy of being authentic and creative. With no room for the preening and primping and passivity that this foreign doll implies.
And with that reflection I am okay with my daughter bringing home this doll .
Because Barbie, you don’t scare me anymore!
Barbie dolls image courtesy Shutterstock
Megha is a physician , a mother and an avid gardener. She did a course in Mindfulness Meditation in 2009 and has applied those principles to transform the way she lives and works .She is convinced read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
Please enter your email address