Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Baby Steps To A Brave New World

So I felt compelled to post this exchange between my beloved firstborn and myself. Now by now, if you have checked out any of the previous posts you know my children share my fascination with superheroes. I contribute to their obsession by bringing home movies and cartoons. Today after seeing the cover for The Ultimate Avengers DVD, I decided to show Sarah how one of the characters used to look (the Mighty Thor). In the course of my web exploration, I chanced upon a site with some great comic book images. However it was his image to the left that motivated this post. Sarah saw it and asked, "Who is that?"
I replied you know who that is."
"Oh yeah. Hawkman & Hawkwoman."
"Well, actually it's Hawkman and Hawkgirl", said the old man.
"Right. Why is it that always the girl superheroes are 'girls' even if they're grown up? And the boy superheroes are 'men'?", asked Sarah
I pointed out that there was Wonder Woman, but she was adamant: she was the only one: Supergirl, Batgirl, she even pointed out Elastigirl from the Incredibles.
When I pointed out Cat Woman as a "woman", my burgeoning little feminist's response? "Yeah, but she's PSY-CHO! (2 syllables)
The moral? No idea. Other than maybe they notice more than we realize. Maybe the little lessons we tell them work occasionally. Maybe, my daughter is Wonder Woman. No maybes.
jefe
PS- the pics in the links are why Jack & Sarah are not allowed to access anything on the web other than PBSKids.org & why I did not buy them their own comic book when their mom suggested it.