Gender bender

You've all heard plenty about Zoe's pink princess infatuations and even though I can rant on about it, I have accepted it, hoping this is just a phase she's going through and that she will never wear pink beyond the age of 5. Or maybe 11. Anyway, colour is mostly a matter of taste and really only a small part of the bigger issue. What worries me more is how little girls are already being encouraged to live the stereotype. And I don't even want to start on about consumerism or pre-teen sexualisation of girls - I'll leave that for another time. No, it's really much simpler: Zoe, like most small girls and as opposed to most small boys, gets so much feedback for her looks, for being pretty, that it is starting to be important to her. She now regularly asks us if we think she is beautiful. As a three-year old...