(no subject)

[semperfiona]

I just can't get my head round it. Ray throws a fit if I let Rosa have a temporary tattoo--and he has rubbed her back raw trying to get them off--but on the other hand he gives her makeup!

He says tattoos--even temporary ones--aren't "ladylike". But apparently in his mind makeup on a five-year-old is. To me it's oversexualization of a child, or at the very least introducing conventional 'femininity' way too early. (Which would be "ever".)

As an aside, apparently I can spell feminininity but I don't seem to know when to stop.

Comments

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

I have nothing against letting little girls play dress-up with Tinkerbelle make-up -- or even painting red stripes on their bodies with lipstick, as long as they don't get it all over the carpet.

But what the heck does he have against a temporary tattoo? Not "ladylike"? I have never heard that one before!

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

Correction: I have nothing against letting little kids in general play dress-up with make-up. Let boys put red and blue stripes on their faces, just like the grownups.

You could tell Ray that it is, after all, Savage to paint one's face, and, in your opinion, not very lady-like at all.

Face painting

[semperfiona]

Well, you're right about playing dress-up. But I'm quite sure that were Rosa a boychild she would not be getting makeup to play with.

On the other hand, last Sunday she went to the landlord's house to play with his son Leo. I got a call a couple hours later to say that they'd "gotten into the face painting materials" and did I want them to wash her off? "She really wants you to see it."

No, says I, if she wants me to see it I want to see it too. "Scott was worried that you'd be upset." Nah, pretty standard Rosa behavior really, no problem.

She came home with what looked like a butterfly painted on her face and assorted smaller pieces on her arms and legs. Leo is apparently artistic, because it was really quite beautiful. Unfortunately I had to wash it off of her that evening because it was getting all over her clothes. I wish I had known where my camera was, because I'd have liked a picture.

Oh well, perhaps they'll do it again sometime.