"A bit young?"

[ailbhe]

I was in Lush buying secret gifts for my seven-year-old, and chatting to the staff who were helping me choose and pay for the things I got. I said she'd circled every single thing in the catalogue, which they found amusing, and then I said "It's difficult being my daughter, I don't do things like this [indicate mounds of Smelly Pampering Things], but she's experimenting with expressions of femininity."

The woman at the till said "A bit young, isn't she?"

I was amazed. I said something about children playing princesses and Barbie and things, but I was very taken aback. I move in such a bubble that I forget people are unaware of how gender-expression is played out and trained in, I think.

Comments

[cabbagemedley.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, of course they don't.

(That brings back a memory - I think I was 8 years old and on my second girl-crush before I asked my mum what a lesbian was, and she got annoyed that someone had called me one over Perfectly Innocent Behaviour.)