ms. fresh fish

As I noted in my post about my reaction to a small bit of the GoldieBlox ad, I was inspired to write more about how I’ve found my parenting groove (at least so far) in terms of reconciling my feminism with my fairly stereotypical fire truck-loving son and doll-loving daughter. My reaction to these developments has been such an interesting experience for me to observe. Of importance is the fact that I’m the only person in my immediate and extended family that self-identifies as a feminist… or as anything really. They’re all anti-labels. I respect that and give them the liberty to parent/grandparent/aunt/uncle in a way that is true to them. I am quite certain that my kids’ exposure to people of different thoughts and approaches is really good for them and they will see that, at our bases, our values are very similar. But, I am a feminist and a humanist (not mutually exclusive, of course). I believe that men and women are equal but that we live in a culture that does not value women as much as men. So, how does a feminist deal with her daughter’s insistence on playing with dolls, to the exclusion of almost everything else? How does this feminist-humanist work on raising two future feminist-humanists (if not in labels, then in values)? Well, here’s how I do it in a way that is intuitive (read: easy) for me: Continue reading →