Would you let your SON dress up as a princess at Disney?

[morethananyonex]

I wonder why the comparison of grown men dressing up as woman is the same as having a boy dress up like a princess???? I've seen several posts like this.

And I would bet the majority of boys/men doing this are not doing it to prove there are no gender differences, they're doing it for the laugh BECAUSE they know dresses are female clothing items and it's unusual for males to be seen in them. So really, bringing this up kind of proves people's points who don't believe dresses are unisex and that there is something unusual about it, doesn't it?

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

And I would bet the majority of boys/men doing this are not doing it to prove there are no gender differences, they're doing it for the laugh BECAUSE they know dresses are female clothing items and it's unusual for males to be seen in them. So really, bringing this up kind of proves people's points who don't believe dresses are unisex and that there is something unusual about it, doesn't it?

Disney princess dresses are not marketed as a unisex item, nor are they perceived that way in the prevalent culture.

 

[morethananyonex]

Disney princess dresses are not marketed as a unisex item, nor are they perceived that way in the prevalent culture.

Oh I know lol, but the argument has been made in this thread that dresses aren't necessarily just for girls, that's what I was getting at.

 

[Va-bear]

No one has a problem with a little girl dressing up as Spiderman or Harry Potter, and I hate double standards, so sure, I'd let my son dress as a princess if he wanted to. If it's the first time he did so in public, I'd probably warn him (in an age approprate way) of the judgemental looks and possibly even comments he might get, but remind him that if he gets any, it says more about the other people than it does about him and his choices.

So true, and a good opportunity to teach him this.

At Disney we're all princesses, even me!

Sure, why not?

BEST. ANSWER. EVER. Thank you!!!

When I was a kid, 40-some years ago, my VERY forward thinking mother let me buys boys _underwear_ no less!!!!! I still her for that reason alone. (And for the record, casue I know some of you are wondering, I am happily married to a woderful man for 20-some years w/ great kids and I wear dresses frequently )

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Oh I know lol, but the argument has been made in this thread that dresses aren't necessarily just for girls, that's what I was getting at.

*off to work on my reading comprehension skills*

 

[Aisling]

One of the problems with our society is its devisive judgmental attitudes.

Children NEED the right to express themselves and that includes dressing in whatever clothes they prefer.

I don't judge other little boys for wearing princess dresses in WDW. I just would not allow MY sons to wear them.

As for children needing the RIGHT to wear whatever they want, not in my family. When they grow up, they can wear whatever they want. My sons can express themselves in other ways. In my family, princess dresses are for girls.

What anyone else allows their children to do is fine by me.

 

[Magpie]

If I had thought of it or if I knew how to create a poll I probably would have. Probably would have had a lot more poll answers than written responses, you're right.

I did create a poll today based on this thread, but it seems to have dropped off the page. No biggie!

 

[Aisling]

One of the problems with our society is its devisive judgmental attitudes.

Societies are made better by confident people who have the courage to disregard the status quo and what is considered 'normal.'

With that reasoning, ALL societies have this "problem". I can't think of one society in the world that doesn't have distinct gender differences when it comes to dress. Even the most primitive.

Heck, even lions, peacocks etc have gender fashion distinctions. I wonder if there are female peahens thinking "damn, I want to wear that plume."

 

[morethananyonex]

I did create a poll today based on this thread, but it seems to have dropped off the page. No biggie!

I went and bumped it, I'm curious to see the results when people can answer anonymously.

 

[Magpie]

When I was a kid, 40-some years ago, my VERY forward thinking mother let me buys boys _underwear_ no less!!!!! I still her for that reason alone. (And for the record, casue I know some of you are wondering, I am happily married to a woderful man for 20-some years w/ great kids and I wear dresses frequently )

Ohhh... were they Batman Underoos? When I was about 5 I desperately wanted Batman Underoos and I was MAD they they didn't make them for girls. BatGIRL Underoos were just not the same at all. I liked Batman.

Of course what I liked was completely beside the point, because never in a million years would my mother waste her money on overpriced mass-marketed commercialized underwear "that'll probably fall apart in one washing", when she could get perfectly plain respectable cotton undies for a fraction of the cost. I heard that lecture a LOT growing up.

 

[Va-bear]

Ohhh... were they Batman Underoos? When I was about 5 I desperately wanted Batman Underoos and I was MAD they they didn't make them for girls. BatGIRL Underoos were just not the same at all. I liked Batman.

Of course what I liked was completely beside the point, because never in a million years would my mother waste her money on overpriced mass-marketed commercialized underwear "that'll probably fall apart in one washing", when she could get perfectly plain respectable cotton undies for a fraction of the cost. I heard that lecture a LOT growing up.

Lol - no, Underoos came out a bit later and I was 'over it' by then. I DO distinctly remember them as white w/ BLUE TRIM!!!! I think what I really wanted was that blue trim... none of my boring white undies had that!!!
So, yes, maybe it _did_ scar me for life....blue is still my favorite color!! (My mom was pretty darn tight too, but these were for my birthday, so she went wild! )

 

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

It would all depend on which dress he picked. If I liked her or if it clashed with his coloring.

 

[Anjelica]

With that reasoning, ALL societies have this "problem". I can't think of one society in the world that doesn't have distinct gender differences when it comes to dress. Even the most primitive.

Heck, even lions, peacocks etc have gender fashion distinctions. I wonder if there are female peahens thinking "damn, I want to wear that plume."

I don't get the bashing folks have on societal norms - its not always a bad thing to have societal norms. Some social norms ARE a good thing. And as history has showed us social norms are constantly evolving and changing (not always for the better and not always for the worse).

Example:
Social norms is what defines our behaviors in terms of what we do and say at a funeral, a wedding, a birth, etc. It's a social norm not to come in drunk to a funeral right - is that social norm a bad thing?

Point is - social norms are not always a bad thing.

 

[Va-bear]

It would all depend on which dress he picked. If I liked her or if it clashed with his coloring.

Good point !!! He looks GREAT in green!!! What a cutie!! (Both are!)

 

[daisax]

Men have only worn pants for the past few hundred years -- at one point MEN wearing pants was scandalous. Not all that long ago they were wearing hose, too.

Even more recently than that, women were publicly bullied and jailed for wearing pants. There were laws on the books in the US (not necessarily regularly enforced, but on the books) forbidding women from wearing men's clothing as late as the 1920s (and it's still happening in some countries around the world today).

My grandmother got suspended from Catholic High School because a nun saw her wearing slacks on the weekend (she had just come from the beach with her friends and they stopped for ice cream downtown).

And I'm 48 and I am old enough to remember that girls wearing pants to public school in the late 60s was something new. It wasn't shocking, exactly, because girls had been wearing pants for leisure wear for a while, but school hadn't been considered leisurewear suitable until my generation. Most of us in kindergarten were wearing dresses most every day in 1968.

Like long/short hair or beards/cleanshaven looks on men, styles change, and go back and forth quite a bit. I don't think women will ever give up wearing pants entirely, but I do see men embracing skirts/kilts/loose gowns, because throughout history they have already been male attire.

 

[SweetJoy]

I'll give the same answer I gave on the poll about this. My 3 year old son walking around Disney in a princess dress? No way. Playing dress-up with his sister at home? Sure.

 

[fastergoofy]

WHY is nobody addressing the issue of innocent little kids dressing as PIRATES? I'm truly horrified by this! Talk about your societal norms!

Pirates are bad, people!

 

[Aisling]

I'd bet most or all of the people who'd let their young sons wear princess dresses to teach them that gender specific clothes don't matter have put pink dresses on their baby girls and blue onsies on their sons. That means the parents were actually teaching babies gender appropriate clothes from babyhood.

How many of you decorated your son's nursery with tinkerbell, Cinderella or other girly things? I'd bet none. So you started early creating the distinctions with boy things for boys and girl things for girls.

Unless you raise you child gender neutral from birth, which I doubt many do.

 

[Magpie]

I'd bet most or all of the people who'd let their young sons wear princess dresses to teach them that gender specific clothes don't matter have put pink dresses on their baby girls and blue onsies on their sons. That means the parents were actually teaching babies gender appropriate clothes from babyhood.

How many of you decorated your son's nursery with tinkerbell, Cinderella or other girly things? I'd bet none. So you started early creating the distinctions with boy things for boys and girl things for girls.

Unless you raise you child gender neutral from birth, which I doubt many do.

Um... my baby girl slept in my bed with me until she was big enough to move onto a mattress in her own room. I didn't "decorate" at all.

She wore hand-me-downs in any colour, including the cutest little jean jacket, which I painted with dragons. She wore whatever I found at the Sally Ann that appealed to me, or arrived on my doorstep in giant bags from the neighbours.

My baby SON also slept in my bed with me, until we realized he couldn't sleep like that, then he moved into a folding travel crib in his sister's room. Eventually he graduated to a single bed that he shared with his sister.

HE wore his sister's hand-me-downs until he was... well, basically until he got to be the same size as his sister. I mean, honestly, who cares if a 2yo boy's blue jeans have flowers on them? Certainly my boy didn't, and neither did anyone else.

I didn't set out to raise them "Gender neutral", and actually I'm pretty sure I didn't. I was just being practical. By about three they were choosing their own clothes.

That said, I was very pleased when my son was six and won a giant pink and blue pastel bunny in a church raffle. The folks at the church hesitated to give it to him, because they were worried that he'd find it too "girly". They started right away looking for another gift. But I brought up that boy right - he marched right up to the front of the church, grabbed it, and loved it. It still sits in pride of place in his bedroom, and even though he's a six foot tall teenager now, he's never once tried to hide it from his friends. I'm glad he's never felt he had to hate on "girl things" in order to feel confident about being a boy.

 

[topolino]

I'd bet most or all of the people who'd let their young sons wear princess dresses to teach them that gender specific clothes don't matter have put pink dresses on their baby girls and blue onsies on their sons. That means the parents were actually teaching babies gender appropriate clothes from babyhood.

How many of you decorated your son's nursery with tinkerbell, Cinderella or other girly things? I'd bet none. So you started early creating the distinctions with boy things for boys and girl things for girls.

Unless you raise you child gender neutral from birth, which I doubt many do.

Great point!

I'll take it one further. How many people on this thread that have said they'd let their son dress up like a princess at at a Disney Resort would really do it?

It's really easy to be an open minded progressive while hiding behind the anonymity of a message board.

DISCLAIMER: I'm sure that some of those that have said so really would. I'm equally sure many wouldn't. Who is who, we'll never know.