When I first saw the sleeping unicorn motif, it seemed pretty cute.
After all, sheets and slippers with a sleepy animal might sway children toward a peaceful nighttime slumber. No parent will complain about that!
Then something strange happened.
I walked into the department store and almost ALL of the backpacks targeted to girls (a/k/a those awash in pink, purple, and other pastels) featured sleeping unicorns and other sleeping animal faces.
Not just unicorns, but penguins, bears, and cats, too. All with their eyes closed.
The pajamas and bedding make sense. Slippers, I get. But backpacks? Why are they all asleep?
Something is amiss.
Do girls really love unicorns?
Those who, deep down, are somewhat comforted by the predictability of gender stereotypes will say that I’m overthinking this.
Girls simply like unicorns, they say. What’s the big deal? Let kids be who they are.
The funny thing about letting children “be who they are” is that, most of the time, kids do NOT get to make those choices for themselves. Adults make most of the design and marketing choices for kids, choices that are deeply rooted in gender stereotypes. Adults make most purchasing decisions, too, especially in the early years of life. Parents need to go out of their way to find clothing, shoes, and gear that defy pink and blue color-coding.
As a society, we’ve decided that girls like unicorns. And we’re running with it.
I still remember the day my four year-old came home and said “I like unicorns and rainbows because Kylie likes unicorns and rainbows.” (Sigh.)
When I was a child, I don’t remember a particular fondness for unicorns, save for the My Little Pony movie, which debuted in 1986 and was followed by the first television series in 1987. I was no more drawn to the ponies than to Construx, Care Bears, or Monkees albums, preferences that were not controlled by my southern anatomy.
Unicorns and ponies look different today
Some, or most of the ponies in the show and movies are unicorns. While I don’t totally understand the intricacies of their constitution, when Dustin from Stranger Things called My Little Pony a nerdy cult show, my interest piqued. What I do know is that their appearances have changed significantly since the 1980’s.
Similar to the Disney princesses, the ponies’ eyes grew twenty times bigger, their bodies more svelte, their noses thinner and upward sloped, with disproportionately long legs – the hallmark features of our Western beauty ideal obsession.
This is the My Little Pony I owned in the 1980’s.
Today, they look much more like Princess Anna than a horse, complete with exaggerated long eyelashes.
We’re telling girls to sleep through life
Perhaps more troubling than their over-feminized appearances of modern unicorns is the sleepy factor. Unicorns are ubiquitous right now, but the specific genre of unicorns in a constant state of delirium is perplexing.
Why on earth would retailers choose a sleeping animal as the inspiration for a child’s school day? Don’t we want them wide awake, ready to play and learn?
If your answer to that last question is yes, then we must ask another. Why are the sleeping animals primarily marketed to girls?
There’s no “Girls” label on the backpacks, some will say, in an attempt to negate the blatant color-coding. Let’s be real: retailers almost never market products to boys that are awash in pink, pastels, and sparky silver. Boys learn from an early age that these colors function as a “Keep Out” sign to them. It’s not FOR me, boys understand.
It’s ironic that we suggest girls go to sleep on their way to school, but that pajamas designed for boys still encourage active behavior.
Slogans like “Bedtime is hard work” and “All-snore squad” depict bedtime as an active moment in a boy’s day.
Shouldn’t we apply these active terms, rather than passive messages, to a girl’s (or any child’s) school day?
Some will call this a stretch – it’s just a harmless backpack, right? Don’t we have more important things to complain about?
But the sleepy unicorn is representative of a bigger problem. It’s one more way that we encourage a submissive, gentle demeanor among girls. On the heels of the U.S. President telling climate change activist Greta Thunberg (who’s also a teenager, autistic, and TIME’s youngest Person of the Year) that she should go “chill” with friends and watch a movie, is the connection so far-fetched?
Over the course of history, women and girls, especially women and girls of color, have been told to relax. Don’t be hysterical. Anger isn’t flattering. Stop being so over-emotional.
We expect girls to sit nicely, behave, smile, and speak politely. As if that weren’t enough, we now expect them to sleepwalk; go about life in a dreamy daze.
Let’s teach our daughters to wake up instead
I won’t teach my daughter to approach school in a dreamy, pastel-pink haze. I’d rather encourage her to speak up for herself when the kid on the playground knocks her over or grabs the block from her hand. I want her to use an active, awake voice when another child is teased and needs a friend. I want her to wake up when she spots an injustice.
After all, it won’t be long before she faces bigger problems: sexual harassment is not just for adults or even teenagers. Even though studies show that it starts in elementary schools, federal rules are getting more and more lax.
School is not the place to chill. Aside from the challenges children face with harassment and bullying and peer pressure, how about we promote a hearty work ethic? Or an intentional approach to learning?
How about…
Think creatively. Study hard. Put in the effort. Learn from peers. Open your eyes. Get out there. Do your best. Make mistakes. Try again. Make it happen. Wake up.
Let’s see backpacks with those slogans instead.
Photo: Flickr, “My Little Pony Ornaments,” by Hina Ichigo, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
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