"Girl" Power?

I’m about to open a big can of worms. This is something I’m sure I’ll come back and address time and again because there is such a wealth of material to write about.

Infantilization of women: the tireless commitment society has to ensuring that we are perpetually seen as children. When this concept was first presented to me a few weeks ago in my “Philosophical Perspectives on Women” class I was completely blind to this phenomenon—now I see it everywhere.

In the typical child-adult relationship, the child has an undeveloped sense of reason, and the adult must handle the reasoning. The child cannot make decisions or take care of themselves. They must be protected and possibly educated by the adult. Children are not equal and have very few rights.

Society, through language and images and cultural patterns, has infantilized women, producing a dynamic frighteningly similar to the one above. They don’t have to do much; just little visual or aural reminders are enough to subconsciously associate women with children.

Where do we see this? I’ll throw out a couple examples:

FASHION. Look at the whole baby doll trend. Betsy Johnson is a prime example. Everything has bows and ruffles—it’s like a little girl’s Easter dress

SHAVING. This is a big one. In order for us to be feminine, we must be hairless… like a little girls.

WEDDINGS. The bride is escorted by her parents and given permission like a child while her fiancée waits for her on his own, mature and self-sufficient. Not to mention she has to be carried into the honeymoon suite…

GIFTS. What do you get women? Teddy bears. What do you get men? Tools, pocket knives, ties.

The list goes on and on and on and the evidence starts popping up everywhere once you’re aware.

When I was getting dressed the other morning, I turned to my roommate and I said, “I want to look cute today.” How do you replace that word? Is there more affirming synonym? How can we take infantilization out of our lives if it is built into our language?

Baby steps.

-E