Cinderella Ate My Daughter (21 page)

50 With Bratz on ice: Andrea Chang, “Mattel Earnings Rise on Robust Sales and New Product Lines,”
Los Angeles Times
, April 17, 2010, http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/17/business/la-fi-mattel17-2010apr17.

50 MGA rolled out Moxie Girlz: Ruth La Ferla, “Losing the Limo: New Fashion Dolls,”
The New York Times
, November 8, 2009, p. ST1.

52 an annual survey: Lloyd B. Lueptow, Lori Garovich-Szabo, and Margaret B. Lueptow, “Social Change and the Persistence of Sex Typing: 1974–1997.”

Chapter 4: What Makes Girls Girls?

55 “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story”: Lois Gould, “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story,”
Ms.
, December 1972, pp. 74–76, 105–106.

56 a Swedish couple: Lydia Parafianowicz, “Swedish Parents Keep 2-Year-Old’s Gender Secret,”
The Local
, June 23, 2009, www.thelocal.se/20232/20090623/.

57 rocking a blanket-wrapped Tonka: As early as age two and a half children have absorbed basic stereotypes about the sexes, including those involving appearance and activities. That influences not only how they see themselves but their assumptions about other children’s behavior and preferences. What’s more, children often distort or misremember information to conform to their stereotypes: over half of five- to nine-year-old children, after watching a TV commercial in which a boy played with a doll and a girl with a truck, later recalled the reverse. So merely exposing children to examples that counter their expectations does not change stereotypes; more proactive measures have to be taken. Carol Lynn Martin and Richard Fabes,
Discovering Childhood Development
, p. 304.

57 Several cited the classic: For more on David Reimer, see Lise Eliot,
Pink Brain, Blue Brain
, pp. 33–34; John Colapinto,
As Nature Made Him
.

58 more like Canadians and Americans: Or, as Kathryn Dindia, Professor of Communications, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, put it in an article of the same name, “Men are from North Dakota, women are from South Dakota.”

59 Male fetuses, she explained: Author’s interview with Lise Eliot, Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Chicago Medical School, May 13, 2009; see also Eliot,
Pink Brain, Blue Brain
, pp. 45–48.

59 There is another hormonal spike: Ibid.

59 in the beginning: Author’s interview with Lise Eliot, May 13, 2009; see also Eliot,
Pink Brain, Blue Brain
, p. 107.

59 Then the whole concept: Author’s interview with Lise Eliot, May 13, 2009; see also Eliot,
Pink Brain, Blue Brain
, pp. 117–118.

60 There is a legendary story: Jeremy is the son of Sandra Bem, professor of psychology at Cornell University. She writes about this incident in her book
The Lenses of Gender
, p. 149. It has become a favorite anecdote among women’s studies and psychology professors everywhere. Eliot also relates this story; see Eliot,
Pink Brain, Blue Brain
, p. 118. See also Judith Elaine Owen Blakemore et al.,
Gender Development
, p. 234.

60 until around age five: Psychologists call that gradual revelation “gender stability.” It is also sometimes called “gender continuity.” The recognition that others don’t change sex by changing superficial appearance, which children arrive at around six or seven, is called “gender consistency,” “gender constancy,” or “gender immutability.” Eliot,
Pink Brain, Blue Brain
, p. 116; author’s interview with Carol Lynn Martin and Richard Fabes, Department of Family and Human Development, Arizona State University, June 25, 2009; Diane N. Ruble et al., “The Role of Gender Constancy in Early Gender Development”; Martin and Fabes,
Discovering Childhood Development
, p. 302; Blakemore et al.,
Gender Development
, pp. 205–206, 236–242.

61 That’s why four-year-olds: Author’s interview with Carol Lynn Martin and Richard Fabes, June 25, 2009.

62 boys hopped: Vivian Gussin Paley,
Boys and Girls
, pp. ix, 19.

62 the Big Kahuna: Martin and Fabes,
Discovering Childhood Development
, pp. 304–305; Blakemore et al.,
Gender Development
, pp. 125–126.

62 You even see it: Satoshi Kanazawa, “Why Do Boys and Girls Prefer Different Toys?”
Psychology Today
, April 17, 2008, www .psychologytoday.com/node/447.

63 that finding was replicated: Ibid. See also Janice M. Hassett et al., “Sex Differences in Rhesus Monkey Toy Preferences Parallel Those of Children.”

63 girls who are born: Eliot,
Pink Brain, Blue Brain
, p. 126.

63 Toy choice turns out: Ibid., p. 106; author’s interview with Carol Lynn Martin and Richard Fabes, June 25, 2009.

64 A child’s brain: Author’s interview with Lise Eliot, May 13, 2009.

64 their brains are also: Ibid.

64 Boys from more egalitarian homes: Judith Elaine Owen Blakemore, “The Influence of Gender and Parental Attitudes on Preschool Children’s Interest in Babies.”

64 a study of more than five thousand: John Rust et al., “The Role of Brothers and Sisters in the Gender Development of Preschool Children.”

65 mathematically inclined girls: Janis E. Jacobs et al., “ ‘I Can, But I Don’t Want To’: Impact of Parents, Interests, and Activities on Gender Differences in Math.”

65 David was nearly two: Eliot,
Pink Brain, Blue Brain
, pp. 34–35.

66 a third of girls aged seven to eleven: Author’s interview with Carol Lynn Martin and Richard Fabes, June 25, 2009.

68 the church-and-state separation: Author’s interview with Carol Lynn Martin and Richard Fabes, June 25, 2009. See also Carol Lynn Martin and Richard A. Fabes, “The Stability and Consequences of Young Children’s Same-Sex Peer Interactions”; Eleanor E. Maccoby, “Gender and Group Process”; Eleanor E. Maccoby, “Gender and Relationships”; Blakemore et al.,
Gender Development
, pp. 306–315.

68 By the end of the first year: Author’s interview with Carol Lynn Martin and Richard Fabes, June 25, 2009. See also Blakemore et al.,
Gender Development
, pp. 306–315.

68 When they do have cross-sex friendships: Author’s interview with Carol Lynn Martin and Richard Fabes, June 25, 2009. See also Blakemore et al.,
Gender Development
, pp. 322–323.

68 self-segregation, like toy choice: Author’s interview with Carol Lynn Martin and Richard Fabes, June 25, 2009. See also Maccoby, “Gender and Relationships.”

68 The threat of cooties: Author’s interview with Carol Lynn Martin and Richard Fabes, June 25, 2009. See also Martin and Fabes, “The Stability and Consequences of Young Children’s Same-Sex Peer Interactions.”

68 Every cliché I have: Author’s interview with Carol Lynn Martin and Richard Fabes, June 25, 2009. See also Martin and Fabes, “The Stability and Consequences of Young Children’s Same-Sex Peer Interactions”; Maccoby, “Gender and Group Process”; Maccoby, “Gender and Relationships”; Blakemore et al.,
Gender Development
, pp. 306–308. All that said, there are cultural differences in children’s sex-typed behaviors, such as conflict resolution. At ages four and five, African-American and Latina girls tend to speak more directly than Caucasian or Asian-American girls. Girls in mainland China at that age also have a more assertive communication style; see Blakemore et al.,
Gender Development
, p. 311.

69 children who have friends of the other sex: Children who have friends of the other sex in elementary school also appear to have better social skills. Blakemore et al.,
Gender Development,
p. 323.

70 boys hear less well: Elizabeth Weil, “Teaching Boys and Girls Separately,”
The New York Times Magazine
, March 2, 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/magazine/02sex3-t.html. See also Leonard Sax,
Why Gender Matters,
pp. 16–18, 24.

70 Girls, by contrast: Weil, “Teaching Boys and Girls Separately.”

71 sex-based hearing and vision differences: In their groundbreaking work
The Psychology of Sex Differences
, Eleanor Maccoby and Carol Nagy Jacklin write that one of the most serious problems with research on sex differences is that it is, in fact, skewed toward
differences
: research showing how slight differences are, or that shows similarities where differences were expected, does not get published; see Blakemore et al.,
Gender Development
, p. 35, and Eliot,
Pink Brain, Blue Brain
, pp. 61–64.

71 assigning kids to classrooms: Weil, “Teaching Boys and Girls Separately.”

71 the number of single-sex: www.singlesexschools.org/schools -schools.htm.

Chapter 5: Sparkle, Sweetie!

82 in 2007, we spent: Jayne O’Donnell, “As Kids Get Savvy, Marketers Move down the Age Scale,”
USA Today
, April 13, 2007, www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/2007-04-11-tween-usat_N.htm.

82 Close to half: NPD Group, “NPD Reports Tween Girls Increase Their Beauty Usage,” press release, April 29, 2010, www.npd.com/press/releases/press_100429.html.

82 the percentage of: Ibid.

82 “Tween” girls now spend: Ibid.

82 No wonder Nair: Andrew Adam Newman, “Depilatory Market Moves Far Beyond the Short-Shorts Wearers,”
The New York Times
, September 14, 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/business/media/14adco.html.

82 And who, according to: NPD Group, “NPD Reports Tween Girls Increase.”

82 As a headline: “How Many 8-Year-Olds Have to Get Bikini Waxes Before We Can All Agree the Terrorists Have Won?” Weblog entry, Jezebel, March 27, 2008, http://jeze bel.com/373096/how-many-8+year+olds-have-to-get-bikini -waxes-before-we-all-agree-the-terrorists-have-won.

83 it was conceived of: Sree Roy, “Very Important Princesses,”
Display and Design Ideas
, March 1, 2005, www.allbusiness .com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail/4165383-1.html; Susan Chandler, “Retailer Courts the ‘Princess Set,’ ”
Chicago Tribune
, February 10, 2002, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002 02-10/business/0202100006_1_tween-girls-american-girl -place-chain; “Saks Incorporated Acquires Club Libby Lu,”
Business Wire
, May 6, 2003, www.allbusiness.com/retail/retailers-general-merchandise-stores-department/5774038-1 .html.

84 Marketers call that KGOY: Paul Kurnit, “Kids Getting Older Younger,” interview, Advertising Education Foundation, 1999, www.aef.com/on_campus/classroom/speaker_pres/data/35; Lisa Bannon, “Little Big Spenders,”
The Wall Street Journal
, October 13, 1998, p. A1.

84 That’s why the cherry-flavored: O’Donnell, “As Kids Get Savvy.”

84 girls are going through puberty: Denise Grady, “First Signs of Puberty Seen in Younger Girls,”
The New York Times
, August 9, 2010, p. A11; Tara Parker-Pope, “Earlier Puberty in European Girls,”
The New York Times
, May 4, 2009, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/earlier-puberty-in -european-girls/?scp=1&sq=Aksglaede&st=cse; Susan Brink, “Modern Puberty,”
Los Angeles Times
, January 21, 2008, p. F1.

84 pediatricians no longer consider it: Brink, “Modern Puberty.”

84 although they are physically more advanced: Ibid.

85 imposing any developmental task: Stephen Hinshaw with Rachel Krantz,
The Triple Bind
, p. 112. For more on academically accelerated kindergarten and preschool, see Edward Miller and Joan Almon,
Crisis in Kindergarten
.

85 the ways pageant moms: Martha Heltsley and Thomas C. Calhoun, “The Good Mother.”

86 The routine sparked:
Fox and Friends
, May 15, 2010, http://video.foxnews.com/v/4197785/sexual-dance-sparks-contro versy; Michael Winter, “ ‘Single Ladies’ Dance by Young Girls Is Kicking Up a Storm,” Weblog entry, “On Deadline,”
USA Today
, May 14, 2010, www.usatoday.com/communities/on deadline/post/2010/05/single-ladies-dance-by-young-girls -is-kicking-up-a-storm/1;
Rick’s List
, May 13, 2010, http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2010/05/14/sbt.too .sexy.too.soon.cnn?iref=allsearch.

86 best known for the faux pas: DeNeen L. Brown, “First Lady Assails Use of Daughters’ Images for Dolls,”
The Washington Post
, January 25, 2009, www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/01/24/AR2009012401854.html.

90 Historically, girls’ bodies: Joan Jacobs Brumberg,
The Body Project
.

91 Back in the 1960s: Kareen Nussbaum, “Children and Beauty Pageants,” 2002, www.minorcon.org/pageants.html.

91 A woman who did not: Camille Sweeney, “Never Too Young for That First Pedicure,”
The New York Times
, February 28, 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/fashion/28Skin.html. See also Camille Sweeney, “A Girl’s Life, with Highlights,”
The New York Times
, April 3, 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/fashion/03SKIN.html.