Jan 11 2009
Retro Means Never Having to Say You Are Girly
In our current culture it often seems that you are meant to pick sides: be girly, or don’t. But I am a liberated woman who also likes a lot of feminine things, even those developed in an overtly sexist context. But I don’t see why not having to wear pastels means you can’t wear them–or why not having to play will dolls means you can’t like dolls. And I think the marketing boffins have found a way for us to break free from feminine assumptions, but have our girly stuff too.
Enter retro chic and ironic fashion. I can wear my pretty pink “Princess Sparkle” T-shirt with pride because the label tells me it is “retro”. I am not being juvenile and stereotypically girly, I am making a hip statement about classic toys and modern culture. Subtextually I am not saying “weee, i luv baby ponies”, but “Wow, Dude. How ironic is that rainbow motive. Princess Sparkle is totally a drag name.” All the while one thing is undeniable.
Princess Sparkle totally rocks.
I’m right in the middle of Julia Serano’s book _Whipping Girl_. One of her main points is that while the feminist movement has done a decent job to date of getting people to believe that men and women are equal, it’s completely side-stepped the notion that masculine and feminine might be equal as well. I *highly* recommend it.
And on one of the forums I belong to, we just about got into an all out shooting war over who got to have “Princess Sparkle Pony” as their user title…fortunately I stayed out of the crossfire.
I am wearing princess sparkle under my suit and office shirt today–it’s kind of like being a super hero ;)
My little girl is 3 and she loves cars and boys toys over girly girl toys, but I do not have a problem with that. As long as she is happy then I am happy for her. She can play with what she likes as long as it doesn’t harm her.