No more exploring for Dora

So Dora isn't a freakin' explorer anymore. Instead she wears makeup and hangs out with her friends and goes shopping and worries about princess dresses. And poor old Boots is nowhere to be seen - at least in the episode that I had to sit through. I was never really a Dora fan. That high pitched twang went through me and the way she stared back at the telly after asking a question kind of gave me the creeps. But credit where it was due - she used to climb mountains and overcome obstacles and wrestle alligators and the likes. Dora kicked ass. With her almost androgynous looks and her little bowl haircut, she was so much more substance than style. I remember my nephews loving her 10 years ago, and so did my nieces. A rarity in a world of Barbies and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Something for everyone. But this new Dora in the City or whatever it's called, Dora seems more concerned with collecting sparkly things and going to the mall with her gal pals than she does about going on adventures. She wears makeup and is accessorised to the hilt. She doesn't rely on her trusty backpack or map anymore. Instead she's got a posse of tween friends who accompany her to parties and on shopping trips. How disappointing. Another kids' brand that has succumbed to turning our little girls into image-obsessed, two-dimensional characters with nothing but pink on the brain. 

I have two girls and a boy and I've spent the past five years since becoming a parent trying not to allow the gender divide into the playroom. Toys are toys - there are no girl toys and no boy toys in our house. My eldest two, a boy and a girl, play 'superheroes' and 'shops', they play out scenes from Frozen and take turns being Elsa or Anna or Prince Hans. They both love Blaze and the Monster Machine and Paw Patrol, Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom and Peppa Pig. Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Cinderella - they're all hits and we like to mix things up. She plays with toy cars and he plays with dolls. It's how we roll. I haven't banned princesses (I was a huge Disney fan growing up!) and I haven't banned swords. I let them play, use their imaginations but I want them to know that they can be anything or anyone they want - and it has nothing to do with their gender. 

It's hard to find positive female role models for kids these days when a Ben and Holly toy set I got in Smyths one Christmas has the Ben character saying things like "I'm really good at fixing things" versus the Holly one that says "I'm really good at looking pretty." And when a huge, iconic brand like Lego suddenly starts dividing up its sets based on gender - with the boy stuff being based around cool things like robots and space adventure while the girl items are things like "shopping malls" and hair salons. Groan. Even a set of 'happy family' cards by toymakers Spears contains a set of characters like Mr Smiles the dentist and his wife Mrs Smiles. Mrs Curls, the hairdresser and her husband Mr. Curls. There's the doctor and his wife and the florist and her husband. You can see where this is going...

We're supposed to be getting better, not worse, with gender equality. So why then are we starting the brainwashing younger than ever?