My Niece is the next Carrie Bradshaw
Oh no, my 5 year old niece is completely fascinated with high heels. I had no idea that a 5 year old could possibly be so influenced by fashion trends. Of course, being my niece, she is already worried that she will not be allowed to wear high heels on account that her aunt Christy (me) is so against these torturous shoes. She actually asked my sister, “Mommy, will I be allowed to wear high heels?”
Yikes, nothing is more scary than bad habits starting in kindergarten. Soon, she will be so intimately attached to high-heeled shoes that nothing else will do. Girls and women are so emotionally connected to fashion, clothing, and especially shoes. All sense is thrown out the window.
Avoiding back pain makes sense. Avoiding arthritis makes sense. Avoiding bunions makes sense. Nothing makes sense about high heels, except the insecurities that are appeased with fitting in and following trends. Are women and young girls that insecure?
How do you reason with a five year old who has an obsession like the character, Carrie Bradshaw? Bribery, explanation, boundaries, or maybe she will finally realize that vanity has it’s price. Nothing is easy about raising children, but we need to be careful with these highly influential modes of media, like movies, magazines, and television.
One Response to “My Niece is the next Carrie Bradshaw”
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One way to stop this ridiculous fashion would be for women to start being HONEST about the consequences of wearing very high heels. If we saw images of women’s injured, deformed feet, and if women talked about the pain, the corrective surgery, etc….. girls might think twice about wearing high heels.
This is such a complex topic, because women are conditioned to see themselves through men’s eyes, not through their own. Men don’t wear high heels, so how can they possibly know how uncomfortable pointy and high-heeled shoes are?
Maybe we should ask all men to walk around for a day in high heels…..I bet they’d find them a lot less sexy if they knew how painful they are!
Gender identification is also such a complex topic! So interesting that your niece associates high heels with being an attractive female! Wow!
As an educator, talk goes a long way towards helping children begin to understand a complex topic. Lots of talk, hearing from others, sharing their feelings in a group with an adult moderator who can assure emotional safety, help children to
think about and process information about topics of interest. It is a way to begin to counter the negative and instantaneous influence of our mostly harmful and consumer-oriented media, which our children are so vulnerable to.
Leela