I have a terrible confession to make.
When I was younger, and my brothers were weaker than me, my neighbor, Sara, and I used to make them wear girl's clothing.
OK. Not just clothing. Hair accessories too.
And they absolutely hated it (my dad also hated it, you can imagine). They would do everything in their four-year-old power to stop it, but we were just that persistent.
The thing is, is that we had dolls and Barbie's. Why, exactly, we had to force my innocent brothers to wear ribbons, I'm not really sure.
I honestly still feel bad about it. That's one of the meaner things an older sister can do to her brothers.
I'd like to tell myself that the reason I was doing it was beyond the playfulness of a child, which is why dolls did not fulfill my needs. Maybe I was trying to break down societal stereotypes and show my brothers that they could be whatever they wanted to be.
Somehow I doubt it.
However, this is somewhat similar to the mission of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. While the company has received many complaints and they're striving to remodel the campaign to some extent, I think it's an impressive mission.
It's nice for girls to see that perfection is not commonplace. Whether or not Dove will truly transform the entire media industry is debatable.
But, hey, Rosa Parks probably thought she was taking a small step when she stayed seated, and look at all that she accomplished. You've got to start somewhere.
