For this post, I decided to do an extended comments on Leena's blog post.
In her post, Leena mentioned Orenstein's point about parents not discussing gender-based differences in toys and media with their children, and said that she thinks this will lead to naivety as they get older. I agree that not talking about this can be damaging. Parents may think they are protecting their children from gender inequality or even taking a feminist stance by not talking about what effect gender has on life experience, but this is no different than the "I don't see color" approach to race and racism. Ignoring the systemic messaging about gender does not erase systemic messaging about gender, it only leaves young people without the tools to critically analyze it.
I was also interested in Leena's comment about the Spice Girls feeling empowering when she was younger but weirdly sexualized as an adult. It makes me curious about what is more important- the way something is presented or the way it's internalized. If you felt empowered, does that make it empowering? I imagine this is a fraction of the conflict Douglas felt when she heard the Spice Girls in her own house.
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