Little Bo Peep: Scripted Out Femininity

I was sure it was Little Bo Peep I was looking at in the catalog, but then I realized it was a forty-something mother in a puffy white dress with her hair all up in a bow. she was posed very demurely. By her side were little girls who were also in dresses, looking as if they were ready to appear in an episode of Little House on the Prairie. The girls were sweetly gathered around their mother while working on embroidery or playing with their dolls.

The scene was as saccharine as the message it put forth, that this is what good Christian mothers and daughters should look like. The material by this group had a narrowly defined interpretation of femininity and masculinity. Their catalog was clearly divided into male and female sections. Things like code-breakers, bows and arrows, and Indian caps are for boys to play with. Girls had their choice of embroidery, cooking aids, or dolls. Their message was loud and clear: Home-economics for the girls, adventure for the boys.

Lately, I've been bombarded with this type of thinking, particularly from within the religious homeschool community. I think this is an ever present danger in the religious world; to script-out specifically an everyone-should-do-it-this-way method on the non-essentials of the faith. Just for the heck of it, I decided to see just how I would measure up on this group's particular checklist.

First thing I determined was that I don't dress like Little Bo Peep. In fact, the only thing she and I have in common is lost sheep. Occasionally, my sheep escape and wander off. But when they do I seek after them in my barn clothes, mud boots, and a ball cap. Who wants to wash a white frilly dress caked in mud anyways? I then determined that my girls didn't fit their scripted-out image either. They are complex, complicated creatures who refuse to have their girlhood turned into a list of girl-only and boy-only activities. While they do own some pretty dresses and enjoy the so-called feminine activities, they have also been known to be fierce orc fighters. They have read books ranging from Jane Austin's Emma to Tolkien's Ring Trilogy. In the end, it was the girls who fought orcs that most captured their imaginations.


The awe-inspiring scene in Lord of the Rings in which Eowyn fights the Lord of the Nazgul has left an indelible impression on my youngsters. Christmas 2009 demonstrated this beautifully. My girls asked for weaponry. They wanted swords and shields, bows and arrows. Old boxes in the basement soon became Helms Deep, and fabric scraps were made into capes. Then, out from the cardboard windows, they appeared ready to fight, armed to the hilt. Scenes like these that make me question narrowly defined interpretations of femininity.

I quickly decided to stop comparing myself to their checklist. Aside from the Bo Peep clothing, I already knew that my interests, activities and reading material wouldn't make the cut. We will keep the catalog though, as we sometimes purchase weapons and such from the boys section; but as for their script, they can keep it and Bo Peep can keep her dress, as well. No one in my house will be needing it.