Monogamy, Heterosexuality and Barbie

When I was a young girl I held tightly onto an image of my future which consisted of a heterosexual relationship wherein I would be as equally in love with my husband as he was with me and that horrible things which exist to eliminate relationships like cheating or lying were things that would never happen in my vicinity. 

I did not necessarily seek Barbie's Ken, nor did I seek Cinderella's handsome young prince. I just sought after somebody who would deem me the apple of their eye forever. And that did not seem as though I was asking for much, I actually thought it was the least I could ask for but it was all I thought I needed - apart from a large farmhouse with blueberry plants and several beautiful horses, especially apaches and palaminos which were allegedly to appear from thin air and not to be bought after several years of economic slavery. 

This idea of my future is changing more than I had anticipated it to. I did not in my wildest imagination think that people would turn out to be so abhorrent, that people who appeared to be loving could be so cruel, and most importantly that monogamy was a thing of the past, or a very rare thing that is likely to result in tragedy and no happy ending. I did not think that such a thing as cheating existed. I thought that whoever one married was the one they were with for life and that thoughts of a sexual nature of others was something found in hell and nowhere on earth. Boy, was I wrong. 

And it is sad that I am. Little girls are still brought up to think the way that I thought as a little girl myself. They still sell Barbies  with preconceived notions packaged in the boxes. I still see young girls pushing around pink coloured prams and little girls nursing baby dolls as if they were their own baby humans. And most shockingly I see little girls playing with hererosexually coupled dolls. They are mislead from their youth to think that it is okay for Barbie to want only Ken and that Barbie and Ken would be together forever and that Ken is okay with being seen rolling around in Barbie's pink car. 

What I am trying to say is that there still lies in our society dark undertones despite some of our best efforts to clean them up. Most young girls are like me in that they are in for a rude awakening when they mature - gay marriage is a possibility, lust is a nasty thing that exists and you might be with Fred, George, Stanley and Lucas before you meet Ken who might not even fall for your gender in the first place. This is why I think identity is such an abstract idea to teenagers. And I do not refer only to young girls. 

Take young boys for example. They are faced with alluring of destructive toys, and are still faced with the idea that if they accidentally step on a piece of Lego it is wrong to cry. They still prefer the colour blue to pink and most likely will not take an interest in playing with Barbies. I know this is not the case with all children, because my family friend's son wears pink tutus and has more female friends than males and is more knowledgable about the world and its diverse people than most children his age because of the introduction of an open mind by his mother.

Society still has a lot of waking up to do. Gender roles still exist and I am still looked at weirdly for preferring to wear track pants rather than skirts. I enjoy warmth, okay?