Are you ready for the sunshine?
Are you ready for the birds and bees,
the apple trees,
and a whole lot of fooling around.
Can you recall the tune yet? The lyrics from the theme song from the 1979 summer movie classic Meatballs paint a picture of summer camp filled fresh air, swimming, hiking, and other outdoor adventures. While the song suggests wholesome goodness, the antics at fictional Camp North Star would be a nightmare for parents of any generation.
As I send my 6-year-old son to camp for the first time this summer, I realize that some camping traditions have changed. It seems that gone are the days of playing games in big open fields, getting eaten alive by bugs, and being spotted from head to toe with pink calamine lotion. Today, some lucky little girls
whose dreams are wild and daring enough to be an “aspiring princess” get to go up to the school, sit in the gym, make capes and craft tiaras for themselves and their favorite doll, learn a princess dance, wear a princess dress, and attend a tea party and something of a debutante ball.
Blogger Pigtail Pals wrote those words in reaction to a flyer she received in the mail from her mother about local camps for girls and boys. She points out that while the girls play like nice ladies, the boys get to
explore Ravine Park, go fishing, sports day, Olympics day, they will venture away from the school gym and embark on safe adventures all around the village.
If, like me, you’re envisioning a Toddlers and Tiaras-esque boot camp, you have entered my nightmare — princess camp!
I convinced myself that this wasn’t the norm and Googled “princess camp.” Thousands of results were generated for religious camps, dance and theater camps, training in manners and etiquette, and a number of Disney princess-themed events with the end result always the same — little girls preparing for their prince to come. What about camps and learning programs for aspiring engineers, mathematicians, scientists, computer scientists, technologists, and leaders?
Gender stereotypes for boys and girls abound in advertising, entertainment, and toy marketing. The fun and freedom of summer should not be limited by a chromosome. As for my son, he is enrolled in culinary camp to learn kitchen safety and to explore international cuisines. You see, this mom aspires to receive breakfast in bed sometime soon.
Love the post. My son and daughter have been at the same pretty much gender neutral camp for the past month, but next week they split up and he goes to basketball camp and she goes to art camp. Mostly based on their interests is where they tend to end up. Some of the camp descriptions are just funny and sad at the same time. My princess also comes home filthy with battered knees and the little dude clean as a whistle! So much for that stereotyping.
Thanks for your post – gender stereotypes certainly do matter… If any of you have some insights on how to overcome such stereotypes, don’t hesitate to come share them on this United Nations online discussion: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw55/onlinediscussion.html. It is being held in both English and French until 20 July, and focuses on gender, education and employment.
Thanks for sharing the link for the UN online discussion. Gender stereotypes on a global scale impact girls access to education, healthcare, and work.
Great Post! We all had our share of unforgettable moments of our camping days. And thanks to your post, I’t helped me recall the countless laughs and adventure I had during my camping days.
Thanks! Writing it really took me back to Girl Scouts camp. I am not big on hanging out in the great outdoors these days, but it was certainly a mainstay of my childhood.
loved your post!!
Yes, for both girls and boys shoud be the same fun. And even if some girls insist in those “princess” stuff, I guess that there would be some hour or so during the week to do so. For me, when I have a girl and a boy I would send them to a camp that teach them to do great stuff, more than just fun, but to help them to grow into a safe and fun, and renewed enviroment. Cooking? why not! Great idea Clarkp.
~Great Love to you,
Mirian from peelingtheorange.
Just another example of how people expect sex and gender to conform and be the same thing. Sex = biological, as in what chromosomes and primary/secondary sex characteristics you have (female, male); gender is the cultural expression of sex (feminine, masculine) focused on behavior and appearance.
I hate filling out surveys because people just assume that “gender” is a polite word for “sex”–it’s not! My sex is female, my gender is complicated.
That said, I say scrap the girls-only/boys-only camps and offer similar things without gendering them. The princess camp could be an acting/costuming camp or “let’s play pretend” thing instead. The adventure camp could be exactly the same as it is now, just without it being offered to only boys.
I often write about sex and gender on my blog, so I was excited to see this post on the front page this morning.
Congrats on your son going to cooking camp! That sounds like a wonderful opportunity for any child, regardless of sex, to explore the vast world of food.
When I was in elementary school, my mother sent me to a wilderness survival day camp deep in the woods of Vermont. Some of my fondest memories of my childhood involve braving the mosquitoes and unpredictable Vermont weather as all of us campers – both boys and girls – hiked through the forest, swam in the river, and learned survival skills. People who know me now wouldn’t believe how I spent my childhood summers, given that the closest I get to hiking is climbing up the Metro stairs in heels – however, I wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world.
I wish that the camp shown above had marketed both options to both sexes, even if it would have meant they may have had to structure the events at the camp a bit differently. Who knows how many children would have had an irreplaceable experience that they may not have had otherwise? Sometimes, even us “princesses” want to run and jump in the mud.
My godson has just finished his “hollywood” camp, so not only for girls!!(OK, not sure what the actual name of the camp was but it was all theatre and performance…)
both my sister and i went to space camp as kids… one of the best experiences of my life!
I like the end of your post! To be honest with you, my daughter without any instructions quickly repaired her eyeglasses at 5 y.o.
When she was 3 y.o. she sorted all the nuts and screws from a box, so there was no screw without at least one nut. When I asked her why she did it, she said that she did not like them as were not sorted…
Now she is an engineer…
Yeah, the summer camp I used to go to had ‘princess camp’. No offence to anyone, but it never sounded very fun. I always stuck to the horse camp and the hiking, not the make up and dresses. But hey, whatever floats your boat and rubs your Buddha.
I went to camp for years growing up and I think it’s such an incredible experience for a child/young adolescent to have. You learn so much about yourself in those days, and how to be on your own away from your parents.
When I was in Scouts a million years ago, the Boy scouts went camping, did woodworking, hiked, etc. My badges were in Hospitality and Babysitting.
After years of babysitting, I realized that the only lesson a badge could teach: just make sure they don’t die.
Too often, parents flip if you try to control naughty kids.
My three children, daughters 18 & 15 and son 11, have been going to the same YMCA summer camp since they were each 5 and the girls now work at the camp. There are no gender roles at this camp. Male and Female staff do anything and everything to make sure that the kids have an experience that lasts a lifetime. This camp is a good old fashioned camp with swimming in a pond, boating, archery, arts and crafts, field games, rock climbing, team building, nature and cooking activities. In fact the staff that runs the cooking program is male and the staff what run the rock climbing wall is female. When I think of summer camp I think of a camp like this where kids are outside all day and they come home from camp happy, dirty and tired.
I think that whatever camp any kid chooses to go to is just fine. If either gender wants to go to math camp or princess camp…. AWESOME! I think it’s all about play and imagination and allowing our little people (and big people) to find and embrace their authentic longings.
Ex- girls’ camp director here. To appeal to all ladies, we definitely had to offer the “princess camps” and the “hollywood” camps. They were never my favorites, but they still got a fair share of large games in the field, bug bites, smores, and swimming in the lake. Of course, some of my favorites (and the girl’s favorites too) were roughing-it style camps where they built their own lean-tos, learned out to build campfires with no matches, and bathed in lake…
If the camp is really this biased, I suggest to all parents to continue searching. But the really good camps do offer things like princess camps. They just also offer greatly differentiated alternatives.
I got my son in a regular summer camp and put my daughter in a co-ed Gymnastics camp. I don’t mind a princess minded activity but an entire summer devoted to it is too much.
I spent my summers playing with friends. Good old football (the real kind)
i dont think its anything wrong with a princess
camp,its all for fun
even though some camps do learning activities
its really not their job to teach the children
thats the school and the parents job
children go to camp to have fun
an if those little girls want to have their summer fun at princess camp then hey let em
outofherhead, my issue has more to do with how some of these camps are marketed and the activities that tell a “princess” (girl) how they should behave — be pretty, dress well, have impeccable manners, and someday your prince will come. A princess needn’t be one dimensional.
I used to spend about 3 weeks at summer camp every year from about 1992-1997. There was no gender stereotyping to the camp I went to. Everybody learned to canoe, and kayak. Everyone went hiking and also made crafts, be they friendship bracelets or tie-dye shirts. Thinking back, summer camp totally prepared me for “vacations” with my husband in the mountains.
Not all little girls want to be princesses. Some of them want to light fires and fish too.
Culinary camp is a great idea! If I have a son I’d probably do the same…I will do it for any of my kids…let them make me thanksgiving dinners.
I will look into cleaning, mowing and taking out the trash camps as well.
It reminds me of this episode of I Love Lucy where the husbands and wives switch places and basically fail miserably at each others gender roles.
I was 8. I changed the channel and watched Xena.
I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere, dressing in boys clothes, and playing in the dirt. But, I did have my moments of dressing myself up and acting like a princess. Kids should be able to be innocent of gender stereotyping. They realize which gender they are by looking down, whether they chose to act a certain way because of it is their own prerogative.
I liked your article, thank you for sharing!
I never went to camp as a kid, because we had a beach house, but I think the memories will always be a part of me. Great post!
I know my granddaughter went to one of those “day camps” a few weeks ago. I hope it wasn’t a gender stereotyped one. I think it probably was not, since there were both boys and girls there.
The Codger
My only granddaughter is well past camp age and gainfully employed (as a social worker, her choice.) I have younger grandsons….one would happily go to princess camp if the option was presented. And another, who would probably opt for baseball camp if given a choice, nevertheless still aspires to be…a pastry chef, which I think he sees as a way of supporting himself while he pursues his writing career. Baseball is just for fun.