Where a kid can be a kid

Ever noticed how, for each year, younger and younger kids start taking on silly gender roles and acting all grown up? Like all these eight-year-old girls on the subway with layers of make-up on their little doll faces talking about kiss-proof lip gloss, which weirds you out so much you look down instead, only to discover they're wearing heels. In Sweden we also have Sex and the City camps for little girls where they learn how to go shopping and the most stylish way to sip on a cafe latte. Luckily when things go too far, there's this great thing called counterreaction.

…Like a bunch of Swedish middle-school kids taking action against what they see as the root of this whole ordeal: the Toys "R" Us Christmas catalogue. They sent in an official complaint decrying things like outdated gender roles: pictures that make boys seem active and girls passive, like young girls in princess stuff and boys dressed as superheroes. "It's obvious that you get affected by this," a student told Swedish newspaper. You kids are in sixth fucking grade. Eight years old is definitely too young to be wearing makeup and heels and going to a sleepaway camp where you learn how to be a slut, but when you're 12 and in sixth grade, what are you doing even looking at the Toys R Us catalogue? Aren't you supposed to be fingering each other and smoking cigarettes? Grow up.

MILENE LARSSON